Newly released records show that top Chicago Bears officials continued meeting privately with the Pritzker administration in August, even as the team publicly insisted its stadium plans had shifted entirely to Hammond, Indiana.
Emails obtained through a public records request show Deputy Governor Andy Manar, who oversees Illinois’ budget and economic development efforts, reached out on August 11 to Karen Murphy, the Bears’ executive vice president of stadium development and chief operating officer, asking to set up a 30-minute check-in call. The records indicate Bears minority owner and board member Pat Ryan was later added to at least one of the resulting meetings.
The outreach came just days after Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren told reporters the organization’s “sole focus” was building a stadium in Hammond, part of a $2 billion mixed-use project the team’s board voted to advance in June. That vote followed a bruising spring legislative session in Springfield, where the Illinois House and Senate each passed competing bills that would have given the Bears tax certainty to build in Arlington Heights, but lawmakers couldn’t align the two versions before session’s end. Indiana lawmakers, meanwhile, moved quickly to approve more than $1 billion in public subsidies for a publicly owned stadium on the Hammond site.
Despite the team’s public messaging, the Bears have never listed their 326-acre property at the former Arlington International Racecourse for sale, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell added to the intrigue in late August when he confirmed he had personally met with a small group of Illinois lawmakers. Goodell told reporters at the league’s quarterly meetings that the NFL wants both Arlington Heights and Hammond to have a genuine chance to make their case, stopping short of saying Illinois was out of contention.
A pattern of back-channel talks
According to reporting from Capitol News Illinois, much of the ongoing contact between the state and the team has run through Murphy and Manar rather than through Warren or Bears Chairman George McCaskey, raising questions among some Springfield insiders about how engaged the team’s most visible leaders actually are in the Illinois conversation. The Bears did not respond to questions about whether Warren personally took part in the August meetings.
Asked about the continuing contact, the governor’s office confirmed the talks are ongoing, telling reporters that conversations with the Bears about their plans in Illinois are continuing and that the state looks forward to keeping that dialogue open.
Why the story isn’t over
The Bears have cycled through potential stadium sites for more than five years, at various points favoring a lakefront location near Soldier Field, the Arlington Heights property, and now Hammond. Only the Hammond proposal has cleared a formal vote of the team’s board. The Bears have completed due diligence on Hammond’s Lost Marsh site and deemed it viable, while a second Indiana site remains under environmental and topographical review.
With the team’s board having already committed publicly to Indiana, but continuing to hold private conversations with Illinois officials, the situation remains genuinely unresolved — meaning further developments, from a formal Illinois counteroffer to a final Hammond groundbreaking announcement, are plausible in the days and weeks ahead.
Sources:
- Capitol News Illinois — Bears stadium lead, board member met with top Illinois official in August
- Chicago Sun-Times — Roger Goodell: NFL wants to make sure Illinois has ‘opportunity’ to keep Bears
- FOX 32 Chicago — Bears stadium talks: Records show August meetings with Illinois officials