Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Guarantees Bears Are Going To Indiana
The Chicago Bears remain deadlocked on their new stadium situation. Illinois government officials have hemmed and hawed on the issue for months despite insisting there’s been real progress. The first attempt to get a vote passed on the PILOT megaprojects bill didn’t even reach the starting line in March. Now, team president Kevin Warren has set a hard deadline of May 31st (when the legislature adjourns) for when the Bears will decide whether to stay in Arlington Heights or shift to Indiana. If you ask Thomas McDermott, though, that decision was made a long time ago.
He is the mayor of Hammond, Indiana. Most believe that is the preferred building site if the Bears were to cross state lines. Warren basically confirmed as much when he stated the township offers 340 acres of land, which is larger than the 326 acres they purchased in Arlington Heights. McDermott has already been preparing as if the Bears’ coming over is a forgone conclusion. He even told Doug Ross of the Chicago Tribune that he believes it is exactly that. The franchise merely hasn’t come out and said it yet.
McDermott is convinced the Bears are choosing Hammond over Arlington Heights.
“The Bears had already made their mind up before most of the public found out about it,” he said.
Thomas McDermott isn’t crazy for saying that.
Let’s just look at the situation from a business perspective. Illinois has been resisting this endeavor from the beginning. Getting help with infrastructure was like pulling teeth, and the state remains like the Spartans at Thermopylae when it comes to property tax assistance. This doesn’t even account for many in the government who are trying to get the Bears to pay off the remainder of the Soldier Field debt ($400 million), even though they paid their share long ago. It is not negotiable.
You’re already seeing top brass prepare fans for the possibility. Just look at George McCaskey’s comments about it during his meeting with the media in Arizona on Wednesday.
“I don’t think, in the end, it’s going to matter to people. Back in 1976, the New York Football Giants went across state lines to New Jersey. They have been there ever since. The Jets joined them shortly thereafter. And then 35 years later, both teams had an opportunity to reevaluate their situations and recommitted to New Jersey.
“And somehow, the Republic has survived.”
That is the equivalent of a parent telling a complaining child during a move to a new town that they’ll get over it. Harsh? Sure. It’s also kind of true. Giants fans weren’t happy about leaving New York. They got past it. Hammond is less than 30 minutes from downtown Chicago, just like the Meadowlands is from downtown New York. It will be an adjustment period, but not a huge one in the grand scheme of things. That is before you bring up all the financial assistance Indiana is ready and waiting to throw into the project.
It feels like the Bears are trying to avoid public blowback.
The strategy here is straightforward. If they’d just up and left for Indiana months ago, the public outcry would’ve been intense. By holding off on the decision and continuing to negotiate with Illinois, they’re making it look like they are giving their longtime home a real chance to make a deal. However, they knew how much resistance there would be in Springfield and the limited odds of the bill getting passed. By waiting until the end of the legislature session in May, they can state they gave Illinois every possible opportunity. They just didn’t think the Bears were worth keeping. You can’t blame the organization for not staying where they’re not wanted.
Maybe a little underhanded, but also carrying grains of truth. Illinois has treated the Bears like an inconvenience for a long time, though never too shy to use their immense popularity to further political agendas. Now, when the team pushes to build a new, modern stadium that isn’t a relic decades past, they’re stonewalled. This comes despite a more than fair offer of the Bears paying for the entire stadium construction themselves. Nope, not enough.
It becomes easy to see why Thomas McDermott sounds so confident.