Illinois House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch says he's disappointed with the decision by the Bears to look elsewhere for a new stadium site, including Northwest Indiana, but he says the timing isn't right for giving the team taxpayer dollars.
The team has failed to gain support for assistance from the state for a stadium development in Arlington Heights and has failed to gain support for a new stadium near Soldier Field.
The Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren said in an open letter, "this is not about leverage."
He wrote that the team has not asked for taxpayer dollars to build a stadium, just a commitment to infrastructure and reasonable taxes.
He wrote that he was told that a stadium project is not a priority.
Speaker Welch told WBBM "timing is everything," and considering the state of the economy and the affordability crisis, "it would be tone deaf if we were focused on providing public money for billionaires to build a stadium."
He used "tone deaf" more than once.
"We have to take taxpayers and everyone into account," he said.
Welch told us he's heard from one person about keeping the Bears in Illinois.
He got an anonymous email, he said. And he added, "I've heard from hundreds of people who are talking about the prices of rent, the prices of groceries and property taxes and things of that nature. As a legislator, I have to listen to what the people are saying. People love the Bears, but what they're also telling us is it's not the time to talk about public financing for stadiums."
Welch also said, during a live interview on WBBM "The Bears are trying to leverage" the state of Indiana against Illinois.
Full interview here:
"The Chicago Bears are an iconic Illinois institution, and for more than a century they've been part of our state's identity, our economy and our culture and certainly Illinois wants them to stay and their fan base wants them to stay and I was a little disappointed that Kevin called to pull the same ploy that the Kansas City Chiefs are using on the state of Missouri."
Welch added that "you have to continue the conversations."