Indiana tries to lure Bears with bonds for stadium

Indiana wants to lure the National Football League's Chicago Bears to northwest Indiana by offering state-backed bonds to fund a new stadium.

The offer comes as the Bears are making little headway with Illinois in their demands for tax breaks and a new stadium on the property the team owns in Arlington Heights.

Chicago hopes to keep the Bears. Mayor Brandon Johnson has been a major booster of the team's earlier plan to build a domed stadium in the city.

Indiana's Senate Bill 27 would create the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority and pave the way for a bond-financed stadium for the Bears.

"The legislation presented by the state of Indiana is a significant milestone in our discussions around a potential stadium development in Chicagoland's Northwest Indiana region," Bears Director of Corporate Communications Micaeh Johnson said in an emailed statement.

"We appreciate the leadership and responsiveness of Gov. [Mike] Braun and Indiana lawmakers in advancing a framework that allows these conversations to move forward productively," Johnson added.

The bill allows the authority to issue bonds, with the debt paid off by leases with the Bears. The leases would be repaid using local excise tax, food and beverage tax and innkeepers tax revenues.

It also gives the authority the power to condemn any property whose owners, lessees or occupants do not agree to surrender the property for the purposes of building a stadium, according to the text of the legislation.

The authority's board will be composed of three directors: the Office of Management and Budget director; a member appointed by the OMB director; and the public finance director.

The bill allows the refinancing and leasing of the property, with the authority assuming the financial obligation while the Bears retain use of the property through a lease-back agreement.

When the lease term is up, the Bears would be able to purchase the capital improvements for $1, according to an analysis of the bill by Indiana's Legislative Services Agency.

The LSA noted the text of the legislation does not specify which excise, food and beverage or innkeepers taxes will be used for lease rental payments, nor does it specify the percentages of those taxes to be used.

The bonds would have a 40-year final maturity, while the Bears' stadium lease would run 35 years, according to the bill text.

The legislation defines "bonds" to include bonds, notes, commercial paper and swap agreements.

It also creates a mechanism for refunding bonds issued by the authority ? either by leasing land or capital improvements back to the team, or by selling land or capital improvements to the authority.

The author of the legislation, Sen. Ryan Mishler, R-Mishawaka, declined to respond to questions.

Mishler said in an emailed statement that his bill "sets a framework as we continue discussions throughout the rest of the legislative session on the possibility of bringing the Bears to northwest Indiana."

His co-author, Sen. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown, did not respond to a request for comment by press time, nor did Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington.

Gary, Indiana, has reportedly offered the team three possible development sites, with Gary's mayor saying in a statement to Crain's Chicago Business that Gary would give the Bears "tax certainty."