House Adjourns Without Vote on Illinois Bears Stadium Bill, Decision Now Delayed

Illinois lawmakers ended their spring session early Sunday without a House vote on a last-minute stadium bill aimed at helping keep the Chicago Bears in the state, delaying any action until at least the fall even as the team says it is nearing a decision on whether to build in Arlington Heights, Illinois, or Hammond, Indiana.

The timing matters because the Illinois Senate did advance a narrower stadium framework in the final hours of session, but the House did not take it up before adjournment. That leaves Illinois without a newly approved path for the kind of stadium financing structure the Bears have said they need, while a rival offer from Indiana remains in play.

According to Capitol News Illinois, the Senate passed an amended version of the measure early Monday by a 37-17 vote. But the House adjourned without voting on it.

The proposal was designed to give the Bears property-tax certainty for a stadium project in Illinois. Capitol News Illinois and local reporting said it would have allowed certain Cook County municipalities to create municipal stadium authorities that could own and finance stadiums, issue revenue bonds and use special district financing tools for related infrastructure. Under that public-ownership model, the team would not pay property tax on the stadium itself.

The bill emerged late in the session after a broader Illinois “megaprojects” tax approach discussed earlier this year did not advance in the Senate. Lawmakers did approve the state budget in the session’s closing hours, with Axios and other outlets reporting a $55.9 billion spending plan, but they did not pass either a Bears stadium deal or the broader tax tool that had also been tied to the team’s plans.

Minutes after the House adjourned, the Bears said they were still moving toward a decision on the timetable they had already laid out. In a statement reported by The Associated Press and Chicago television outlets, the team said: “We will finalize our evaluation of both Arlington Heights and Hammond, and remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated. We will provide an update when we have a decision to share.”

The Bears have said publicly, according to multiple media reports, that they are prepared to put about $2 billion of private money into a stadium project. The issue in Springfield has centered on the public structure around such a development, particularly taxes and infrastructure support.

Arlington Heights has long been seen as the leading Illinois option. The Bears have owned the former Arlington Park property there since 2023, after first announcing a purchase agreement in 2021. But Hammond has become a more immediate competitor after Indiana approved a package in February 2026 to support a publicly owned stadium site near Wolf Lake. AP reported that Indiana’s offer has been described as including more than $1 billion in public subsidies and infrastructure support.

State Sen. Bill Cunningham, a Chicago Democrat who backed the Senate measure, said the bill at least created a path for Illinois to stay in the running. “I think what we’ve done here with this bill today is establish a framework that would enable the Bears to build a stadium in the state of Illinois,” he told Capitol News Illinois.

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said the House was not prepared to move the hastily assembled plan before adjournment and indicated talks would continue in the coming months. “There’s a lot of work still ahead of us. We’ll continue discussions on a number of issues, including our approach to the Bears stadium question, this summer,” Welch told Capitol News Illinois.