Any expectations of a quick decision on whether the Chicago Bears will pick an Indiana site for their new stadium have been cast aside.

While Indiana lawmakers pushed through a financing plan for a Hammond stadium location before their session ended in February, the Bears are still talking with Illinois officials about a deal to stay on that side of the state line.

Bears President Kevin Warren indicated this week that the team will give Illinois legislators more time to complete their counteroffer.

“We don’t have a set deadline, but I am confident that sometime this spring-slash-summer, we’ll know,” Warren told NBC’s “Pro Football Talk” during the NFL owners meeting in Arizona. “I mean, we have to know because we would have completed the due diligence in Indiana and we’ll see what happens in Illinois.”

Warren said the Bears have a “wonderful” possible location the team owns in the northwestern Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. But he said Indiana has “been a great partner to work with.”

“We are going through legitimate due diligence … working through traffic and construction items and transportation and all those different things,” he said.

Illinois lawmakers, meanwhile, have continued working on a bill that would freeze property tax assessments on the sites of so-called “megaprojects” and instead allow developers to negotiate a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes with local governments, Capital News Illinois reported.

The Illinois legislative session is set to resume next week and continue until May 31.

Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, the top Illinois House negotiator on the bill, said “there’s large agreement” on the plan and that he was pleased with the Bears’ stance.

“They did not come in with an artificial deadline,” Buckner told WLS-TV. “They came in with seriousness.”

Indiana officials remain ‘optimistic’

Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, who sponsored the stadium financing bill, said in a statement Thursday to the Capital Chronicle that the “conversations with the Bears continue to go well and we are optimistic.”

“The Bears have been terrific partners, as have our Northwest Indiana communities, and we continue to work together to hopefully bring this project to fruition,” Huston said.

Gov. Mike Braun said just before he signed Indiana’s financing bill on Feb. 26 that it could be a month or two before a stadium deal would be finalized.

Indiana lawmakers, governor give final OK to plan trying to lure Bears stadium

The governor’s office didn’t reply Thursday to a request from the Capital Chronicle for comment about the stadium negotiations.

Braun said during a Lake County stop on Tuesday that the Bears opened talks with Indiana late last year after work to reach a deal in Illinois was “going nowhere.”

“All we’ve tried to do is make it easy for what it would be like dealing with a business partner, like Indiana, versus one they couldn’t get to the table,” Braun said, according to the Northwest Indiana Times.

NFL wants decision “sooner rather than later”

The Indiana financing plan calls for capturing taxes from a new stadium development district, along with revenue from a 12% admissions tax on stadium events, a doubling of the current 5% hotel tax in Lake County (where Hammond is located) and a 1% food-and-beverage tax in both Lake and Porter counties.

Indiana’s plan would establish a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority that would own the stadium. State officials say about $1 billion in taxpayer money could go toward stadium district infrastructure.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the owners meeting that the Bears need to move forward with a replacement for their current home of Soldier Field along Chicago’s Lake Michigan shore.

“It’s important,” he said. “I’ve spoken to officials in Illinois. This is an important time to get this resolved sooner rather than later.”

Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.