When Lawyers Get Involved, You Know It’s Bad: JB Pritzker Panics Over Bears’ Future
JB Pritzker has carried himself as somebody who can’t be bothered with the Chicago Bears’ nonsense for the past three years. This whole idea of building a new stadium is a waste of time. They’re still under lease with Soldier Field and must help pay off the remaining debt for that stadium (even though they paid their portion long ago). Not a penny of taxpayer money would go towards this new project. The problem with such a hardline stance is that it can have consequences if you hold it for too long.
Pritzker found that out the hard way when a statement from his office that the Bears would not be made a priority in 2026 backfired. The organization decided to reopen its search for a new stadium site, this time including northwest Indiana. Their state government is putting together a massive push to lure the Bears to that region, already advancing legislation to help fund it. If you didn’t think Pritzker was rattled by this development, news arriving that he was hiring an outside lawyer from New York to advise on ways to keep the Bears in Illinois should be a massive tell. The Chicago Tribune had it first.
Things are serious now.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s office signed a new $25,000 contract late last month with an outside attorney to continue advising the administration in negotiations with the Chicago Bears through the end of June as the NFL franchise seeks to pressure Springfield to act this spring on a proposal that would aid plans for a new stadium in Arlington Heights.
The Pritzker administration’s top lawyer signed the agreement with Steve Argeris, a partner with New York-based law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, on Dec. 22, five days after the Tribune first reported Bears executives were widening the scope of their stadium-site search to include northwest Indiana. The team’s announcement in a letter to season ticket holders came a few weeks after Bears brass met with Pritzker and top aides in the governor’s Chicago office.
Under the agreement, the state will pay Argeris an hourly rate of $1,455 to represent the governor’s office “in connection with evaluating potential stadium projects with one or more professional sports teams,” according to documents the Tribune obtained through an open records request. That’s a discount of more than 40% from the firm’s typical rate of $2,575 per hour for its most experienced partners, records show.
Pritzker spokesperson Matt Hill said Tuesday that there was no connection between the timing of the agreement and the latest twist in the long-running stadium saga.
JB Pritzker may have blundered disastrously.
The decision to stall the Bears at every turn may have felt like a sound strategy when it first began, but in hindsight, it has backfired spectacularly. Now, Pritzker faces the prospect of keeping the organization in Illinois while also navigating the most important midterm election year in modern United States history. Suddenly, any move he makes to soften his stance on the Bears might be seen as caving to billionaires in the minds of many voters. Had the governor been more accommodating from the start a few years ago, the stadium issue might already be resolved, and people would have moved on.
Now, as JB Pritzker prepares his government for battle later this year, the Bears could quietly slip away to Indiana. Hiring the lawyer is unquestionably a desperation tactic, both to find ways to prevent what is already unfolding and to avoid looking like he’s doing nothing. One thing is clear. The Bears won’t wait forever. They seem intent on reaching a resolution one way or another before the end of this year. The longer Pritzker dithers, the faster they will be pushed into the waiting arms of Indiana.