SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Chicago Bears’ playbook for constructing a new domed stadium and football entertainment complex in Arlington Heights calls for state lawmakers to act in October to approve property tax break legislation that would allow them to break ground this year.

But it is the Bears’ pocketbook that may be more important in getting legislators’ votes, particularly those from Chicago, to ease the way for one of the NFL’s founding franchises to leave the city it has called home for 104 years, since George Halas moved the Staleys from Decatur.

Already, there is $525 million in outstanding public debt from the controversial 2003 Soldier Field renovation, a tab currently covered by city hotel taxes and, when that falls short, by Chicago’s share of state income taxes. The Bears’ lease at Soldier Field expires in 2033, but it can be broken early with a penalty, and the team said it will take three years to build its new stadium.

But even if the Bears were forced to pay off the outstanding debt, that alone is unlikely to be enough to satisfy city lawmakers who are key in providing the necessary votes to advance any legislation to help the team.

Instead, the Bears’ hole may have grown deeper, with legislators from the city potentially seeking additional funding from the team, ranging from help to maintain the Soldier Field lakefront campus to programming funds for the city’s public schools to even assistance related to funding for a public transit system that’s facing a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars.

And if votes of downstate lawmakers, largely Republicans, are needed in the Democratic-led legislature, they are likely to make their own demands that the team help fund some of their local initiatives.

Bears President Kevin Warren set the stage for negotiations when he said virtually a week ago that “the goal would still be to be in a position to move dirt this year” on the new stadium complex at the former Arlington International Racetrack and have its formal groundbreaking next year.

“These things take time,” Bears owner George McCaskey told reporters on Aug. 8. “It’s on us to convince the governor and the state legislators that this is a good idea for the people of Illinois and we need to do a better job at that.”

But the fall veto session, which runs Oct. 14 to 30, leaves little time to build consensus in Springfield. And the Bears have so far had few discussions with state lawmakers to lay the groundwork for getting the legislation they need passed during that two-week sprint.

Other avenues appear closed to the team.

Foremost, any direct state subsidy for a new stadium is off the table. Gov. JB Pritzker and top legislative leaders repeatedly declared as much, leading the Bears to scuttle a proposed costly renovation plan for Soldier Field and put the 326-acre Arlington Heights property it purchased for $197.2 million in February 2023 as the team’s primary focus.

The Bears would likely get direct state infrastructure assistance, such as road and water improvements, as has been done with the United Center as well as any large private business development, “but we’re not going to go take taxpayer dollars and prop up a billionaire-owned sports team when we just saw they were able to sell a piece of their business” in which the team was valued at $8.8 billion, Pritzker said Wednesday.

That puts the Bears’ focus on so-called megaproject legislation that would freeze property taxes on the Arlington Heights land and allow the team to negotiate with local government and schools to pay a fee in lieu of real estate taxes. That is the bill the Bears want approved and it would apply to other large-scale private developments.

“It is very, very important that it passes because without that legislation, we are not able to proceed forward,” Warren said. “We stand ready. The stadium is designed.”

“So, if that bill passes in October there are items we have to work on and, obviously, there is a process you have to follow with the village of Arlington Heights from an approval process,” Warren said. “But obviously they are committed.”

A sampling of lawmakers at last week’s political days at the Illinois State Fair made clear one thing: The existing Soldier Field debt must be repaid for those lawmakers to give the Bears any consideration.

State Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar, a Southwest Side Democrat, said her constituents want “no debt left to the city.”

“If that’s settled, then we can have the conversations about what do we want to do to the Bears, right? Do we put some maintenance in Soldier Field?” she asked.

Chicago Democratic state Rep. Kam Buckner said he wants a conversation with McCaskey because “the Bears have been very squirrelly about where they are, what they’re doing, what they intend.”

“What I would hope that they would be leaning towards is looking at some of Chicago’s problems, right? We’re trying to work on transit right now. We’ll be talking about public schools very soon. How can they be helpful in those conversations?” Buckner asked.

“I think the Bears have not been as present as a neighbor as they should be for the people of Chicago,” Buckner said. “There’s no quid pro quo here. It’s not ‘Pay this and you get a chance to leave.’ But like, what’s a smart, logical, robust kind of answer where everybody is in this conversation?”

Democratic state Rep. Will Davis of south suburban Homewood said the Bears should also show some consideration to lawmakers outside the city.

“It’d be nice if the Bears treated everybody with respect and said, ‘Hey, suburban people, what do you think about what we’re trying to do?’” Davis said. He said a suburban mayor had encouraged the team to look at some land in southern Cook County, but the team never responded.

“There seems to be a little arrogance there that I wish they would just tone down,” he said.

Though Democrats hold supermajorities in both the House and Senate and no legislation for the Bears could advance without them, Republicans in the minority say they haven’t heard anything from the team in about a year in seeking support.

“This has not been top of the list at all,” said state Sen. John Curran of Downers Grove, who leads the GOP minority in the chamber. “We’re engaged with our Democratic colleagues on a lot of issues. This has not been one (of them).”

The lack of effective clock management was one of the downfalls of the Bears’ last coach, Matt Eberflus. But it is an important part of the legislative process — though the Bears have appeared mostly unengaged in Springfield.

“I haven’t talked to a single member about the Bears,” House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside said about the stadium issue.

“People are so focused on talking to their neighbors and getting (candidacy) petitions signed, and what they’re hearing at the doors is property taxes, grocery prices, gas prices — they’re talking about things around the kitchen table,” he said. “You know what they’re not talking about? The Chicago Bears.”

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