Michaels: “The Bears Ain’t Moving To Indiana.”

The Bears ain’t moving to Indiana.

Ultimately, here’s what the Bears REALLY want: Everything. They want 100% ownership.

That means football and non-football events. Gary IN, Hammond IN, the Chicago lakefront…all those sites offer tax breaks, infrastructure funds, and stadium construction contributions in equally attractive ways. But in exchange, the ultimate host city expects a certain amount of participation in the money generated from non-football activities at “our” stadium (because, after all, we’re all PARTNERS in this venture, right?).

The Bears can’t get 100% if they have to “partner” with anybody. The only place they can do that is where they already control the footprint.

By owning the 300+ acres in Arlington Heights (below), they’ll construct parking lots, hotels, retail outlets, restaurants, pubs, an expo center, other entertainment venues and…a domed football stadium. They’ll make money—keeping all of it— in new ways by leasing the facilities: Concerts, food festivals, trade expos, soccer tournaments—maybe even host the Final Four.

BUT…they still want two things: they want us to pay for “some” of the construction (which has been normalized in any city keeping/attracting an NFL team). And, they’d like the “no property tax” deal they’d get by partnering with municipalities.

Friday's announcement is meant to scare Arlington Heights and Illinois legislators into giving them as much of those two things as possible.

Will it work? My bet is we’ll soon recognize “2200 Euclid Avenue” in the same way Cubs fans know 1060 W. Addison.