(Bloomberg) -- Even the Chicago Bears’ long odds of winning next year’s Super Bowl seem better than the team’s chances of convincing Illinois lawmakers to approve $900 million of borrowing in the next few weeks to build a new $3.2 billion stadium.

The National Football League team’s pitch to erect a gleaming domed stadium and revamped lakefront offers more than $2 billion in private funding from the Bears, but the ask for public dollars is already facing concern from officials who approve key financing resources and have to balance an already tight budget. 

“If we were to put this issue on the board for a vote right now, it would fail and it would fail miserably,” Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch said. 

In a proposal unveiled Wednesday, the Bears would contribute the bulk of the funding toward the stadium, with an additional $300 million coming from the NFL. A key piece would be $900 million of public funds acquired through a sale of municipal bonds by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, a government agency set up in the 1980s to build and renovate athletic stadiums for professional teams in the state. 

The Bears are looking for that authorization to come through before the conclusion of the current legislative session at the end of May — giving officials roughly five weeks to decide. Proponents don’t want to wait months for lawmakers to reconvene in the fall because the winter weather could delay the project, said team president Kevin Warren.

“There is no environment for something like this today,” Welch told reporters on Wednesday. He noted that while things could change, it’s “highly unlikely” to pivot so drastically in the next month. 

The ask comes at a tough time. Illinois is facing its tightest budget in three years that includes what Governor J.B. Pritzker has called “hard choices.” The state — which carries the lowest credit rating among peers even after a string of upgrades — is trying to pass a balanced spending plan while committing hundreds of millions to care for migrants and paying down its roughly $140 billion unfunded pension liability.

Maintaining the state’s improved fiscal trajectory is a priority that Welch, Pritzker and other state leaders underscore repeatedly. The memories of Illinois’ credit grade teetering on the brink of junk near the start of the pandemic and a two-year budget impasse before that are still fresh.

“My hope is that the timing of this is not to give the legislature the bum’s rush to hurry up in the next five weeks,” said Joe Ferguson, president of the Civic Federation, a fiscal watchdog. He said the fall session will give decision makers four to five months for an economic analysis. 

Ferguson said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson standing alongside team officials supporting the proposal indicates the city is not an independent party and additional outside vetting of the financial plan is necessary. The overall pitch from the Bears is for a nearly $5 billion project that includes a revamped lakefront in addition to the stadium.

Debt Plan

The Bears proposal would restructure past debt sold for Soldier Field, the Bears’ current stadium, and Guaranteed Rate Field, home to Major League Baseball’s White Sox, by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and extend the maturity by 40 years, generating net new bond proceeds worth more than $1 billion, said Karen Murphy, executive vice president of stadium development for the Bears.

The debt would be backed by revenue from a 2% city hotel tax. If those funds fall short, the team plans to set up a reserve fund to cover the difference, according to Murphy. 

Previously, when hotel tax revenue that the authority uses as a key source of funds has dipped — like during fiscal 2022 and 2023 because of the pandemic — the state is able to pull from income tax collections it sends to Chicago.

Fitch Ratings in December upgraded the authority two notches to BBB, taking it from junk to investment grade. The boost reflected “the robust and sustained recovery in hotel tax revenues” though the company warned though that a slump in stays or a “significant unanticipated new money issuance” may cause a downgrade. 

“We’d have to see how that plays out,” said Fitch analyst Eric Kim, noting that few details are available on the structure of the potential financing. “We are certainly watching in terms of what is the state going to be taking on as part of this project.”

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--With assistance from Miranda Davis.

(Adds description of Illinois Sports Facilities Authority in fourth paragraph.)

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