Bill Text: IL SB2274 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority Act. Modifies legislative findings. Provides that "facility" includes stadiums, arenas, or other structures for the holding of athletic contests and other events and gatherings, including, without limitation, professional women's sports. Provides that a person may not, on the basis of sex, be prohibited from participating in or receiving any of the benefits of programs or activities at facilities funded under the Act, including facilities established or supported by bonds issued under the Act. Requires the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to report to the Governor and the General Assembly on any male or female professional sports projects brought to the Authority by a professional sports team in the State. Provides that the Authority shall notify the Governor, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, President of the Senate, and Minority Leader of the Senate of the proposal within 2 weeks of receiving a formal request or inquiry. Provides that, before the General Assembly authorizes the issuance of additional bonds under the Act to fund facilities for professional men's sports teams, each chamber of the General Assembly may hold a hearing to publicly review any proposal submitted to the Authority. Repeals provisions relating to a dissolved advisory board. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-07 - Referred to Assignments [SB2274 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-SB2274-Introduced.html

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104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2025 and 2026 SB2274 Introduced 2/7/2025, by Sen. Celina Villanueva SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
70 ILCS 3205/2 from Ch. 85, par. 6002
70 ILCS 3205/3 from Ch. 85, par. 6003
70 ILCS 3205/9.5 new
70 ILCS 3205/13 from Ch. 85, par. 6013
70 ILCS 3205/7.8 rep.
Amends the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority Act. Modifies legislative findings. Provides that "facility" includes stadiums, arenas, or other structures for the holding of athletic contests and other events and gatherings, including, without limitation, professional women's sports. Provides that a person may not, on the basis of sex, be prohibited from participating in or receiving any of the benefits of programs or activities at facilities funded under the Act, including facilities established or supported by bonds issued under the Act. Requires the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to report to the Governor and the General Assembly on any male or female professional sports projects brought to the Authority by a professional sports team in the State. Provides that the Authority shall notify the Governor, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, President of the Senate, and Minority Leader of the Senate of the proposal within 2 weeks of receiving a formal request or inquiry. Provides that, before the General Assembly authorizes the issuance of additional bonds under the Act to fund facilities for professional men's sports teams, each chamber of the General Assembly may hold a hearing to publicly review any proposal submitted to the Authority. Repeals provisions relating to a dissolved advisory board. Effective immediately.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning local government.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority Act is
amended by changing Sections 2, 3, and 13 and by adding Section
9.5 as follows:
(70 ILCS 3205/2) (from Ch. 85, par. 6002)
Sec. 2. Definitions; general provisions. In this Act the
following words have the meanings indicated:
(A) "Authority" means the Illinois Sports Facilities
Authority.
(B) "Facility" means:
(1) Stadiums, arenas or other structures for the
holding of athletic contests and other events and
gatherings, including, without limitation, baseball,
football, professional women's sports, and automobile
racing; musical, dramatic and other artistic, cultural or
social events; public meetings; and other public events;
and
(2) Practice fields, or other areas where professional
sports teams and other sports teams may practice or
perform.
(3) "Facility" also means the following types of

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property if that property is related to or located near an
item listed in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (B) of
this Section:
(i) Offices, parking lots and garages, access
roads, streets, intersections, highway interchanges,
pedestrian walkways, tunnels, and bridges,
transportation facilities, monuments, restaurants,
stores, and other facilities providing goods and
services to persons attending meetings, contests,
gatherings or events at the facility;
(ii) Other recreation areas and recreational
facilities;
(iii) Other property or structures including all
fixtures, furnishings, and appurtenances normally
associated with such facilities; and
(iv) Landscaping, parks, and open spaces.
(C) "Governmental Owner" means a body politic, public
corporation, political subdivision, unit of local government,
or municipality formed under the laws of the State of
Illinois, including, without limitation, the Chicago Park
District, that owns or is to own a facility located within the
corporate limits of the Authority described in Section 11 of
this Act and to which the Authority provides financial
assistance. Where the title to all or any part of a facility is
held by a public building commission because the public
building commission has financed, under the authority of the

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Public Building Commission Act, the acquisition of real estate
or the construction, acquisition, or enlargement of
improvements to real estate, or both, for any body politic,
public corporation, political subdivision, unit of local
government, or municipality formed under the laws of the State
of Illinois, the term "governmental owner" when used with
respect to that facility means the body politic, public
corporation, political subdivision, unit of local government,
or municipality rather than the public building commission.
(D) "Management Agreement" means a legally binding
contract between the Authority and a tenant of a facility
owned by the Authority, which contains at least the following
provisions:
(1) a provision requiring the tenant to conduct its
complete regular home season schedule and any home playoff
events in the facility;
(2) a provision requiring the tenant to provide
routine maintenance of and to operate the facility with
its personnel or contractors;
(3) a provision requiring the tenant to advertise and
promote events it conducts at the facility;
(4) a provision requiring the tenant to operate or
contract for concessions for the patrons of the facility,
including a stadium club and restaurant where food and
beverages will be served; and
(5) a provision permitting the Authority or its

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designee to hold other events in any such facility owned
by the Authority at such times as shall not unreasonably
interfere with the use of that facility by the tenant.
(E) "Assistance Agreement" means one or more legally
binding contracts, with respect to a facility for which the
Authority is to provide financial assistance as provided in
this Act, to which the Authority and a governmental owner of a
facility or its tenant, or both, and any other appropriate
persons are parties, which may be in the form of an
intergovernmental agreement.
(F) "Financial Assistance" means the use by the Authority,
pursuant to an assistance agreement, of its powers under this
Act, including, without limitation, the power to borrow money,
to issue bonds and notes, to impose an occupation tax as
provided in Section 19 of this Act and to receive and expend
the proceeds of that tax, to assist a governmental owner or its
tenant, or both, with one or more of the following: designing,
developing, establishing, constructing, erecting, acquiring,
repairing, reconstructing, renovating, remodeling, adding to,
extending, improving, equipping, operating, and maintaining a
facility owned or to be owned by the governmental owner.
(G) "Tenant" means any person with which a governmental
owner or the Authority has entered into an agreement for the
use by a professional sports team or other sports team of any
facility. Such an agreement may be a management agreement or
an assistance agreement or may be a lease of or a license,

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permit, or similar agreement with respect to the use of a
facility by such team for such period as shall be agreed upon
by the person and the governmental owner or the Authority, as
the case may be.
(Source: P.A. 91-935, eff. 6-1-01.)
(70 ILCS 3205/3) (from Ch. 85, par. 6003)
Sec. 3. Legislative Finding and Declaration. It is hereby
found that as a result of deteriorating infrastructure and
sports facilities in the metropolitan area of Chicago, there
is a shortage of facilities suitable for use by professional
and other sports teams and musical, theatrical, cultural, and
other social organizations.
It is further found that as a result of the costs to
maintain, repair or replace such infrastructure and
facilities, and as a result of current high financing costs,
the private sector, without the assistance contemplated in
this Act, is unable to construct feasibly adequate sports
facilities.
It is further found that the creation of modern sports
facilities and the other results contemplated by this Act
would stimulate economic activity in the State of Illinois,
including the creation and maintenance of jobs, the creation
of new and lasting infrastructure and other improvements, and
the attraction and retention of sports and entertainment
events which generate economic activity.

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It is further found that participation in sports promotes
physical and mental health and provides opportunities for
personal growth and character development and that these
benefits are best advanced and enjoyed when available to all
people on an equitable basis, including when provision is made
for equitable development of sports facilities for men and
women alike.
It is further found that professional sports facilities
can be magnets for substantial interstate tourism resulting in
increased retail sales, hotel and restaurant sales, and
entertainment industry sales, all of which increase jobs and
economic growth.
It is further found that only three major league
professional baseball franchises play in stadium facilities
the construction of which has not been government-assisted and
of those three the most recently constructed facility was
completed in 1914.
It is further found that government assistance was or is
an essential component in the financing of the construction of
most recently built or planned National Football League
stadiums.
It is further found that the exercise by the Authority and
governmental owners of the additional powers conferred by this
amendatory Act of the 91st General Assembly (i) will
materially assist the development and redevelopment of
government owned sports facilities and thereby alleviate in

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part the deleterious conditions and confer the public benefits
described in this Section and (ii) is in the public interest
and is declared to be for public purposes.
(Source: P.A. 91-935, eff. 6-1-01.)
(70 ILCS 3205/9.5 new)
Sec. 9.5. Unlawful discrimination. A person may not be
prohibited, on the basis of sex, from participation in, or any
of the benefits of, programs or activities at facilities
funded under this Act, including facilities established or
supported by bonds issued under this Act.
(70 ILCS 3205/13) (from Ch. 85, par. 6013)
Sec. 13. Bonds and notes.
(A) (1) The Authority may at any time and from time to time
issue bonds and notes for any corporate purpose, including the
establishment of reserves and the payment of interest and
costs of issuance. The Authority shall report to the Governor
and the General Assembly on any male or female professional
sports projects brought to the Authority by a professional
sports team in the State. The Authority shall notify the
Governor, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minority
Leader of the House of Representatives, President of the
Senate, and Minority Leader of the Senate of the proposal
within 2 weeks of receiving a formal request or inquiry.
Before the General Assembly authorizes the issuance of

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additional bonds under this Act to fund facilities for
professional men's sports teams, each chamber of the General
Assembly may hold a hearing to publicly review any proposal
submitted to the Authority. If there are proposals submitted
by both professional men's and women's sports teams and
recognizing the historical lack of public funding for women's
sports, then the General Assembly shall encourage any future
bonding authority is granted in an equitable manner to assist
in the remediation of past inequity in funding between men's
and women's sports teams. In this Act the term "bonds"
includes notes of any kind, interim certificates, refunding
bonds, or any other evidence of obligation for borrowed money
issued under this Section 13. Bonds may be issued in one or
more series and may be payable and secured either on a parity
with or separately from other bonds.
(2) The bonds of any issue shall be payable solely from all
or any part of the property or revenues of the Authority,
including, without limitation:
(i) Rents, rates, fees, charges, or other revenues
payable to or any receipts of the Authority, including
amounts which are deposited pursuant to the Act with a
trustee for bondholders;
(ii) Payments by financial institutions, insurance
companies, or others pursuant to letters or lines of
credit, policies of insurance, or purchase agreements;
(iii) Investment earnings from funds or accounts

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maintained pursuant to a bond resolution or trust
agreement; and
(iv) Proceeds of refunding bonds.
(3) Bonds may be authorized by a resolution of the
Authority and may be secured by a trust agreement by and
between the Authority and a corporate trustee or trustees,
which may be any trust company or bank having the powers of a
trust company within or without the State. Bonds may:
(i) Mature at a time or times, whether as serial bonds
or as term bonds or both, not exceeding 40 years from their
respective dates of issue;
(ii) Notwithstanding the provisions provision of the
Bond Authorization Act "An Act to authorize public
corporations to issue bonds, other evidences of
indebtedness and tax anticipation warrants subject to
interest rate limitations set forth therein", approved May
26, 1970, as now or hereafter amended, or any other
provision of law, bear interest at any fixed or variable
rate or rates determined by the method provided in the
resolution or trust agreement;
(iii) Be payable at a time or times, in the
denominations and form, either coupon or registered or
both, and carry the registration and privileges as to
exchange, transfer, or conversion and for the replacement
of mutilated, lost, or destroyed bonds as the resolution
or trust agreement may provide;

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(iv) Be payable in lawful money of the United States
at a designated place;
(v) Be subject to the terms of purchase, payment,
redemption, refunding, or refinancing that the resolution
or trust agreement provides;
(vi) Be executed by the manual or facsimile signatures
of the officers of the Authority designated by the
Authority which signatures shall be valid at delivery even
for one who has ceased to hold office; and
(vii) Be sold in the manner and upon the terms
determined by the Authority.
(B) Any resolution or trust agreement may contain
provisions which shall be a part of the contract with the
holders of the bonds as to:
(1) Pledging, assigning, or directing the use,
investment, or disposition of all or any part of the
revenues of the Authority or proceeds or benefits of any
contract, including, without limit, any management
agreement or assistance agreement and conveying or
otherwise securing any property or property rights;
(2) The setting aside of loan funding deposits, debt
service reserves, capitalized interest accounts,
replacement or operating reserves, cost of issuance
accounts and sinking funds, and the regulation,
investment, and disposition thereof;
(3) Limitations on the purposes to which or the

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investments in which the proceeds of sale of any issue of
bonds or the Authority's revenues and receipts may be
applied or made;
(4) Limitations on the issue of additional bonds, the
terms upon which additional bonds may be issued and
secured, the terms upon which additional bonds may rank on
a parity with, or be subordinate or superior to, other
bonds;
(5) The refunding, advance refunding, or refinancing
of outstanding bonds;
(6) The procedure, if any, by which the terms of any
contract with bondholders may be altered or amended and
the amount of bonds and holders of which must consent
thereto, and the manner in which consent shall be given;
(7) Defining the acts or omissions which shall
constitute a default in the duties of the Authority to
holders of bonds and providing the rights or remedies of
such holders in the event of a default which may include
provisions restricting individual right of action by
bondholders;
(8) Providing for guarantees, pledges of property,
letters of credit, or other security, or insurance for the
benefit of bondholders; and
(9) Any other matter relating to the bonds which the
Authority determines appropriate.
(C) No member of the Authority nor any person executing

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the bonds shall be liable personally on the bonds or subject to
any personal liability by reason of the issuance of the bonds.
(D) The Authority may enter into agreements with agents,
banks, insurers, or others for the purpose of enhancing the
marketability of or security for its bonds.
(E)(1) A pledge by the Authority of revenues and receipts
as security for an issue of bonds or for the performance of its
obligations under any management agreement or assistance
agreement shall be valid and binding from the time when the
pledge is made.
(2) The revenues and receipts pledged shall immediately be
subject to the lien of the pledge without any physical
delivery or further act, and the lien of any pledge shall be
valid and binding against any person having any claim of any
kind in tort, contract, or otherwise against the Authority,
irrespective of whether the person has notice.
(3) No resolution, trust agreement, management agreement,
or assistance agreement or any financing statement,
continuation statement, or other instrument adopted or entered
into by the Authority need be filed or recorded in any public
record other than the records of the Authority in order to
perfect the lien against third persons, regardless of any
contrary provision of law.
(F) The Authority may issue bonds to refund, advance
refund, or refinance any of its bonds then outstanding,
including the payment of any redemption premium and any

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interest accrued or to accrue to the earliest or any
subsequent date of redemption, purchase, or maturity of the
bonds. Refunding or advance refunding bonds may be issued for
the public purposes of realizing savings in the effective
costs of debt service, directly or through a debt
restructuring, for alleviating impending or actual default, or
for paying principal of, redemption premium, if any, and
interest on bonds as they mature or are subject to redemption,
and may be issued in one or more series in an amount in excess
of that of the bonds to be refunded.
(G) At no time shall the total outstanding bonds and notes
of the Authority issued under this Section 13 exceed (i)
$150,000,000 in connection with facilities owned by the
Authority or in connection with other authorized corporate
purposes of the Authority and (ii) $399,000,000 in connection
with facilities owned by a governmental owner other than the
Authority; however, the limit on the total outstanding bond
and notes set forth in this sentence shall not apply to any
refunding or restructuring bonds issued by the Authority on
and after June 17, 2021 (the effective date of Public Act
102-16) this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly but
prior to December 31, 2024. Bonds which are being paid or
retired by issuance, sale, or delivery of bonds or notes, and
bonds or notes for which sufficient funds have been deposited
with the paying agent or trustee to provide for payment of
principal and interest thereon, and any redemption premium, as

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provided in the authorizing resolution, shall not be
considered outstanding for the purposes of this paragraph.
(H) The bonds and notes of the Authority shall not be
indebtedness of the City of Chicago, of the State, or of any
political subdivision of the State other than the Authority.
The bonds and notes of the Authority are not general
obligations of the State of Illinois or the City of Chicago, or
of any other political subdivision of the State other than the
Authority, and are not secured by a pledge of the full faith
and credit of the State of Illinois or the City of Chicago, or
of any other political subdivision of the State other than the
Authority, and the holders of bonds and notes of the Authority
may not require the levy or imposition by the State or the City
of Chicago, or any other political subdivision of the State
other than the Authority, of any taxes or, except as provided
in this Act, the application of revenues or funds of the State
of Illinois or the City of Chicago or any other political
subdivision of the State other than the Authority to the
payment of bonds and notes of the Authority.
(I) In order to provide for the payment of debt service
requirements (including amounts for reserve funds and to pay
the costs of credit enhancements) on bonds issued pursuant to
this Act, the Authority may provide in any trust agreement
securing such bonds for a pledge and assignment of its right to
all amounts to be received from the Illinois Sports Facilities
Fund and for a pledge and assignment (subject to the terms of

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any management agreement or assistance agreement) of all taxes
and other amounts to be received under Section 19 of this Act
and may further provide by written notice to the State
Treasurer and State Comptroller (which notice shall constitute
a direction to those officers) for a direct payment of these
amounts to the trustee for its bondholders.
(J) The State of Illinois pledges to and agrees with the
holders of the bonds and notes of the Authority issued
pursuant to this Act that the State will not limit or alter the
rights and powers vested in the Authority by this Act so as to
impair the terms of any contract made by the Authority with
such holders or in any way impair the rights and remedies of
such holders until such bonds and notes, together with
interest thereon, with interest on any unpaid installments of
interest, and all costs and expenses in connection with any
action or proceedings by or on behalf of such holders, are
fully met and discharged. In addition, the State pledges to
and agrees with the holders of the bonds and notes of the
Authority issued pursuant to this Act that the State will not
limit or alter the basis on which State funds are to be
allocated, deposited and paid to the Authority as provided in
this Act, or the use of such funds, so as to impair the terms
of any such contract. The Authority is authorized to include
these pledges and agreements of the State in any contract with
the holders of bonds or notes issued pursuant to this Section.
Nothing in Public Act 102-16 this amendatory Act of the 102nd

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General Assembly is intended to limit or alter the rights and
powers of the Authority so as to impair the terms of any
contract made by the Authority with the holders of the bonds
and notes of the Authority issued pursuant to this Act.
(Source: P.A. 102-16, eff. 6-17-21; revised 7-25-24.)
(70 ILCS 3205/7.8 rep.)
Section 10. The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority Act
is amended by repealing Section 7.8.
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.