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The Bears are formally moving ahead with a planned $5 billion domed stadium and mixed-use development in Hammond, Ind., with the NFL franchise pivoting quickly in the wake of political inaction earlier this week in Illinois.
Owner George McCaskey and president and CEO Kevin Warren said Friday that the team’s board of directors has voted to advance the Hammond project. The move marked the first time the team has made a definitive statement in a long-running site deliberation between that option and one in Arlington Heights, Ill.
The decision also puts to rest suggestions that had circulated in Illinois political circles in recent months that the Indiana consideration was merely a bluff by the Bears.
“We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana to the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across neighborhoods and suburbs stretching nothing of the city,” McCaskey and Warren said in a joint statement. “It will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses.”
An exact stadium site within Hammond is still “to be selected.”
The selection of Hammond arrived four days after the end of the spring legislative session in Illinois, during which state leaders failed to advance a bill to help the Bears build the stadium and mixed-development on team-owned property in Arlington Heights.
Instead, the Bears are moving forward with the plan from Indiana that received political approval in February and will fund about 60% of the stadium cost.
“Hoosiers, help me welcome the Chicago Bears to our great state!” Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said in a social media post. “We look forward to building a partnership as strong as the ’85 Bears defense, creating opportunities and economic growth that will benefit our state and the Bears organization for decades to come. An NFL franchise in Northwest Indiana will be an economic boost to the entire region like we haven’t seen before.”
Since beginning as the Decatur Staleys in 1920, the Bears have never been based anywhere but Illinois.
Long and Winding Road
The commitment to Hammond, though still not definitively final or legally binding, marks a key point in a stadium saga that has gone on for more than three years. After canvassing all over the Chicago area, the team originally sought to build a domed stadium on the city’s lakefront, right next to its current home of Soldier Field.
The team then pivoted to the suburban land it owns in Arlington Heights, but that’s when political troubles began to mount for the Bears.
Legislative consideration in Illinois originally centered on a “megaprojects” bill that would give the Bears much-desired property tax certainty while building in Arlington Heights. That effort passed in the state House of Representatives in April, but it stalled in the Senate.
Last weekend, frenetic overnight negotiations then pivoted toward a more narrowly targeted proposal in which certain Cook County cities could create stadium authorities to help support a new venue. That measure passed in the Senate in a 3:40 a.m. CT vote early Monday, but the House then declined to take up the bill and continued with the planned adjournment of the session.
That put the onus back on the Bears, who originally said they intended to stick to their planned timetable of making a stadium decision by the early summer at the latest. That has now held true with the decision to go to Hammond.
Illinois legislators theoretically still have a chance to revive the stadium situation in their state. That would most likely require a special session this summer to advance a venue bill, and that is almost certainly not going to happen.
“While Indiana is willing to raise taxes and promise $1 billion in taxpayer funds, Illinois has focused on the needs of working families who want relief at the gas pump, at the store, and on their insurance bills—not taxpayer-funded stadiums,” said Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch. “Illinois remains open to ongoing efforts to secure the Bears in Illinois. However, it will take time to get it right.”
The NFL, meanwhile, has been eager for the Bears to join an accelerating stadium development wave across the league that includes the Bills, Titans, Browns, Commanders, Chiefs, and Broncos.
