The Bears’ far-flung tour across the Chicagoland area for a stadium site is back on as the National Football League team said it is now turning its attention to Northwest Indiana amid stalled political progress in Illinois.
In an open letter released late Wednesday, Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren said the lack of progress on a planned domed stadium and mixed-use development on team-owned land in Arlington Heights, Ill., is forcing the franchise to expand its search, including across the state border. The Bears are seeking $855 million in public funding, targeted toward infrastructure, for a project set to cost at least $5 billion—itself a reduced ask of taxpayers that previously had exceeded $2 billion.
“We need to expand our search and critically evaluate opportunities throughout the wider Chicagoland area, including Northwest Indiana,” Warren wrote. “Our fans deserve a world-class stadium. Our players and coaches deserve a venue that matches the championship standard they strive for every day. With that in mind, our organization must keep every credible pathway open to deliver that future.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has long been a skeptic about providing public funding for a Bears stadium. More recently, though, his state has been a target for aggressive, and highly controversial, immigration enforcement by the Trump White House, bringing the governor’s focus further away from the stadium issue. Pritzker has also pushed for the Bears to pay off existing debt of more than $500 million that remains from a 2003 renovation of Soldier Field.
“Suggesting the Bears would move to Indiana is a startling slap in the face to all the beloved and loyal fans who have been rallying around the team during this season strong,” Pritzker spokesman Matt Hill said in a statement. “The governor is a Bears fan who has always wanted them to stay in Chicago. He has also said that, ultimately, they are a private business.”
The Bears’ newly expanded view into Indiana recalls a wide-ranging search it took during 2023 and early 2024 that covered at least seven other locales in the Chicago area, mostly in the Illinois suburbs. The push down into Indiana would present sizable travel challenges for many of its fans, and the team itself. Gary, Ind., for example, is 65 miles from the team’s current headquarters in Lake Forest, Ill. Gary is also one of the most economically challenged areas in the entire country, with roughly a third of its population living below the poverty line.
Warren insisted the new focus on Indiana is “not about leverage,” in Illinois, but it’s hard to see the situation otherwise. The team’s letter references that the Bears “have been told directly by state leadership [that] our project will not be a priority in 2026, despite the benefits it will bring to Illinois.”
On-Field Contrast
The rising conflict between the Bears and Illinois is happening as the team is in the midst of a breakthrough season on the field. The team is currently 10–4, is leading the NFC North division by half a game, and is already assured of its best season since at least 2018, with potentially more to come.
A Saturday home game against the Packers, the team’s arch-rival and closely trailing Chicago, is set to be one of the biggest games in the Bears’ recent history. Fox will show the game nationally in primetime.
“We are building a championship organization worthy of you,” Warren wrote.
