{"id":769430,"date":"2026-02-22T17:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T17:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/769430\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T17:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T17:51:15","slug":"chicago-bears-continue-work-on-illinois-stadium-amid-push-by-indiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/769430\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bears continue work on Illinois stadium amid push by Indiana"},"content":{"rendered":"

After \u201cjolting Illinois leaders by praising Indiana\u2019s stadium push,\u201d the Bears \u201cnow say they are moving forward on legislation in Springfield.\u201d Bears CEO Kevin Warren in a statement to Crain\u2019s Chicago on Saturday said, \u201cWe continue to work with Illinois\u2019 leadership and appreciate the progress being made.\u201d The team is trying to \u201cadvance legislation in two states without making public comments that could sour relationships or scuttle talks on either side of the border.\u201d Indiana has just one week left in its legislative session, and a source said that the stadium finance authority bill is \u201cscheduled to go to the state\u2019s House Floor for a second reading.\u201d The bill would \u201cstill need approval\u201d from the Indiana Senate and Gov. Mike Braun. On the Illinois side, the Bears are \u201choping to push through a so-called megaproject bill that would allow the team to negotiate a property tax break with Arlington Heights taxing authorities.\u201d A source said that a \u201cbill with \u2018agreed language\u2019 could go to a committee meeting in Springfield next week.\u201d The village of Arlington Heights posted a statement on Instagram saying, \u201cBears representatives have repeatedly assured the Village that the news regarding Indiana does not mean that they have made any decisions on a final site location, and that they will continue the frequent and productive discussions that have been underway in Illinois\u201d (CRAINS CHICAGO BUSINESS, 2\/21<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker acknowledged \u201cnow there\u2019s a common understanding by most of the (Illinois) General Assembly\u201d that the Bears\u2019 new home won\u2019t be in the city limits of Chicago. Pritzker: \u201cThey looked, and they, I think, gave the old college try, so to speak, to try to find a place within the city of Chicago, and they couldn\u2019t.\u201d (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2\/20<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In Chicago, Bernie Lincicombe argues the more important part of the team name is \u201cBears,\u201d rather than \u201cChicago.\u201d Lincicombe: \u201cThe Bears could be the Illiana Bears or the Chicagoland Bears as long as they are the Bears, just like the Raiders have been Oakland\/Los Angeles\/Oakland\/Las Vegas but always the Raiders, and in Paradise, not Las Vegas\u201d (CHICAGO DAILY HERALD, 2\/21<\/a>). <\/p>\n

The team on Friday reaffirmed that its \u201cpractice facility and corporate headquarters — Halas Hall — will remain in Lake Forest.\u201d The Bears have \u201cmaintained a presence\u201d in Lake Forest since 1975 (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2\/20<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Colts have taken the \u201csame public position since news first broke\u201d in December about the potential of a second team in the state of Indiana. The team in a statement said, \u201cWe wish the Bears all the best on their stadium initiative.\u201d The proposed stadium site is already in the Bears\u2019 marketing territory because it is \u201cwithin a 75-mile radius of downtown Chicago.\u201d The Colts do \u201cnot purchase advertisements in the area, do not hold events in the area and do not send team marketing representatives to the area\u201d (INDY STAR, 2\/19<\/a>). <\/p>\n

THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Jon Greenberg writes, \u201cIf the Chicago Bears wind up playing football amid the oil refineries and smelting plants of northwest Indiana, consider it a fumble lost for the Bears and the state of Illinois. \u2026 This isn\u2019t about a domed stadium. It\u2019s about what surrounds it. The days of surrounding a stadium with a moat of parking lots are over. Anyone who thinks this drawn-out process is just about a new stadium with a roof is way behind the economic times. And simply put, a mixed-use district in Hammond isn\u2019t going to work as well as one would in Arlington Heights\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 2\/20<\/a>). <\/p>\n

A Washington Post editorial states, \u201cShelling out the better part of a billion dollars to attract a team that won\u2019t even be associated with Indiana would be a foolish use of taxpayer money. Indiana leaders would be better off touting that businesses can move there without having to shake down the state government\u201d (WASHINGTON POST, 2\/20<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After \u201cjolting Illinois leaders by praising Indiana\u2019s stadium push,\u201d the Bears \u201cnow say they are moving forward on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,2493,7,12202,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-769430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-chicagobears","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-legal","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116115556866487468","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}