The Chicago Bears will proceed with plans for a new stadium in Hammond, Indiana, the organization announced Friday.<\/p>\n
In announcing the potential out-of-state move, the NFL franchise carefully couched its language to allow for a different outcome. Team officials also gave at least two Illinois lawmakers advanced notice of the announcement and suggested talks about staying in Illinois would continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday, the Chicago Bears Board of Directors met and voted to advance our stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site to be selected,\u201d the team said in a joint statement from Chairman George H. McCaskey and President and CEO Kevin Warren. \u201cWe 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 north of the city.\u00a0 It will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s decision comes less than a week after the Illinois legislature adjourned without taking up a last-ditch Senate bill that would have allowed Arlington Heights or Chicago to enter into a public-private ownership deal with the NFL franchise. Such legislation would have given the team a path to build a new stadium without paying property taxes on the facility, bill sponsors said<\/p>\n
On Friday, Gov. JB Pritzker\u2019s office publicly criticized the Bears\u2019 behavior in recent negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bears have built a storied legacy in Illinois for over 100 years but have spent the last six years, and especially the last few months, shifting their position on a stadium location. That has hindered their progress,\u201d Pritzker spokesperson Matt Hill said, homing in on the time period at the end of the General Assembly\u2019s legislative session. \u201cToday appears to be another instance of that after Illinois leaders have been working with the Bears in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Illinois lawmakers who fronted Bears legislation in the House and Senate said they spoke to Warren on Friday and that the Bears\u2019 chief executive clearly still kept the door open to talking with state leaders about stadium issues.<\/p>\n
State Sen. Bill Cunningham, a Chicago Democrat who led the Senate in stadium negotiations with the Bears, said in a text to the Tribune that Warren called him to give him a heads up that the team was going to release a statement about moving forward with Hammond, but that he also \u201clooks forward to continuing discussions with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham argued that the statement the Bears put out on Friday was \u201cnot fundamentally different\u201d than the one the team released Feb. 19<\/a> when the Indiana legislature passed its bill to aid the team in its potential move to Hammond.<\/p>\n Democratic state Rep. Kam Buckner of Chicago, whose district covers Soldier Field, said Warren also called him earlier Friday and also committed \u201cto continue discussions around their pursuit of a new stadium in Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAfter reading the statement, it\u2019s worth noting that it is actually less definitive than the one the Bears issued earlier this year,\u201d Buckner, who is also the lead negotiator on the stadium discussion in the House, said about the team\u2019s February statement.<\/p>\n \u201cIn February, the Bears specifically referenced conducting due diligence on a site near Wolf Lake in Hammond, signaling that they had identified a particular location they were evaluating,\u201d Buckner said. \u201cToday\u2019s statement, by contrast, says only that the project would be in Hammond, with the exact site still to be selected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not a criticism,\u201d Buckner continued. \u201cIt\u2019s simply an acknowledgment that the Bears\u2019 own language leaves additional flexibility and does not represent a final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the Illinois General Assembly\u2019s failure earlier this week to take up the last-minute Senate legislation, which several House lawmakers said was due to a lack of time to study the proposal, immediately raised questions<\/a> about the fate of the Bears\u2019 future home stadium. The team has an offer from Indiana to construct a taxpayer-financed stadium and surrounding mixed-use entertainment district in Hammond, near Wolf Lake, 15 miles southeast of downtown Chicago.<\/p>\n The Indiana state legislature approved a bill earlier this year that created a framework for the Bears to build a stadium in which the team will invest over $2 billion in constructing the stadium and the state promises to invest $1 billion through various taxes.<\/p>\n Gov. Mike Braun \u2014 who signed the bill into law within an hour of its final approval \u2014 will handle the remaining business with the Bears and the team\u2019s proposal for Hammond, officials previously said. Braun, for his part, issued a statement Friday welcoming the team.<\/p>\n \u201cHoosiers, help me welcome the Chicago Bears to our great state!\u201d the governor said<\/a>. \u201cWe look forward to building a partnership as strong as the \u201985 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\u2019t seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n In a phone interview following the announcement, Indiana state Rep. Earl Harris Jr., a Democrat from East Chicago, said he could not fully express his joy over the news.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this means for the area, what this means for the state as a whole, is extremely exciting,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n Harris said officials are still hammering out next steps with the team.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, we will have to finalize the timeline with the Bears, \u2026 like when ground will be broken and when things will start moving in terms of Hammond,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the announcement is great, but that\u2019s only part of the process. There\u2019ll be more work to come down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson\u2019s office released a statement downplaying the news, emphasizing that team officials have said an out-of-state move is not a certainty.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last several years the Bears have stated their intentions in multiple jurisdictions, today\u2019s announcement is not surprising,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIt\u2019s also not surprising that Bears officials have stated this vote does not mean a move to Hammond is a done deal. Without a final site selection, until we see shovels in the ground in Hammond, the City will continue to engage in discussions grounded in the interests of our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson evaded questions Friday afternoon from reporters who tried to talk to him about the Bears situation at an event at\u00a0 the Chicago Cultural Center honoring the city\u2019s Puerto Rican community.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s announcement, however, could signal the closing lap of a Chicago Bears stadium saga that began in September 2021, when the franchise put in a bid to purchase the former Arlington International Racecourse, a 326-acre property in the northwest suburb of Arlington Heights that had been home to horse racing for generations. That move signaled the team\u2019s first serious step toward leaving Soldier Field, where the Bears have played since 1971 and that underwent a major renovation in 2003.<\/p>\n The team closed<\/a> on the $197.2 million purchase of the Arlington Park land in February 2023, with the sprawling property that straddles the border of Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows being seen as having potential for a mixed-use development featuring a domed stadium, hotels, retail space, housing and entertainment venues.<\/p>\n But almost immediately after the purchase closed, the suburban stadium plan became the subject of a property tax dispute in which Cook County officials assessed the land based on the sale price rather than the valuation the previous owner, Churchill Downs, had been taxed on.<\/p>\n While negotiations over property taxes among the Bears, the village of Arlington Heights, and three local school districts \u2014 Township High School District 214, High School District 211, and Elementary School District 15 \u2014 dragged through 2023 and into 2024, the team in April 2024, one day before the NFL Draft, unveiled a dramatic pivot: a $4.7 billion proposal to build a publicly owned, domed stadium on Chicago\u2019s lakefront, just south of Soldier Field.<\/p>\n The plan called for the team to contribute roughly $2.3 billion, while seeking approximately $900 million in public financing through the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and another $1.5 billion in taxpayer-funded infrastructure improvements around the site.<\/p>\n Johnson stood shoulder to shoulder with Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren at the lakefront stadium announcement, embracing the proposal and declaring Chicago the best home for the franchise. But Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic legislative leaders were notably absent from the event, and Pritzker quickly described the plan as a nonstarter<\/a>\u00a0in Springfield.<\/p>\n The Chicago deal never moved forward in the state Capitol and was quickly shelved as talks progressed between the team and the local government bodies regarding the Arlington Heights site. Then another rival site entered the picture \u2014 Indiana.<\/p>\n In late 2025,\u00a0the Bears expressed interest<\/a> in moving to Hammond as Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. proposed building a domed stadium near Wolf Lake, which straddles the Indiana-Illinois border, and described a planned entertainment district \u2014 hotels, restaurants and other amenities \u2014 as a virtual city-within-a-city he called \u201cBearsville.\u201d<\/p>\n Indiana lawmakers moved swiftly to make their pitch concrete. Braun, the Republican Indiana governor, championed legislation that established the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority and authorized the state to commit roughly $1 billion in public funding toward a potential Bears project. The money would be raised through an admissions tax, a new professional sports development district capturing retail, food and beverage taxes near the stadium, and a toll hike on the Indiana Toll Road. The Bears would retain all revenue generated by the dome and could eventually purchase it for one dollar once the 40-year bonds are paid off by taxpayers.<\/p>\n At that time, the Bears responded enthusiastically to Indiana\u2019s gambit. When the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee voted 24-0 in February to advance the legislation, the team issued a statement calling the development \u201cthe most meaningful step forward in our stadium planning efforts to date,\u201d and expressing a \u201cvision\u201d to build near Wolf Lake, though questions almost immediately arose<\/a> about whether the site was feasible.<\/p>\n Still, the move did generate action in Springfield, spurring Illinois lawmakers to advance their own legislative response during the recently concluded spring session.<\/p>\n In late April, the Illinois\u00a0House passed<\/a> a so-called megaprojects bill to allow the Bears to enter into special payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreements with local governments. The House legislation called for allowing large-scale developers, such as the Bears, to freeze their property tax assessments for 25 to 45 years in exchange for the PILOT payments. The Bears were also seeking some $855 million in infrastructure funding.<\/p>\n Unlike Indiana\u2019s package, the Illinois bill did not fund direct stadium construction but did aim to provide the Bears with the financial certainty they said was essential to moving forward at Arlington Park.<\/p>\n While the governor and lawmakers repeatedly insisted the megaprojects proposal wasn\u2019t being put forward solely to benefit the Bears, team officials and lobbyists were in regular communication with top Pritzker administration officials and key legislators throughout the spring session, weighing in on some of the most intricate details of the plan, records the Tribune obtained show.<\/p>\n The House bill also included provisions allowing half of PILOT payments to flow back as property tax relief for homeowners in the surrounding taxing districts and across the state.<\/p>\n But serious problems with the House bill quickly arose. The Bears didn\u2019t fully embrace it, and other lawmakers didn\u2019t either. Lawmakers said they were trying to balance the team\u2019s concerns with public pushback against giving away benefits to a multibillion-dollar sports franchise.<\/p>\n At least one watchdog group expressed concerns that the legislation could poke more holes into the property tax base in the service of very large developers across the state, beyond just the Bears. The legislation then sat in the Senate for several weeks amid concerns about whether its\u00a0property tax relief provisions<\/a> would\u00a0be workable.<\/p>\n As Illinois senators worked on a compromise bill, another wrench got tossed into the works. In early May, Johnson visited Springfield and, seemingly out of nowhere, raised the prospect of resurrecting the lakefront stadium plan and saying Chicago\u2019s 2024 plan never got a fair hearing in the state capitol. Later, Cunningham, the Illinois state senator leading Bears talks in the chamber, said negotiations were slow-going because Johnson\u2019s comments got Chicago-based lawmakers dragging their feet on the Senate compromise bill.<\/p>\n Eventually, the lack of action in the Senate on the House bill resulted in the Senate\u2019s last-minute compromise proposal that didn\u2019t get voted on by the House as time at the end of session ran out.<\/p>\n