The Chicago Bears will proceed with plans for a new stadium in Hammond, Indiana, the organization announced Friday.<\/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 board\u2019s decision comes less than a week after the Illinois legislature adjourned<\/a>, 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 The Illinois General Assembly\u2019s failure to take up the bill, 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, 20 miles southeast of 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 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 The board\u2019s vote signals what could be 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 which underwent a major renovation in 2003.<\/p>\n The team closed<\/a>\u00a0on 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 Mayor Brandon 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\u00a0described 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 \u2013 Indiana.<\/p>\n In late 2025,\u00a0the Bears expressed interest<\/a> in moving to Hammond about 20 miles south of downtown Chicago, 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. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, 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 The Bears responded to Indiana\u2019s gambit enthusiastically. 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.<\/p>\n The Indiana plan is far from a done deal and\u00a0questions remain<\/a>\u00a0about whether the site is feasible.<\/p>\n Still, after the Bears\u2019 statement, Pritzker said he was \u201csurprised\u201d by it, and Illinois lawmakers scrambled to push forward their own legislative response.<\/p>\n In late April, the Illinois\u00a0House passed<\/a>\u00a0a so-called megaprojects bill that would allow the Bears to enter into special payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreements with local governments. The House legislation would allow 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 would not fund direct stadium construction but would aim to give the Bears the financial certainty they said was essential to move 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 questions about 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\u00a0legislation then\u00a0sat in the Senate for several weeks as talks continued to tweak it 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. Later, a key state senator said negotiations were slow-going because Johnson\u2019s comments got Chicago-based lawmakers dragging their feet on the Senate compromise bill.<\/p>\n Pritzker and Johnson have bickered in recent weeks over the bill, with the governor repeatedly insisting that the mayor had \u201cno plan\u201d for a new Bears lakefront stadium, while the mayor said the 2024 plan never got a \u201cfair\u201d hearing in Springfield.<\/p>\n