The Useful Context
The Chicago Bears Board of Directors voted Thursday to advance a plan for a stadium in Hammond, Indiana, moving the franchise closer to leaving Illinois after more than 100 years. It is the first time in Bears history that the team's board has voted on a stadium site.
"There is more work to do, but barring anything very strange, it's a done deal," one source told ESPN's Adam Schefter. A league source told ESPN's Courtney Cronin that Indiana is "in the lead," though "Illinois can still get back in the race."
The numbers are doing most of the announcement work here, which is usually how teams prefer it.
Hammond sits roughly 25 miles from Soldier Field, just across the Indiana-Illinois border. The proposed move would place the Bears in a state that already hosts the Indianapolis Colts.
The franchise played its inaugural season in 1920 as the Decatur Staleys and has called Soldier Field home since 1971—the oldest NFL stadium still in use. The team's lease at Soldier Field runs through 2033, though it can buy out of that lease, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The Detail Still Doing Work
In 2021, the Bears agreed to purchase the 326-acre Arlington International Racecourse property for $197 million and finalized the buy in 2023. Then, ahead of the 2025 season opener, team owner Virginia Warren wrote a letter to fans stating the team intended to leave Soldier Field for Arlington Heights, a suburb northwest of Chicago.
A few months later, Warren's tone shifted markedly. In a December letter, she wrote that "stable timelines are critical, as are predictable processes and elected leaders who share a sense of urgency and appreciation for public partnership that projects with this level of impact require." She added that state leadership told her directly the project would not be a priority in 2026.
Warren had hoped to submit a bid to host the 2031 Super Bowl in a new domed stadium at the Arlington site. The Northwest Indiana proposal emerged in that same December letter.
This week, the Illinois Senate passed a last-minute bill introduced by State Senator Bill Cunningham allowing cities in Cook County with more than 70,000 residents to establish their own stadium authorities. The legislation would have let the Bears pay for a stadium and lease it from the city, avoiding property taxes—a key demand from the team. The Illinois House of Representatives adjourned without voting on the measure.