CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 The Chicago Bears are looking to build a stadium in Northwest Indiana after a proposal to provide financial incentives for the NFL team to build its new home in Illinois stalled in the state legislature.<\/p>\n
The Bears\u2019 board of directors voted Thursday to move forward with a stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana. The team had been doing its due diligence on a tract of land near Wolf Lake, but it said Friday that an exact site had not been selected.<\/p>\n
\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,\u201d the Bears said in a statement that the team attributed to Chairman George McCaskey and team president Kevin Warren. \u201cIt will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun welcomed the team\u2019s announcement. A committee in the Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill in February that established a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, construct and lease a stadium.<\/p>\n
\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,\u201d Braun said in a statement. \u201cAn NFL franchise in Northwest Indiana will be an economic boost to the entire region like we haven\u2019t seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bears, a charter NFL franchise, have played in Illinois since the team\u2019s founding in 1920 as the Decatur Staleys. They moved to Chicago in 1921 and called Wrigley Field home before they started playing at Soldier Field in September 1971.<\/p>\n
The Bears\u2019 lease runs through 2033, but they can pay a fee to break the lease early. Soldier Field is about 40 miles south of Halas Hall \u2014 the team\u2019s headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois, \u2014 and Hammond is about 20 miles south of the team\u2019s lakefront stadium.<\/p>\n
Matt Hill, a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, said the governor \u201cremains open to a sensible solution that protects taxpayers.\u201d<\/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,\u201d Hill said in a statement. \u201cThat has hindered their progress. Today appears to be another instance of that after Illinois leaders have been working with the Bears in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 The Chicago Bears are looking to build a stadium in Northwest Indiana after a proposal to provide financial incentives for the NFL team to build its new home in Illinois stalled in the state legislature. The Bears\u2019 board of directors voted Thursday to move forward with a stadium development project in Hammond, … Continue reading Bears say they are moving forward with Northwest Indiana location for new stadium<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1512862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-07 14:40:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1512862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1512863,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512862\/revisions\/1512863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1512862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1512862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1512862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}