It's been nearly five years since the Chicago Bears began publicly exploring the possibility of leaving Chicago, and yet the franchise has yet to put pen-to-paper and shovel-to-ground on a new stadium. Soldier Field was the oldest stadium in the NFL back in 2021, and remains the oldest today. Even worse, Soldier Field lacks a roof, which prevents the Bears from turning the structure into a year-round money-making operation.
Efforts to further renovate Soldier Field or move the club to the Chicagoland suburb of Arlington Heights remain in the sludge that is the Illinois legislature, and so on Thursday the club announced it has held productive conversations about moving the team to Indiana.
“The passage of SB 27 would mark the most meaningful step forward in our stadium planning efforts to date,” the club said. “We are committed to finishing the remaining site-specific necessary due diligence to support our vision to build a world-class stadium near the Wolf Lake area in Hammond, Indiana. We appreciate the leadership shown by Governor Braun, Speaker Huston, Senator Mishler and members of the Indiana General Assembly in establishing this critical framework and path forward to deliver a premier venue for all of Chicagoland and a destination for Bears fans and visitors from across the globe. We value our partnership and look forward to continuing to build our working relationship together.”
As shocking as the concept of the Indiana Bears would be on the surface -- indeed, the Bears have called the city of Chicago home since 1921 -- it's not as drastic of a move as it appears upon first glance.
Hammond, Ind., a city of 77,000 on the tippy-top of the northwest corner of the Hoosier State, is actually closer to Soldier Field than Arlington Heights, which is on northwest corner of the Chicagoland area.
The Bears' training facility and offices are in the suburb of Lake Forest, which is far closer to Arlington Heights than Hammond. More on that later.
While both would be a drastic move out of Chicago proper, it's not unheard of, at least not in the modern NFL. The Bears would still be closer to their city center than the 49ers (42 miles from downtown San Francisco to Levi's Stadium) and the Patriots (27 miles). The New York Giants have called New Jersey home since 1976 (the Jets followed eight years later), and the Kansas City Chiefs will move to Kansas in 2031 after more than 65 years in Missouri.
Teams playing cities off one another still happens in today's NFL -- the Rams, Chargers and Raiders have all moved within the last 10 years -- it's far more common for franchises to play municipalities off one another. Think the Cowboys moving from Irving to Arlington, the Cardinals building their own stadium in Glendale and not Phoenix, the Browns leaving Cleveland proper for Brook Park, and the Commanders moving back to Washington, D.C., after more than 30 years in Maryland.
And when your geography allows you to force cities, but states, to compete, the economics turn in your favor.
“Illinois was ready to move this bill forward,” a spokesman for Illinois governor JB Pritzker said Thursday. “After a productive three hour meeting yesterday, the Bears leaders requested the ILGA pause the hearing to make further tweaks to the bill. This morning, we were surprised to see a statement lauding Indiana and ignoring Illinois.”
There is a question here that must be asked: is this all a bluff. Who knows? It might be. The Bears themselves might not even know yet. The Chiefs didn't set out intended to leave Missouri for Kansas until Kansas made them an offer they couldn't refuse.
One factor that might or might not matter is that the Bears' Lake Forest, Ill., training facility is roughly 20 miles north of Arlington Heights, which in turn makes it a whopping 55 miles north of Wolf Lake in Indiana. All things equal, the Bears probably choose Arlington Heights, simply because it would make their own lives easier.
But given that the Bears and the state of Indiana are publicly crowing about how much they're suddenly enjoying each other's company, all things are likely not equal right now.