So, it looks like the Chicago Bears are moving to Hammond, Ind. Or perhaps it’s another bluff in this interminable game of stadium poker.
Maybe the answer is somewhere in the middle. They’re seriously looking into moving to a new state, unless, you know, they get a better offer to stay in Illinois.
But four days after the state’s General Assembly double-doinked legislation designed to help the Bears build a stadium and mixed-use development on land they already own in Arlington Heights, the “Pride and Joy of Illinois” planted a rhetorical flag in the state of Indiana on Friday with an orchestrated, embargoed statement that was designed to both motivate and infuriate home-state politicians.
The statement, which echoed past Bears missives, noted the board of directors (which is mostly made up of McCaskey family members and team president Kevin Warren) “voted to advance our stadium development project in Hammond, Ind.” It continued with a bunch of nonsense about bringing Chicagoland together through this project, which will, according to them, “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.”
Are we still talking about a football stadium near an oil refinery or Caleb Williams’ Madden cover?
And for that matter, how would you connect the South Side to Northwest Indiana through the Loop, which is north of both places? It’s a question that makes you wonder, “Did ChatGPT write this?”
That part of the statement at least made me laugh, as did Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson’s inane appearance on local sports radio, where he proudly admitted he left early during the Bears’ epic comeback win over the Packers.
But most people aren’t chuckling at this story anymore. They just want it to end, regardless of where the team plays. The Bears actually have a good team, and this is dampening fans’ enthusiasm. We talk football to get away from politics.
Whether you live in Whiting, Ind., or Lake Forest, Ill., you don’t care about the supposed unifying power of a stadium. If you’re a Bears fan, you want to see a winning team, and if you’re a season ticket holder, you’d probably also like a better stadium experience than Soldier Field. (Although the sight lines are very underrated.)
How do the fans feel?
All week, from the dysfunction in Springfield to the Bears’ Friday news drop, they have reacted online based on their personal politics, civic pride, deep feelings on taxation and their overall frustration with a story designed to tear people apart, not bring them together.
This yearslong saga has done nothing but confirm biases against Illinois politicians and the people who own and run the Bears, none of whom have done much to beat the allegations that they’re absolutely incompetent.
On Friday afternoon, I ran into a friend eating lunch outside in the suburbs. Mark R. is a die-hard Bears fan, a season ticket holder and a fervent tailgater. He was shaking his head at the latest turn in this never-ending, intelligence-insulting saga, but in the end, he admitted he’d still go to the games in Hammond, which would only be an extra half-hour or so in the car. If he keeps his tickets, that is. We’ve been so busy debating where the stadium will be that no one is complaining yet about the expected costs for personal seat licenses.
Another friend, David S., is also a season ticket holder. He wonders why the team can’t have good coaching, quarterbacking and leadership at the same time. Right now, they have two out of three, which is two more than usual.
“We as Bears fans just can’t have nice things,” David wrote in a text message. “We simply can’t.”
Not only is he not excited about the Hammond location, but he said the “outrageous PSL program” will likely price him out as well.
David is a bright guy, and he gets the dirty secret of this entire gambit. While the Bears promise luxury and a first-class game-day experience that you “deserve” with a new stadium capable of hosting a singular Super Bowl, Wrestlemania, and maybe a Final Four, it’s just a shakedown of the fans, whether it’s taxpayers or ticket buyers.
Bears tickets are already expensive because the team in the third-biggest market plays in the smallest stadium. And after last year’s epic season that saw the true emergence of Williams, franchise quarterback and Packers slayer, the team raised season ticket prices by an average of 13.5 percent.
With a new stadium in the suburbs or Northwest Indiana, the price is only going to go up. And yes, the location is still in question.
In their statement, the Bears didn’t specify that the Wolf Lake property that has been the focus of Indiana’s pitch to the team would even be the site for a proposed stadium. We’ve never heard any details about a completed environmental review or infrastructure study.
But Indiana did vote in February to show the Bears its taxpayers’ money, so I don’t blame them for at least pretending to accept it. Indiana wasn’t just a leverage play; it was also a backup plan. And sometimes in life, you have to go to the bench for a spark.
The politicians reacted to the Bears’ statement as you’d imagine.
The Indiana pols took a bow — Gov. Mike Braun name-dropped the 1985 Bears — while the Illinois contingent correctly noted that no decision has actually been made and that Warren said talks will continue.
“Neither the statement nor my conversation with Kevin suggested that Illinois is off the table,” Illinois Rep. Kam Buckner said in a statement. “In fact, our discussion was forward-looking and centered on continuing conversations.”
Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, tells me that Bears President Kevin Warren called him this morning and told him they were putting out the statement about moving forward in Hammond. But… Cunningham added this: “He also said he looks forward to continuing discussions with me.”
— Brenden Moore (@brendenmoore13) June 5, 2026
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s spokesperson released a statement that stressed the Bears’ indecisiveness in making a choice.
“The 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,” the statement read. “That has hindered their progress.”
Most fans can agree that when you put the Bears and Illinois politicians in the same room, disaster will ensue.
And a lot of fans can also agree that there is something bothersome about the idea of the team leaving Illinois, which has been home for its entire existence. The Chicago Bears playing in Indiana seems even more odd than the New York Giants and Jets playing in New Jersey. (Ask those fans how they like the Meadowlands.) I just can’t imagine George McCaskey moving his grandfather’s team out of state, even if it’s just over the border.
Heck, I don’t like the idea of the Bears leaving the city. Despite supposed continued conversations between the team and Chicago officials, it just doesn’t seem like a realistic possibility for what the Bears want. Though I don’t love the suburban sprawl of Arlington Heights, every stadium project these days seemingly includes an adjoining entertainment and retail district. Soldier Field, even if they redid it again, doesn’t have room for one. But the Arlington Park property that the Bears bought for nearly $200 million in 2023 would be perfect. So is the location.
According to Warren’s open letter from September, “over 50 percent of our season-ticket holders live within 25 miles of the Arlington Heights site,” and the population in suburban Cook County far outstrips the area surrounding the Hammond site.
Just because Illinois’ government hasn’t come to an agreement with the Bears yet doesn’t make it the right move to decamp to Indiana. But devoted fans know all too well that even in the feel-good Ben Johnson era, you can never count out the team from making the wrong decision. That’s the real legacy of this franchise.