Overview
- The Bears’ seven-member board voted Thursday to advance a stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site to be selected next.
- Indiana enacted a law that lets a stadium authority repay bonds with taxes on admissions, hotels, restaurants and tolls, and the team says it will commit $2 billion, keep stadium revenue and may buy the facility back after 40 years.
- Illinois legislators failed to pass measures this spring that would have reduced the Bears’ property-tax burden for the Arlington Heights site, a setback that helped push the team to consider Indiana more seriously.
- Reporting shows the Bears held multiple April calls with Chicago attorneys about potential options including Soldier Field, but the team and city offer different accounts of those talks, leaving Chicago a disputed Plan B.
- The decision accelerates a compressed timetable because the Bears’ Soldier Field lease runs through 2033 with an early-exit option and a Hammond build would reshape jobs, tax flows and transit planning across northwest Indiana and nearby Chicago neighborhoods.