It’s Indiana: Bears’ board of directors votes to push stadium to Hammond

The Bears’ board of directors met Thursday and decided to move forward with their plans to build a stadium in Indiana, positioning the team to play its home games out of state for the first time in its 106-year history.

The precise stadium site in Hammond is to be determined, depending on which permutations of the Wolf Lake property the Bears choose.

The Bears were lured by a sweetheart deal approved by Indiana three months ago, when lawmakers authorized a stadium authority backed by taxes on admissions, hotels, restaurants and tolls. The Bears have committed $2 billion to their stadium project. They will keep all revenue generated by the stadium and have the option to buy it back in 40 years, when Indiana taxpayers have paid off the bonds.

“We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting northwest Indiana and the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across the neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city,” Bears chairman George McCaskey said in the written statement.

The Bears’ announcement tips the scales significantly toward Hammond but falls well short of a final decision. A source cautioned that Friday’s announcement didn’t eliminate Arlington Heights from consideration, were the state to find a way to give the Bears property tax certainty on the 326-acre plot they own. It’s unclear whether waiting until the Senate and House reconvene this fall would be too late. The Bears consider Arlington Heights — not Chicago — the only viable choice in Cook County.

What made Friday’s announcement unique was Thursday’s board of directors vote, which hadn’t happen at any other point when the Bears vacillated between downtown, Arlington Heights and Indiana the past three years. Indiana’s proposal gave the Bears a concrete financial plan to consider, something that has yet to take shape in Illinois.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said in a statement that the Bears have “spent the last six years, and especially the last few months, shifting their position on a stadium location” and that Friday “appears to be another instance of that.” Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said in a written statement that “We look forward to building a partnership as strong as the ’85 Bears defense.”

NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy merely said the Bears have kept the NFL’s stadium committee and league office up to date on all developments. The Bears limited Warren and McCaskey’s comments to the team-issued statements.

In a written statement, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson didn’t sound convinced the Bears were going to Indiana.

“It’s … not surprising that Bears officials have stated this vote does not mean a move to Hammond is a done deal,” he said. “Without a final site selection, until we see shovels in the ground in Hammond, the City will continue to engage in discussions grounded in the interests of our residents.”

State Sen. Bill Cunningham said Bears president/CEO Kevin Warren called him Friday morning saying the Bears were moving forward with Hammond but that he looked forward to working with him. Similarly, Rep. Kam Buckner said in a written statement that neither the Bears’ declaration nor his conversation with Warren on Friday morning “suggested Illinois is off the table.”

Senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee, who was in Springfield during the closing hours of the spring session, said the Bears “said this is not a done deal” and Johnson’s administration is “taking them at their word.”

“They are focused on Hammond,” he said. “They’re gonna advance a development in Hammond. They don’t have a site yet. And Bears officials noted that it’s not a done deal. That sounds exactly like we’ve been in a few other scenarios. Maybe a little bit behind a few announcements they’ve made in the past.

“They know and we know that all of this stuff is complicated and difficult. There’s a lot of moving parts. You’re trying to wrangle a bunch of different stakeholders; there are a lot of competing interests. … There’s a lot of shoes that have to drop.”

Lee said the Bears “have made major efforts in multiple directions” over the years, so far with nothing to show for it.

“In Chicago, we had a site,” he said. “We had a lot of things they don’t even have in Hammond. That was two years ago. We’ve seen this movie before in terms of pivoting and then still be engaged. We’ll stay tuned. … The press can do what it will with this. There’s no rational basis for hysteria, but I’m sure that’s what we will get,” Lee said.

Lee categorically denied that Johnson’s team double-crossed the Bears and lost the team’s trust by putting out word in the final days of the session of the team’s late dalliance with Johnson’s failed lakefront stadium plan. The Bears quickly denied it, but it was enough to throw a wrench in talks.

“We didn’t put any of that information in the public,” he said. “Everything we communicated was based on what information we were requested to provide by the Legislature. The Legislature asked questions about communications. The only choice would have been to lie to our legislators, which would not be acceptable.”

Even if the Bears forge ahead with stadium planning in Hammond, Lee said he firmly believes the team “still has an interest in an Illinois solution” that includes Johnson’s 2024 plan to build a lakefront dome that requires at least $900 million in hotel tax revenue and $1.5 billion in state infrastructure funding.

He noted that the stadium authority bill that cleared the Senate mirrored Johnson stalled stadium plan.

“If Illinois is an option and the only structure is the Chicago structure, then Chicago remains an option for Illinois. I don’t know what the other possibility would be in
Illinois,” Lee said. “If Illinois is not an option, then the statement should have said, ‘It’s over. We’re in Hammond.’ But it didn’t. So I don’t know what else to conclude.”

If the Bears do end up leaving, Lee said the Museum Campus will survive and thrive as the “No. 1 tourist destination” in Illinois.

Indiana moved quickly. In December, Warren, frustrated by the team’s inability to lower property taxes on the 326-acre former Arlington International Racecourse site, said the team would expand its search to Northwest Indiana.

Inside their home state, the Bears pushed for PILOT legislation, which would have allowed them to negotiate payments in lieu of taxes with Arlington Heights and save them hundreds of millions of dollars over 40 years. That legislation died Saturday night, forcing Illinois lawmakers to try to fashion a last-minute option: allowing any Cook County municipality with at least 70,000 residents to create their own financing authority for a proposed stadium. That would have allowed the municipality to own the stadium — and the Bears to avoid paying property taxes. The bill passed the Senate at 3:39 a.m., but the House adjourned about 45 minutes later.

Just two years ago, Warren and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson touted a plan to build a stadium on the Lakefront. That gained little support statewide, and the Bears pivoted back to Arlington Heights. As recently as this week, Johnson tried to present a Museum Campus stadium as the only logical choice, though the Bears’ had publicly stated in recent months they were interested in only Hammond and Arlington Heights.

Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott said earlier this week he expected the Bears to move quickly if they wanted to move to Indiana. The Bears board of directors decided to do exactly that, though they stopped short of a final decision. The seven-person board consists of chairman George McCaskey, president/CEO Kevin Warren, secretary Pat McCaskey and four members: Brian J. McCaskey, Edward L. McCaskey, Ed McCaskey Jr. and minority owner and Aon founder Pat Ryan.

The Bears’ stadium search has lasted an exhausting five years. On June 17, 2021, the Bears submitted a bid to buy the Arlington site from Churchill Downs Inc., with then-president/CEO Ted Phillips saying it would allow the team to further evaluate the property. The Bears were in escrow on the property in January 2023 when the team selected Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren to replace Phillips, who was retiring. The Bears paid $197.2 million for the property a month later.

In a stadium process that has been out of order from the start, perhaps that was the original sin. George McCaskey said the Bears had no control over when Churchill Downs decided to sell the land and had to pounce. State Rep. Kam Buckner, though, told the Chicago Sun-Times the Bears “bought the wedding dress before they went on the first date.”

Frustrated by property tax prices in Arlington Heights, Warren turned his attention toward the lakefront, even holding a rally at the Museum Campus for a proposed Downtown stadium in April 2024.

On separate occasions, Warren declared that both the lakefront and Arlington Heights were the only choices that made sense for the Bears. Three times in three years, Warren predicted the team would put shovels in the ground in the coming months. The Bears purposefully showed Warren picking out designs for luxury suites on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” documentary almost two years ago, only for the team’s plans to remained stalled.

Other sites were pitched —Michael Reese Hospital, which the Bears declared too small, as well as long-shot pitches from Waukegan, Gary, Portage — and even Des Moines, Iowa.

The Bears moved from Wrigley Field to Solider Field in 1971 and renovated the stadium during the 2002 season. Their lease runs through 2033, though they can pay to break it early.

Fran Spielman contributed.