A programming note: IndyPolitics was first to report, back in the spring, that an announcement was expected on the Bears coming to Hammond — at a point when much of the Illinois press still treated Indiana as a bluff. Friday’s vote was the announcement.
The Chicago Bears are coming to Indiana — or at least, that’s the plan.
The team’s board of directors voted Friday to move forward with a new stadium in Hammond, Chairman George McCaskey and CEO Kevin Warren announced, marking the most concrete step yet in the franchise’s long, on-again-off-again search for a home outside Chicago. The vote also lands right on the timeline Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott laid out earlier this month, when he said the Bears were meeting internally and should deliver a yes-or-no answer by the end of June. Indiana’s, he’d noted at the time, was the only offer on the table.
“We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region,” the team said in a statement, framing the move as a way to link Northwest Indiana to Chicago’s South Side and beyond. The Bears said the precise site still has to be finalized but pointed to a location between Wolf Lake and the Lost Marsh golf course — 20 to 25 minutes from downtown Chicago, with potential rail and boat access via the Hammond Marina.
The details that follow are drawn from reporting by the Indianapolis Business Journal and its partner Crain’s Chicago Business, IndyPolitics’ own reporting, and statements provided directly by legislative leaders.
Gov. Mike Braun’s response was characteristically blunt: “Welcome to Indiana.” He predicted an NFL franchise in The Region would deliver an economic boost “like we haven’t seen before” and likened the hoped-for partnership to the ’85 Bears defense.
The vote comes less than a week after the Illinois Legislature adjourned around 4:30 a.m. Monday with nothing passed — the latest in a years-long feud between the team and Springfield. Gov. JB Pritzker has refused to spend public dollars on a stadium, and a late plan to let the Bears build privately and operate tax-exempt cleared the Senate before the House declined to take it up. As McDermott put it, if the Bears had said no to Indiana, “then they get to go back and deal with Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson and that whole mess in the legislature by themselves.”
Indiana moved fast where Illinois stalled. After the Bears widened their search in December, lawmakers sent Braun a bill creating the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority and authorizing 40-year bonds, which he signed in February. The authority would own the stadium and lease it to the Bears for at least 35 years. To pay for it, Hammond would impose a 12% admissions tax on venues seating more than 40,000 and create a professional sports development district; road and infrastructure work would be backed by a 1% food and beverage tax in Lake and Porter counties plus an added 5% innkeeper’s tax in Lake County. McDermott has pegged the public package at $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion, including roughly $700 million in infrastructure, with the full build potentially reaching $5 billion to $6 billion — enough, he’s said, to roughly double the city’s assessed value. The Bears have committed $2 billion. The structure echoes the deals that landed the Colts in Indianapolis and built Lucas Oil Stadium in 2006.
Still, nobody should print tickets yet. The site isn’t locked down, the authority hasn’t built a financing plan, and local officials still have to vote on the new taxes. One person involved in earlier talks told the IBJ the process is “definitely not over,” suggesting Friday’s vote could hand the team leverage in continued negotiations — echoing long-running skepticism in Illinois, where some lawmakers believe the Bears are bluffing and using Indiana as leverage. The Bears declined to say whether they have a signed letter of intent.
Indiana’s political class wasted no time claiming the win. House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) called himself “thrilled,” saying the Bears “have been transparent and terrific partners.” U.S. Sen. Jim Banks called it “great news for The Region.” McDermott, who has estimated about 75% of Hammond residents back the bid, has said the city would rebrand around the team — colors, logos, and water towers declaring it the “home of the Chicago Bears.”
Senate budget chief Ryan Mishler (R-Mishawaka) said he was “pleased” and looked forward to “next steps.” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville) called it “a transformational opportunity.” Even House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta (D-Fort Wayne) welcomed the news, while vowing Democrats will press to ensure “local workers, businesses and families share in the benefits.”
His sign-off captured the bipartisan mood: “Bear Down!”
