Chicago Bears Rule Out Chicago as Domed Stadium Site | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks

Team President Kevin Warren said in April that the Bears plan to select a new stadium site in Illinois or Indiana by late spring or early summer. Illinois state legislators, who are slated to adjourn their spring session on May 31, have only 10 days left to consider a bill geared toward keeping the franchise in Arlington Heights rather than crossing the state line into Indiana.

The bill lawmakers are mulling would enable the Bears, along with other developers of projects in the $100-million to $500-million range, to negotiate property tax levels with local municipalities, rather than paying an annual rate based on the property's assessed value.

If Illinois is chosen, a new domed stadium and surrounding mixed-use district would be built on 327 acres that formerly was the home of the now demolished Arlington Park horse-racing track, which Churchill Downs Inc., sold to the Bears organization in 2023. It is about 25 miles northwest of Soldier Field, where the Bears have played since the early 1970s in downtown Chicago. 

Indiana lawmakers got into the mix earlier this year and are offering the Bears a public-private partnership to build a domed stadium in Northwest Indiana on a site near Wolf Lake, also about 25 miles from Soldier Field. 

In February, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed into law a bill that would create the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to oversee land acquisition, financing and lease agreements. The stadium would be funded by a 12% ticket tax, innkeepers' tax and regional food and beverage taxes. The Bears would be responsible for construction debt while paying zero property taxes on the stadium. 

Braun wrote in February on X that “Indiana is open for business, and our pro-growth environment continues to attract major opportunities like this partnership with the Chicago Bears. We've identified a promising site near Wolf Lake in Hammond and established a broad framework for negotiating a final deal.”

Both proposed remaining stadium/mixed-use districts would cost in the $5-billion range and would achieve a Bears' goal which is to allow for year-round use of the facilities for events such as concerts and for it to host a Super Bowl.

In April 2024, the Bears had put forward a plan to build $4.6-billion domed stadium on property in the city’s Museum Campus overlooking Lake Michigan. Insisting at that time it no longer had plans to build a stadium in the suburbs, the team had said it would demolish its reconstructed-in-2003 home, Soldier Field, and replace it with gardens and athletic fields.

While Illinois State Senator Bill Cunningham asserted recently that there had been contact in late April between the Bears and the city of Chicago about the team looking again at the possibility of building a new stadium on the Lake Michigan lakefront, the Bears’ most recent statement seems to quash that notion.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a press conference recently that “we would expect we’ll see something before May 31st on the mega projects bill in Illinois." Pritzker said at the same press conference that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson "has no plan" to keep the Bears in Chicago. 

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