Will no longer be in Chicago…
The Chicago Bears will proceed with plans for a new stadium in Hammond, Indiana, the organization announced Friday.
In announcing the potential out-of-state move, the NFL franchise carefully worded its language to allow for a different outcome. And at least two Illinois lawmakers say team President and CEO Kevin Warren gave them advanced notice of the announcement and Warren suggested talks about staying in Illinois would continue.
“Yesterday, the Chicago Bears Board of Directors met and voted to advance our stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site to be selected,” the team said in a joint statement from Warren and Chairman George H. McCaskey. “We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will 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. It will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses.”
The team’s decision comes less than a week after the Illinois legislature adjourned without taking up a last-ditch Senate bill that would have allowed Arlington Heights or Chicago to enter into a public-private ownership deal with the NFL franchise. Such legislation would have given the team a path to build a new stadium without paying property taxes on the facility, bill sponsors said.
Full article, HERE from the Chicago Tribune.
This one has been going on since 2021, with the Bears making various decisions only to have either the City of Chicago or the state, or both, refusing to support the decisions. Indiana, on the other hand, has been more that accommodating, quickly passing bills in the state legislature to support the discussions, and now, five years later, it looks like the Bears are moving on.
Actually, I’m not surprised, as it has been pretty apparent that both Prtizker and now Johnson don’t want to give the Bears anything, and want to control the decision process.
What neither of them understand is that the Bears have the ultimate option of moving without their approval. This is a lesson they ‘should’ have learned from Baltimore, Oakland, San Diego, and San Franciso… Oh wait, those are all Dem run cities… never mind…
Lawsuit in front of an Obama appointed Judge in 3…2…1…
We folks in Indiana don’t want out tax money going to Da Bearz either.
No “loans”, no Grants, no TIF money, no breaks in taxes..
Nope, If the Bears wanna come here, I am all for it, but we don’t need to pay them to do so.
X 2.
This for ALL sports-ball. You want to build a stadium? Okay. Talk to us about zoning and we’ll help you find the appropriate package of land that you can buy. Pick your land according to zoning, buy it, get the building permits, do proper construction (inspected) and we’re open to it. From the municipal side, we’ll make sure to give your building project priority for the purposes of licensing and inspection of the thousands of things you’re going to have to build, because delays suck and cost you extra money, and we’ll help you avoid that nonsense.
We’ll make sure you have proper services AND that the surrounding roads are upgraded to take the load of the extra traffic. In fact, we’ll even overbuild that aspect: Extra lanes, traffic signals that can be set for “outbound directions only” for the entire road for a one hour period after game-day gets out, stuff like that. Infrastructure is our responsibility after all, it’s part of the thing we do with our yearly budget.
We’re very happy to work with you to bring your entertainment business to our area. It’ll be good for your income, good for the local economy, and good for our revenue.
Speaking of revenue: Tax breaks? Nah. You’re a business. Further, you are a well established business, which makes you pretty much just like any other business to us. Standardized tax rate for business set against your square footage of your facility and parking lot at the rates for each.
We won’t gouge you because you’re flush with cash, but you don’t get a free ride on the taxpayers’ backs either.
(This is the way it should be. Always.)
But don’t All Marxist cities want the millionaires to pay their fair share of property taxes? Oh yeah, not when it would make ticket prices even more astronomical. “Like it does with nearly every tax”
Very personal in politics, strictly business here.
The is only good if the Bears pay for the statium themselves. Every sports venue built in the last 100 years has screwed over the tax payers. Make the Bears foot the entire cost with NO subsidies or tax breaks.
All other factors noted, the players, both the Bears, and those who play in Bears home games, will love the lower income taxes.
All- Concur on them doing it ALL themselves… Doing it on the taxpayer’s backs needs to stop!!!
WSF- Yep, lower income taxes is good too!
Indiana is a more profitable move for the Bears all the way around. Would there be some sort of MLB expansion that might take root there at the same time? I know that MLB is interested in expanding by at least two franchises. If they could build two stadiums as part of a package deal from a financial standpoint, it would make sense. I know they have a minor league BBall team that plays downtown, and it would all need to be worked out.