There are quite a few NFL teams that don’t actually play in the city they represent. The Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington, Tex. The Los Angeles Rams and Chargers share a stadium in Inglewood, Calif. New York’s Giants and Jets also share a stadium in New Jersey, and the 49ers play in Santa Clara, 42 miles outside of San Francisco.
After giving fans a much-deserved winning and thrilling 2025 season, it looks like the Chicago Bears may follow suit with a possible move to Hammond, Ind., a once thriving steel mill town on the border.
“I’ve been hearing fans calling into the radio station this morning, saying their family have been season ticket holders for 40 years and 60 years, and they just can’t believe that the Bears are about to do this,” said Eugene McIntosh, co-founder and managing editor of independent Chicago sports media outlet, The Bigs.
Soldier Field, owned by the Chicago Park District, is the oldest stadium in the NFL — and with it comes 100 years of memories, which makes it harder for fans to let go.
“I was born in ‘76, so I was nine when the ‘85 Bears won that Super Bowl,” McIntosh told The TRiiBE. He said being able to see the Bears go from Super Bowl contenders to watching the defensive star Brian Urlacher and Head Coach Lovie Smith era, former Bears QB Justin Fields and now 2024’s no. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams has been a wild ride.
“It might be a little bit of a gut punch,” McIntosh said about the idea of the Bears leaving Chicago, “but at the end of the day, change is inevitable.”
Indiana lawmakers voted unanimously Thursday to approve an amendment to Indiana State Bill 27, creating a pathway for a new, domed Bears stadium in Northwest Indiana. According to ESPN, SB 27 would create the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority and the power to issue bonds, acquire land and finance construction for the stadium.
The Bears issued a statement on their commitment to a potential move to the Wolf Lake site in Hammond.
“The passage of SB 27 would mark the most meaningful step forward in our stadium planning efforts to date,” the Bears’ statement read. “We are committed to finishing the remaining site-specific necessary due diligence to support our vision to build a world-class stadium near the Wolf Lake area in Hammond, Indiana.”
The Indiana vote occurred ahead of the Illinois “megaprojects” bill hearing scheduled in Springfield for at 8:00 a.m. Thursday That meeting was ultimately canceled. The Illinois House Bill 2789 would secure a long-term, lower-tax structure for the Arlington Heights stadium build, while providing more than $800 million in financial support from the state. The Bears purchased Arlington Race Track for $197.2 million in 2023.
The TRiiBE traveled to Springfield to attend the Housing Revenue and Finance Committee hearing, in which the megaprojects bill was scheduled for discussion. Neither State Rep. Curtis J. Traver II (D-25th), who chairs the committee, nor State Rep. Rita Mayfield (D-60th), the committee’s vice chair, was in their offices shortly after 8:00 a.m. to answer questions regarding the meeting. A staffer in Traver’s office said he was not in Springfield.
According to a post on X, formerly Twitter, Matt Hill, the deputy chief of staff for Gov. JB Pritzker, said, “the Bears leaders requested the ILGA (Illinois General Assembly) pause the hearing to make further tweaks to the bill.”
Pritzker later added that he was “very disappointed” that the Bears did not mention the progress that had been made in Illinois, referring to the megaprojects bill.
State Rep. Kam Buckner (D-26th), who represents parts of downtown Chicago, Bronzeville and Hyde Park, has been vocal about the Bears stadium drama. He has publicly opposed using taxpayers’ dollars to go toward a new Bears stadium and released a statement in December addressing the open letter penned by Bears President Kevin Warren in 2025, which mentioned Indiana as an option.
In the statement, Buckner added that the Bears tried a similar move back in the 1990s that was unsuccessful.
“This strategy is familiar. In the 1990s, when the Bears were unhappy with the situation at Soldier Field, Indiana was floated as a possible alternative. That play didn’t work then,” Buckner said in the post from Dec. 17 2025. “Since then, we’ve heard different versions of this conversation repeatedly; leaving Soldier Field, leaving Chicago, leaving Arlington Heights, and now Indiana again. This plan has a lot of rushing yards in it. But too few of them are straight forward. “
Buckner walked into his office Thursday morning after the news about Indiana. He told The TRiiBE he was about to be briefed on the matter; moments later, a staffer returned to tell us Buckner did not have time for an interview. Prior to Thursday, The TRiiBE reached out to Buckner’s office multiple times for comment about this issue. Buckner told Capitol News Illinois on Tuesday, ahead of the scheduled hearing, that the megaprojects legislation had “positive momentum” but would have a hard time moving past Chicago representatives.
If Northwest Indiana is now the leading candidate, it’s a trip most Black Chicagoans, especially on the South Side, routinely make for cheaper goods and gas. Hammond, Ind. is a stone’s throw from the predominately-Black South Side of Chicago and its south suburbs. Comparatively, Arlington Heights, a northwest suburb of Chicago, is 76% white, according to the latest Census data.
“I’m happy for Hammond. I think that Hammond has a lot of existing infrastructure and resources in place to accommodate something of that size,” said 36-year-old Bears fan Devin Hall, who hails from Gary, Ind and owns a home in Chicago.
“I would still see them as Chicago’s team if they moved to Indiana,” Hall said. “I understand the irritation with them coming to the Indiana side, but I think Chicagoans, if we’re being honest, come to Indiana for gas and affordable things anyway.”
The TRiiBE also spoke to Evan Moore, a South Shore native and Depaul University adjunct professor of sports and culture.“I’m not really bothered too much by it,” Moore said about the Bears possibly leaving Chicago. As far as Moore is concerned, the team moved decades ago.
“They moved from Chicago about 46 years ago when they left downtown to go to Lake Forest to own and operate the team,” he said.
Moore said he prefers the Hammond location over Arlington Heights.
“They’re still gonna be called the Chicago Bears,” Moore said. “I see all the stuff about going over to the other state, but they ain’t the first sports franchise to do that. This literally happens all the time,” he said.
It’s happening with the Kansas City Chiefs right now; the team is leaving their longtime home at Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri after the 2030 season to cross state lines into Kansas for a new, $3 billion domed stadium.
Moore made one thing clear. “If these people are [Bears] fans like they say they are, they will follow them anywhere,” he said.
