Crossing the line. That’s what the Chicago Bears are considering amid growing concerns that Illinois lawmakers will not approve the financial incentives needed to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights and look at northwest Indiana as a possible new home.
“They need to stay in Illinois,” said Tony Huette, of Moline, as he tailgated with Charlie McGuire in the Waldron parking lot next to Soldier Field on Saturday before the Chicago Bears 22-16 overtime win against the Green Bay Packers.
Chicago Bears say they’re looking into building a new stadium in northwest Indiana
“I know other teams are in different states — Washington plays in Maryland and New York is in New Jersey,” McGuire, also of Moline, said. “I just don’t like it. Would I still go to the game? Yeah. Would we like it? No.”
The talk of relocation comes as Bears fans celebrate the team’s exhilarating 11-4 record this season — capped by Saturday night’s stunning overtime comeback from a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit. The win has put the team in contention to win the NFC North and clinch a playoff spot.
“Suggesting the Bears would move to Indiana is a startling slap in the face to all the beloved and loyal fans who have been rallying around the team during this strong season,” Pritzker spokesman Matt Hill said in a statement to the Tribune earlier this week.
But where the Bears go, the fans will follow, many said before the game.
“I’ll follow them anywhere — same thing like my (White) Sox, talking about moving them,” said Xavier Romero, a Griffith, Ind. resident. “No matter where I go, I follow them. But I don’t know how you get the Bears out of Chicago, I don’t think they’ll let it happen.”
While he thinks a new home for the Bears is “all talk,” he wouldn’t mind the move. Where it takes him 25-30 minutes to drive to Soldier Field, he said he’d be 10-15 minutes if a Bears stadium were to go to Gary.
Niyi Kuye, of Plainfield, is a 12-year Bears season ticket holder. He said he would prefer the team to stay in Chicago. But he understands that it’s not just a team. It’s also a business.
“Nobody wants to lease if you own something — you’re giving away too much of your revenue,” he said. “As a fan, I don’t want them to leave, but as a business? I get it. It’s like McDonald’s. McDonald’s can go anywhere it wants to go and people are going to buy. But a lot of fans aren’t looking at it as a business.”
Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren wanted to break ground on a new stadium in 2025, and finish the three-year construction in time for the 2028 season. The plan is contingent on the General Assembly letting the team negotiate its long-term property taxes with local schools and other taxing bodies.
Pritzker has expressed openness to the state paying for infrastructure costs, but said it’s up to the Bears, valued at nearly $9 billion, to pay for their stadium. Despite the team having the oldest and smallest stadium in the NFL, Warren said, state leaders have told the Bears that their project will not be a legislative priority in 2026.
The legislation would cost the state nothing, and could apply to any “megaproject,” like a stadium, large factory or corporate headquarters. But Chicago lawmakers have resisted the measure, with Pritzker and others suggesting the team should help pay off the more than $500 million debt from the renovation of Soldier Field in 2003.
Erica Soria and José Mata of Portage Park go to a handful of Bears games a year. She doesn’t mind if the Bears move to Indiana because it might be cheaper for the fans. Regardless, Soria will follow.
“Sometimes it feels like a road trip just to get from my neighborhood to downtown for a game, Indiana will be a road trip.”
But Katryna Horn of Romeoville thinks of the Colts, not the Bears, when thinking about Indiana.
“I think it needs to stay in Chicagoland. Although Gary is an extension of Chicago…they have a whole other area code!” she said. “I think it would be great for Gary or Valpo, but the Bears in Indiana is not right. Not to mention every time you go that route, the infrastructure would have to be good because any inch of snow that happens over there, the roads are terrible.”
To be sure, this isn’t the first time the Bears have threatened such a move. In 1995, the team explored moving to a proposed entertainment complex by Gary’s airport. But some fans expressed anger at the idea, and that plan went nowhere.
Nate Hughes, of Plainfield, said Indiana will do what it can to lure the Bears over.
“I do know that Indiana should be willing to give up any and everything they got to get them,” he said. “Financially it might make sense. No one wants to pay for a new stadium, but Indiana will. It’s not that far. “
It may not be far. But it’s still a state away, said some fans.
“The Indiana location they’re talking about is 31 minutes away and Arlington is 35 minutes away,” said Sidney Thompson of Bolingbrook. “But it’s not Chicago.”