The Indiana Senate is advancing legislation to create a new commission to build a National Football League stadium, as the state is leaping at the chance to be the new home for the Chicago Bears.
The Indiana Senate Appropriations Committee approved legislation on Thursday to create the Northwest Indiana Stadium Commission, which would be tasked with finding a proper location, financing, and building a new stadium for the Bears. The legislation notes that there is open land in Hammond, Indiana, at Wolf Lake, which is close to the Chicago border and about 22 miles from downtown Chicago.
The Bears’ season ended last Sunday with a home playoff loss, but the fate of the team’s future home remains in limbo as Bears leadership and Illinois lawmakers continue to battle over a proposal to build a stadium in Arlington Heights, Illinois. When those talks stalled, the franchise turned to Indiana, shocking fans and making many believe it was a ploy to force Illinois lawmakers’ hands.
But Chicago Bears President Kevin Warren wrote in a letter to season ticket holders that he was not entertaining moving to Indiana as a way to call Illinois’s bluff. And Indiana, which is already home to the Indianapolis Colts, jumped at the chance to host the “monsters of the Midway.”
In his State of the State address on Jan. 14, Gov. Mike Braun (R-IN) said Indiana is working hard to convince the Bears to relocate.
“With our strong business environment, it’s not surprising that another organization has noticed that Indiana is open for business: the Chicago Bears,” Braun said. “We are working hard to bring the Chicago Bears to the Hoosier State so they can really see what a great place it is to have a business.”
“We appreciate the leadership and responsiveness of Governor Braun and Indiana lawmakers in advancing a framework that allows these conversations to move forward productively,” the Bears said in a statement after the appropriations committee began working on the legislation.
Indiana officials have said the state would contribute $1 billion to build a new stadium. It would be owned by the state, but the stadium commission would rent the site to an NFL team for at least 35 years, per the bill.
The stadium in Arlington Heights would be owned by the Bears, which would subject the team to Cook County’s property taxes — but most, if not all, NFL teams do not pay property taxes on their stadiums. Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) has said he is open to allocating state funds for infrastructure upgrades near the site, but he has declined to support tax breaks or financial aid for the facilities.
Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott told Fox 32 Chicago that the Wolf Lake site offers more advantages to the Bears than the Arlington Heights site.
“For the Bears as a business, it gives them all the advantages of being an Indiana business,” McDermott said. “Lower liability rates for your employees. I mean, obviously, a better business environment in general. We have a surplus as a state, so I imagine our state would be able to offer more than Illinois is willing to offer because it seems like Illinois is sort of digging in against the Bears, which is shocking to me.”
“I mean, in the Bears fight song is ‘the pride of Illinois,’ and it doesn’t seem like they’re being treated like the pride of Illinois right now,” the mayor added.
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Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Welch said he thought it was “insensitive” for the legislature to focus on a new stadium at the start of the legislative session.
“When folks say what’s your priority going into the legislative session, we’re trying to bring down the cost of living,” Welch said at the beginning of the year. “Talking about a brand new Bears stadium when this one’s not even 25 years old, that’s insensitive to what real people are going through right now.”