The Chicago Bears are now claiming they have a “shared commitment” to consider moving the team from downtown Chicago to a spot in Northwest Indiana, about an hour from the Windy City.
Talk of the Bears moving to Northwest Indiana began in December. But now it looks like things are moving in a more serious direction.
Various lawmakers and several towns in the upper corner of the Hoosier State have been vying to entice the Bears to flee Chicago, and this month the Indiana House of Representatives confirmed that it is hoping to strike a deal with the Bears to make the move, the Indianapolis Star reported.
“It represents a transformational investment for northwest Indiana and our state,” House Speaker Todd Huston told the House Ways and Means Committee. He also said that the Bears have said that if such a deal could be made, they could invest $2 billion in a stadium in the area.
Consequently, the Indiana Senate introduced Senate Bill 27, which outlines financial commitments the state could make to seal the deal with the Bears.
Now, the Bears are speaking out to encourage the discussion in Indiana.
“The passage of SB 27 would mark the most meaningful step forward in our stadium planning efforts to date,” the Bears said in a statement. “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 growing discussion spurred Indiana’s Republican Governor, Mike Braun, to tout the state’s business acumen.
Naturally, Hammond, Indiana, Mayor Tom McDermott is quite excited over the whole idea.
“In Hammond, we don’t have Ruth’s Chris. We don’t have high-rise hotels. This stadium project is going to bring all of that,” McDermott said. “We’re going to make a Bearsville right outside the stadium. It’s going to be a whole separate city within the city of Hammond. I think it’s going to be absolutely transformational for my city.”
Indiana may not want to get too excited, though. The Bears also expressed a level of “commitment” to moving from downtown Chicago to a northwestern Chicago suburb. And that seems to have gone nowhere for more than two years.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: Facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston, or at X/Twitter @WTHuston
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