Chicago Bears Plans to Move May Shift After Illinois Vote News
Growing up, we all had the same experience.
It's dinner time, and you don't want to eat your vegetables, so what does your mother say? "Eat up, because there are starving children all over the world who would love to be able to eat broccoli right now."
That's how I feel about the Washington Commanders and their situation after witnessing what is going on with the Bears and their pending move out of Chicago.
You see, in 2030, about 33 years after the Redskins moved 10 miles east to Landover, Maryland, from their ancestral home at RFK Stadium in Northeast Washington, D.C., the team will be moving back to the old RFK site in a brand-new domed stadium. Coming off of a 2024 playoff run that ended one game away from the Super Bowl, this was the best news that long-suffering Commanders fans could have received.
The Chicago Bears are going through the opposite experience right now, coming off their own impressive playoff run. It is increasingly likely that the team, one of the original NFL franchises, will not only move out of Chicago but also out of the state of Illinois altogether.
Chicago Bears inch closer to Indiana relocation
Over the weekend, the Illinois State House took no action on a bill that would have given the Chicago Bears the tax incentives they sought to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights, about 30 miles northwest of Chicago.
Soldier Field is one of the few iconic stadiums left in the NFL, but it is the oldest at 55 years old and also the smallest, with space for fewer than 62,000 fans. So the team has been looking for a new locale.
For whatever reason, the team ruled out the city of Chicago early on in the process. The ownership group bought the land in Arlington Heights where they want to build a mixed-use entertainment district with the new stadium as the centerpiece, but during an election year, local politicians are wary of giving billionaire NFL owners a tax break, according to media reports.
So the Illinois General Assembly ended its legislative session early Monday morning without agreeing on a tax package for the Bears.
The assembly is not scheduled to reconvene until October at the earliest. The Bears say they are looking to make a stadium decision by late spring or early summer. So about nowish.
Meanwhile, Hammond, Indiana, has been floated as an option. And unlike the politics in Illinois, the Indiana legislature is champing at the bit to get the Bears to move east.
In February, the state approved a bill signed by Gov. Mike Braun that would create a Hammond stadium district and direct about $1 billion in taxpayer funds towards direct infrastructure. Most importantly, the Bears also would not be on the hook for property taxes.
It is estimated that the Bears would pay about $100 million annually in property taxes at the Arlington Heights site. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has endorsed a plan that would allow developers of "megaprojects" to negotiate their property tax bills under a "payment-in-lieu-of-taxes" agreement with local governments.
The Illinois House endorsed that proposal in April, but the Senate rejected it. The Senate revised the plan so that Chicago or Arlington Heights could create local stadium authorities in what Illinois state senator Bill Cunningham reportedly called "the exact same mechanism set up in Northwest Indiana."
However, the General Assembly did not pass that resolution before going into recess, leaving the plan in limbo and the Bears that much closer to calling Indiana home.
Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott has been cheerleading the move and says he expects the Bears to make their decision to move to Indiana official within the next month. Indiana plans to make up for the lost property tax revenue by charging a 12% admissions tax on stadium events, doubling the hotel tax in the county where Hammond is located, and adding a 1% food-and-beverage tax in both Lake and Porter counties.
With the Chicago Bears on the cusp of becoming the Northwest Indian Bears, I'm reminded of how lucky the Washington franchise has been. Even when the team moved to Maryland, they only moved six stops away on the metro from the old stadium. They remained the heartbeat of the city.
Chicago Bears fans may not have the same luxury if their team picks up and leaves. For some reason, I have a hankering for broccoli.
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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 1:15 PM.