Chicago Bears announce ‘sole focus’ to build ‘world-class stadium’ in Hammond

CHICAGO (WISH) — Chicago Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren announced at a press conference Thursday that the Bears are focused on building a “world-class stadium and mixed-use development in Hammond, Indiana.

The Bears current home is Soldier Field in downtown Chicago, where they have played since 1970. The Bears asked the Chicago city government to help fund a new stadium before exploring the possibility of leaving Chicago and Illinois and moving to Hammond.

The Indiana legislature gave the necessary approvals for an NFL stadium to be built in Hammond in this year’s legislative session. Thursday was the first time the team declared an intention to move to the Hoosier state.

“We want to make sure we get this right,” Warren said at Thursday’s press conference. “Even though we have had occasional meetings with the state of Illinois, our sole focus at this point in time is working a world-class stadium and mixed-use development in Hammond, Indiana.”

Warren said the team is exploring sites in Hammond for the new stadium and found the Lost Marsh site just east of the Indiana Illinois border to be a viable site, but further study showed another option.

“We are working very hard to make sure that we build a holistic environment in Hammond so that when we looked at the Lost Marsh site, we were able to discover the opportunity at the Wolf Lake Terminal site, we thought if we could cohesively bring those together and just make sure the entire area comes together from a mixed-use standpoint, it would even be better,” Warren said.

The team has had discussions with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Warren said, but the state has not given the team a written offer for a new stadium. He said Hammond having a viable site and possibly a second site that can merge with that one put the team’s focus on moving to Hammond.

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