LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears aren’t going anywhere — at least in name.
“We will be the Chicago Bears whether we’re in Arlington or whether we’re in Hammond,” Bears chairman George McCaskey said at Halas Hall on Thursday.
The focus of the stadium project, however, is now solely on Hammond, Indiana. Where exactly in Hammond remains up in the air.
Here’s what we know about the Bears’ stadium project following McCaskey and Bears CEO Kevin Warren’s press conferences.
1. The Bears have completed their due diligence on the Lost Marsh Golf Course site and determined it is a viable spot for the development.
The due diligence of the nearby site at Wolf Lake Terminals is ongoing, though.
The team is exploring the possibility of merging the sites for an expanded property and development – to build a “holistic environment in Hammond,” Warren said.
“When we looked at the Lost Marsh site and then 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 that entire area comes together from a mixed-use standpoint, it would even be better.”
2. Despite NFL commissioner Roger Goodell visiting the Lost Marsh site, the league is not quite yet sold on the Bears crossing state lines.
McCaskey isn’t worried about convincing the league of Northwest Indiana’s ability to house the league’s charter franchise.
“We think that, ultimately, (the league) will become comfortable,” McCaskey said. “This has happened with other teams in other markets. Most recently, the Kansas City Chiefs. Tremendous legacy at Arrowhead Stadium. They won a lot of games there, a lot of exciting moments. And this is a move across the state line, which I’m sure the Hunt family and Clark Hunt are confident Chiefs fans will be able to make the adjustment. We see many parallels there.”
The Chiefs announced in December plans to leave Arrowhead Stadium – their home since 1972 – on the Missouri side of the Kansas-Missouri border and build a new indoor stadium in Wyandotte County, Kansas. It’s set to open in 2031.
3. Talks with the state of Illinois about legislation to stay in state have been “minimal.”
That made Warren unable to characterize recent discussions with Illinois lawmakers.
“Our focus, again, at this point in time, is in Hammond, Indiana, and we’re doing everything that we possibly can,” he said. “We don’t have any legislation in Illinois. We don’t have a deal with Illinois.
That won’t change until the Bears’ needs are met — which they believe they’ve made clear since the start of the process.
“We’ve always needed property tax certainty; we need infrastructure certainty,” Warren said. “That’s what we’ve needed. So that has not changed. There’s some other things associated with it, but I don’t know why Springfield … has hit a snag.”
4. The cost of the project is increasing rapidly and unpredictably.
And it’s ultimately forcing the Bears to move faster in coming to a final decision.
“We just looked at the financial numbers last week and you compare to where it was last year, these are real issues,” Warren said. “You notice the market is very uncertain. And so it’s not only the political and the legislative decisions that we have to make. It’s the financial decisions that we have to make. And we have a family who’s committed sizable resources – $2 billion out of their personal money out of the organization — to build the stadium, and so that’s why it’s really important from a time standpoint. We’re reaching that point where we have to make a determination and decision. The longer this goes on, it creates complications, just from a building operations design standpoint.”
McCaskey, like he’s done in the past, emphasized the need for urgency, too.
“Our part of the financing is going to be primarily debt so that is a constant concern,” he said. “Anybody who has ever built a house, the longer it takes, the more expensive it is. Construction inflation is a very real concern for us.”
5. Despite a desire to get started on the project, there is no timeline.
“My wife told me about six months ago, ‘Don’t give any more target dates so just get the work done,’ Warren said. “Gretta, I love you and I’m listening to you and so I think the target is the right time. We’ll know when it is. But I will say we’re making very, very good progress here.”
McCaskey, though, would like those shovels in the ground today.
“Kevin has reminded me more than once that it took the Vikings 11 years to get a stadium done in Minnesota,” McCaskey said. “And I’ve reminded Kevin just as often, we don’t have that kind of time.”
