Any Bear's fans have an opinion on this?

It doesn't feel like the Giants/Jets playing in NJ to me.

If I were a sports team I would be afraid of the coming tax increases

More people move out of the state than move in. Over the past several years, Illinois has ranked among the top three states in the U.S. for domestic out-migration, shedding roughly 40,000 to 50,000 residents on net annually to other states. More critically, it’s not poor folks leaving… it’s productive ones.

will make that short drive any day of the week.

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broke …

IMO Illinois and Chicago politicians would have to call the McCaskey's bluff.

These "chumps" have a 2 billion dollar rainy day fund. Not too shabby.

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Arlington Heights would be a closer proximity to the majority of fans that regularly attend games than would be Hammond, Indiana. For that matter, more than Soldier Field.

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Arlington, Soldier Field, Indiana, Mars. The folks in a neighboring county to the proposed Hammond site will have to feel the financial crunch of a new stadium even though that county will see no financial benefit from the Bears playing in Indiana. Everyone is well aware of the situation. You are not breaking any new ground.

There is more blame to go around than simply blaming the McCaskeys

they would have pulled that trigger already. I still think they will end up in the NW suburb of Arlington Heights. They own the land already, plans for the stadium and surrounding amenities have been in place for some time, as well as plans for infrastructure improvements. The Bears are just posturing to get a favorable tax abatement. But where it stands now, I think the Illinois legislature is seeing if they can call the Bears' bluff. Illinois politics at its finest.

The sad part is how Chicago's clown mayor and his idiot predecessor all but encouraged the Bears to start looking elsewhere in the first place.

Bears are blackmailing Illinois so they can control 400 acres of Arlington and put in lodging, etc. I grew up in a colony of Chicago, with the Chicago machine controlling all our state spending. Now I live in Indiana. Indiana pols are playing like they have a real chance, which I do not believe they do, and being the perfect foil for the Bears. I live here and want not one Hoosier tax abatement dime to go to any franchise grossing billions per year already. For all those great jobs! Ushers, cleaning staff at nearby hotels, burger flippers. This whole Bears charade is yet one more reason to detest the NFL.

I'm not quibbling if you don't like public dollars going to private companies even if it happens all the time. Huge amounts of both federal and state $ are provided to private companies all the time in all the states.

The Bears do not gross "billions." An easy google search will show that the Bears gross around $650 million per year. The Top Grosser in the NFL: The Dallas Cowboys lead the league, grossing an estimated $1.27 billion a year—largely due to unprecedented local sponsorships and massive stadium revenues. The High End: Big-market organizations like the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots gross between $750 million and $875 million annually. The League Average/Floor: The remainder of the league clusters closely together, with teams like the Buffalo Bills bringing in around $580 million to $600 million annually. And just to be clear since there are way too many folks who are either purposely ignorant or really are ignorant: The Bears are funding their own stadium to the tune, at this point of roughly $2.5B that is already locked in. The Bears have been trying to achieve two things: negotiate local bodies on taxes (which happens in almost every county in Illinois that wants to attract business) and probably $750M in infrastructure from the state. The ironic thing is that if the Stadium is built in Indiana, Illinois is going to have to make significant improvements to the infrastructure in that area anyway.

I get the aversion to wanting to "pay-off" big business but it happens all the time. From 2020-24 in Illinois alone, there were 27 data centers that benefited by more than $983 million from tax incentives, according to a state report. And data centers do not deliver high numbers of jobs. Heck the 2024 Democratic Convention cost the city roughly $170M and not a peep was heard.

There two prime reasons this stadium deal isn't done: 1) Pritzker wants to run for President in '28 and everything going on in the state now is driven by that obsession. and 2) Chicago-based state politicians have basically taken their ball and bat and gone home. Pouting because they can't have the Bears.

I understand that taxpayers don't want to "fund" big business but it happens quietly and opaquely all the time. I find it pathetically ironic that while the Governor and State Legislature wring that hands about the Bears stadium, the state basically funds the big public sector labor unions (the Teachers Union basically runs the city) by refusing to do anything to mitigate the pension mess in Illinois.

Personally I don't care where they build the stadium as I am Packer fan and in more than 45 years in the Chicago area, I have been to Soldier field 3 times and two of those were for ND games

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Illinois Bear fans and Chicago media are bitching like hell about the drive to Indiana which would be right across the state line. A drive they take to our two casinos. They also make that drive to get their gas and fireworks. How much is this move going to cost me is what I want to know.

As a person who actually lives in Hammond, the Chicago media absolutely refuses to acknowledge that Hammond, IN borders Chicago. The very southern edge of Chicago, actually known as the Eastside, butts up to Hammond. You can drive from Soldier Field to the Wolf Lake area where the stadium is being proposed in 20-30 minutes as long as traffic is with you but this is Chicago traffic, so..... That part of Hammond around Wolf Lake is known as Robertsdale but those residents consider themselves as Whiting, IN, residents. That's a story within itself. The main north/south roads that would be between the stadium are Calumet Avenue (US 41) to the west and Indianapolis Blvd to the east. Both roads are only four lanes. These two roads among others, would need to be widened greatly for traffic. Extensive work would need to be done for water, sewers, power, communications, and probably whatever else an arm chair quarter back can think of. The scenery to the east of the stadium will be something to see with the BP oil refinery that takes up most of the shore line in NW Indiana along with an abundant amount of steel mills along the lake going east. If there is an odor in air, most of us here who live in the region won't notice it because around here, you typically smell it before you see it. It's my understanding that off ramps from the Indiana Toll road would lead into the proposed parking lots. A new South Shore spur line was just put in from Dyer, IN to Hammond to take you to either Chicago or South Bend. An additional spur line will be put in to take you from the train station in Hammond, north, to the stadium. Amtrak has a station in Hammond near Horseshoe Casino which is about a mile or so away from Wolf Lake. I'd think the casino has to be drooling over the Bears coming to Hammond, Win or lose, you can't tell me Bears fans won't go to the casino before or after the game. The land based Hard Rock Casino that got put in Gary, IN, not long ago has taken a lot of patrons away from the Horseshoe so the Bears fans during game day or whatever other event is going on at a domed stadium year round can only be looked as a huge boost for Horseshoe. You can't see the Chicago skyline from Wolf Lake. You can make out the "Sears" Tower in the distance tho. Driving a few miles to Whiting Park and on a clear day, it feels like you can reach clear across Lake Michigan and touch Chicago for as close as it appears. It's gonna take a LOT of infrastructure work on top of building the stadium in Hammond if it eventually happens. You can't tell me the politicians in Chicago and/or Illinois won't try and throw a hail mary to keep the team in either Chicago or in Arlington Heights. I personally didn't want the Bears to come to Hammond. I can only imagine what this will end up doing to my property taxes in the future.

I already pointed out that the Bears don't seem that interested in going to Indiana. The location is not central to their fan base. They will not be able to control the entertainment dollars around the stadium the way they would be able to in Arlington Heights, or even in downtown Chicago. It simply is not the best deal for the Bears, unless Indiana just starts throwing rediculous $$$ at them that so far it has not done.

The infrastructure improvements that you point out are a real issue. Indiana's governor claims that the state is ready to provide what is needed, but let's see what happens when residents are asked to pony up for that.