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The Bears reiterated Thursday that they plan to leave Chicago while they continue to look at building a stadium in suburban Illinois or Hammond, Indiana.
“The Chicago Bears have exhausted all options to remain in Chicago, which was our original goal,” the team said in a statement. “There is not a viable site in the city. As a result, the only sites being considered are in Arlington Heights and Hammond.”
The statement, which again appears to close the door on staying in Chicago, comes after team president Kevin Warren said last month at the NFL meetings in Arizona that the Bears hoped to pick a new site for an indoor stadium in Illinois or Indiana by late spring or early summer.
The Bears have played at Soldier Field for more than half a century. Indiana lawmakers are trying to lure them from the Windy City with a plan to finance and build a domed stadium in Hammond, about 25 miles from their current home on the shores of Lake Michigan.
The Illinois General Assembly responded with legislation that would give tax breaks to so-called megaprojects of at least $100 million, a plan that would include the Bears’ proposal to build a complex on 326 acres of land they own in Arlington Heights.
“Both places are excellent places,” Warren said last month.
The Bears are a charter NFL franchise that has played in Illinois since the team’s founding in 1920 as the Decatur Staleys. Since moving to Chicago in 1921, the Bears have never owned their stadium, whether they played at Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970 or Soldier Field since.
Report from the Associated Press.
