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The Bears reiterated their plans Thursday to leave Chicago as they continue to consider building a stadium in suburban Illinois or Hammond, Indiana.
“The Chicago Bears have exhausted every opportunity to remain in Chicago, which was our original goal,” the team said in a statement. “There is no viable site in the city. As a result, the only sites being considered are in Arlington Heights and Hammond.”
The statement, which once again appears to close the door on a stay in Chicago, comes after team president Kevin Warren said last month at NFL meetings in Arizona that the Bears hoped to choose a new site for a closed stadium in Illinois or Indiana in 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 out of 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 by passing legislation that would provide tax breaks for so-called megaprojects of at least $100 million, a plan that would encompass the Bears’ proposal to build a complex on 326 acres of land they own in Arlington Heights.
“Both sites are great sites,” Warren said last month.
The Bears are a chartered 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 at Soldier Field since.
Associated Press reporting.
