Where in the world are the Bears going? If this is a question you’ve been finding yourself asking over the past couple of weeks, you are not alone.
The Bears’ controversial move to suggest that they’d leave Chicago for Hammond, Indiana, threw fans into a frenzy of disappointment and rage. Most didn’t agree with the idea one bit. But more recently, we’ve seen speculation that the Bears could remain in Illinois.
The Bears’ lack of transparency, good faith and backbone are why the Indiana news came as a shock to most people.
This back and forth has been going on for years, and this last move has finally made many people realize the Bears care more about profit than the fans.
The Bears have had moving issues dating back to 1970 when they left Wrigley Field because their seating capacity was below a new league mandate of 50,000. So they moved to Soldier Field. By 2002-03, with the Bears threatening to move to the suburbs or to Gary, Indiana, Soldier Field was heavily remodeled. A modern stadium was shoe-horned inside the iconic original columns that had defined the stadium when it was built in the 1920s. The remodeling came with widespread criticism over the use of tax dollars as well as the perception that a part of Chicago history was being removed.
The Chicago Bears’ initial purchase in Arlington Heights in 2023 is what started this whole mess. The Bears organization and its fans were highly optimistic, as renderings of the 326-acre plot in Arlington shown by the Bears were received positively. Then, in 2023, after the Bears had destroyed the beautiful, historic Arlington Park racetrack, they backed off the project, stating that the property taxes were too high.
In 2024, the Bears claimed they wanted to stay in Chicago and build a whole new plot south of the original stadium. They backtracked last year, saying that Arlington might be their only viable option, and later said they are comfortable moving out of state if Chicago doesn’t negotiate.
In February, the Bears said they’d consider moving to Hammond.
If you have been following the Bears over the past four years, you know that is a brief, BRIEF summary of the entire moving fiasco. You probably also know how much of a headache this has been for Bears fans as well. The lack of communication on these moves has also been a huge problem, and reflects the professionalism of the Bears organization.
Many fans want this stadium built as soon as possible. The Bears current stadium, while full of history, is a nightmare on gameday. If you don’t pay up to $175 to park at the stadium, then you have to park at least a half mile away and walk all the way. Most NFL stadiums don’t have this problem, but 100-year old Soldier Field still does.
Not to mention, Soldier Field is the smallest stadium in the NFL, but is in the third largest American city, making it extremely expensive to buy tickets if you don’t want to wait 10-plus years to be a season ticket holder.
All of these problems are major reasons why fans and the Bears themselves want to move out of Chicago, or at a minimum renovate Soldier Field again. But the Bears themselves are not innocent.
Despite generating $629 million per year, the Bears do not want to take on the full estimated cost of $5 billion to build a stadium in Chicago. To them, saving money on costs is more important than keeping the Bears in Chicago.
Time and time again we are seeing the incompetence of the Bears organization. As long as the team makes a profit, they could care less about the fans.
Arguments can be made that other NFL teams aren’t located in the city they represent, which is true. As a matter of fact, most people would have been fine with the Bears moving to Indiana if there was no five-year, back and forth fiasco. If they were to have outright claimed it was cheaper to move to Indiana five years ago, sure, fans would’ve been mad, but they would’ve gotten over it.
But instead, the Bears wanted to scrape every dollar they could for this new stadium. Threatening to leave the city, backtracking, going back and forth for years while fans were still stuck in the dumpster fire that is Soldier Field. This lack of transparency from the organization has left fans hopeless and confused on the future of this franchise. It’s also why most fans aren’t keeping up with the stadium news daily and are misled thinking Hammond is a guarantee.
While there is a strong chance the Bears follow through, it may be yet another bluff toward the Chicago Park District, which owns Soldier Field. In fact, lawmakers in Illinois are preparing to propose another bill to the Bears by the end of March.
This money-grab, while leaving fans wondering what’s happening, is based in greed. It’s a reflection of the lack of caring for the fans that have made the Bears rich.
Their greed has caused confusion throughout the state of Illinois. The only certainty is that it has been a gut-punch to their own fans.
Velocity 
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