One of the biggest stories of the last 24 hours on ESPN and just about every other sports media platform has been the recent Chicago Bears stadium news. In a statement released by the Bears organization, it was announced that the team intends to move forward with plans to build a new stadium… outside of Chicago.
Per the statement, “We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond [Indiana] will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana and the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across the neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city.”
The site of the new stadium in Hammond, Indiana is about 20 minutes away from where the Bears currently play in Chicago.
ESPN’s Rich Eisen and Tom Pelissero discuss the Chicago Bears stadium situation
On Friday, popular ESPN analyst Rich Eisen had Tom Pelissero of NFL Network on his show, where the two of them discussed if the Bears really would move out of Chicago:
Are #DaBears really moving to Indiana? What’s the latest coming from Chicago?#NFL pic.twitter.com/GHNV3EQxXs
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) June 5, 2026
“Looks like the Indiana Bears have come closer to reality,” Eisen said. “Obviously they’ll still be called Chicago, in the Chicagoland area. That was the point in the statement that the Bears released…. a lot of fans that live in the Chicagoland area aren’t terribly happy with the idea of this, nor do they see this as a necessary step to expand Chicagoland into the Indiana area. Is this real? Is this happening?”
Pelissero responded, “The message from the Bears via that statement and the vote that their board took is that their due diligence is over. There are still a number of steps, like finalizing site selection, getting the financing together, getting the legal documents together.
“They’ve had a term sheet with Hammond, Indiana since back in December. They’ve also been evaluating Arlington Heights, certainly the city of Chicago based on public statements from the mayor and others have at least remained engaged in the process.
“But they had not taken any votes. This is the first time the board took a vote on this.”
Pelissero did remind Eisen and viewers, though, that Kevin Warren, who was part of the process in getting the Minnesota Vikings into a new stadium, has gone through this all before. At one point, Warren had said the Vikings were moving out of the Twin Cities before they finally got the funding and legal necessities passed for them to remain where they were.
He then said, though, “All of this to say, ‘Yes, this is real.’ We may soon have conversations about whether the team should be know as the Chicago Bears or the Monsters of the Midwest. So, nothing is done at this point. There is still a possibility that this could pivot back to Arlington Heights. This is part of a fluid situation. But this is a significant step. It is a major step in the course of their process.
“They are effectively saying, ‘We’ve done all the research. We’ve weighed all the possibilities. We intend to go to Hammond, Indiana.'”
The Bears’ lease at Soldier Field is not up until 2033, but the organization has made it clear they would like to be in a new stadium by 2028.
If Hammond is, indeed, going to be the new home of the Bears, there are only so many more times fans can go to Solider Field in Chicago to watch them. That is, of course, unless something changes in the Illinois legislature. State politicians have often chided the Bears organization for trying to get tax breaks in this deal that they feel are unfair to the average Illinois citizen.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next several months.
