Before we get into boring things like “economics” and “geography” I want to be clear on two things:
- The Bears will likely end up in either Hammond, Indiana, or Arlington Heights, Illinois, and
- Regardless of which one it is, we should make fun of them for it.
Of course, there are plenty of teams that play outside of the cities for which they are named, but that should not stop us. We should also note that Hammond, Indiana has a smaller population than Green Bay Wisconsin, which is hilarious. Maybe they’re just going for that small town feel; except, in this case, the town is small because it smells like rotten eggs, fireworks, and strip clubs.
All of that said, the fact that we’re going to make fun of them for it should not prevent the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago from making that move to Indiana happen. It’s honestly the best possible outcome for everyone involved except for, ironically, Indiana, because one of the worst investments any municipality can make is paying for a stadium and the deal gets worse every day. To be clear, it’s really never been a good investment — just ask Kennesaw State University economics professor JC Bradbury. You can either hit him up on Bluesky, or go into your bathroom, turn off the lights, and say “the economic benefits to the community from this publicly financed stadium will be overwhelmingly positive” into the mirror three times.
But it’s actually gotten worse because now when the state/city chip in for a stadium, it’s often not just “the stadium” but the “infrastructure around the stadium.” The current Bears proposal to Illinois is to contribute two billion dollars in construction costs while the state provides $850 million for that supporting infrastructure, plus a 40-year property tax freeze. That might sound reasonable, but as always, the devil is in the details, and the details of all modern stadia deals include not just the big building itself but a piece of the businesses around it. Think “Deer District” in Milwaukee, or the “Titletown” development in Green Bay. Or in Chicago, the Disneyfication of Wrigleyville led by the Ricketts family.
The old (misguided) idea was that a sports facility would help surrounding businesses, but more often than not, those businesses are now owned by the same billionaires who own the stadium. There’s no longer any good (or bad) case to publicly finance any of this, it’s just a giveaway to the super rich without any potential trickle-down impact.
The Bears actually still owe $500 million on the previous Soldier Field renovation, but there is some urgency to escape the Chicago lakefront because you simply cannot develop anything in that location. The museum campus is too protected (see: The George Lucas Museum fiasco), it’s inconvenient to get there from a public transit perspective, and of course, the team wants a dome so they can also host events like the final four.
And since this is all a bad deal, you may as well let Indiana pay for it! Wolf Lake in Hammond Indiana is 18.5 miles south of the Bears’ current location in Solider Field, and one important thing to understand about the NFL is that it doesn’t actually matter where games are played. There are, after all, only nine-ish home games per season, and Soldier Field currently holds 61,500 people as the smallest stadium in the NFL. The metro Chicago area has about 9 million people meaning that, assuming no one goes to a Bears’ game twice, only 5% of the population attends a game per year. And of course, many, and perhaps most fans who attend games go to more than one due to the prevalence of season tickets. That number is probably closer to 2-3%. Attending NFL games is a luxury, special event, and the vast majority of fans are happy to watch on TV at home.
Indiana’s governor, Mike Braun, has stated publicly that “Indiana is open for business, and our pro-growth environment continues to attract major opportunities like this partnership with the Chicago Bears.” And what could be more business-friendly than handing over billions of dollars of money from hard working Indianans as well as hundreds of acres of real estate to billionaire football team owners? I can almost feel the free market oozing over me.
Anyway, if the Bears moved to Indiana, it’s hard to see how Chicago and Illinois would suffer. Indiana would spend all of that money building out the Wolf Lake area and giving the Bears what they want, at a cost of Bears fans who can actually afford Bears tickets having to drive an extra 18 miles (if they’re on the North side) maybe twice a year. Chicagoans could still watch Caleb Williams airmail short passes on TV without issue. It would honestly be a substantial subsidy from Indiana to Illinois, and lord knows they owe Illinois for all of the drinking tickets they’ve written Chicagoans who are just trying to have a good time on the Dunes.