This past Sunday a friend of mine who lives in Northwest Indiana reached out to me to share this article from the Northwest Indiana Business Magazine. I had been looking for a reliable source to reference when using this story as my next Binary Response piece. Please sign up to get our Binary Response articles directly in your inbox!
The idea of the Chicago Bears becoming the “Gary Bears” or “Hammond Bears” is fun to kick around, but it still feels more like leverage than a likely outcome.
Kevin Warren’s letter to fans absolutely turned up the heat on Illinois officials, especially around the stalled Arlington Heights negotiations. He reminded everyone that the Bears are prepared to put more than $2 billion of private money into a new stadium project and that they’ve already bought the old Arlington Park site back in 2021. The sticking point has never been whether the Bears want out of Soldier Field, it’s how the property taxes and infrastructure support shake out in Arlington Heights.
That’s where Northwest Indiana suddenly gets to step into the conversation. Indiana’s governor wasted no time saying he’d love to work with the Bears, pitching the state’s pro‑business climate and promising that a stadium there would bring jobs and a big economic jolt. Gary’s mayor is already talking about a “comprehensive proposal,” and regional groups have been pushing arts, entertainment and major developments as part of a broader revitalization strategy. Add in the double‑track project making it easier for Chicago fans to get to the Region, and on paper it sounds a lot more realistic than it did during the 1990s “Gary Bears” chatter.
Here’s the thing, folks: This is where the romance runs into NFL reality. While property taxes are the key issue in Arlington Heights, the most probable outcomes still feel pretty narrow: either the Bears sort out a deal in Arlington Heights, or they end up renewing their lease at Soldier Field and squeeze one more era out of the lakefront. The league has a lot of say in where its marquee franchises play, and it is very hard to imagine the NFL signing off on the Chicago Bears relocating out of the city and into another state, no matter how close Northwest Indiana is to the metro fabric.
With that… Northwest Indiana should absolutely dream big. The Region is clearly on the upswing, and just being in the conversation with an NFL team is a sign of how far it has come. But unless something truly seismic changes, this feels more like the Bears using every available option to improve their bargaining position than a genuine prelude to Sunday football in Gary. For now, Bears fans might want to enjoy the speculation, keep an eye on those Arlington Heights tax talks, and expect that the team’s next home is still far more likely to be in Illinois than in Indiana.
If you cannot play with them, then root for them.