Chicago Bears 2026

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#26      
Curbelo Fanboy
Noblesville Illini said:
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As a lifelong Illinois resident I'm perfectly fine with the Bears getting the best deal they can get from whichever side of the state line they need to go to get it from. Soldier Field has been outdated since like 1987 so it's way past time to get out of that landlocked situation.

About time the organization started being run like a bottom line business & making smart business decisions. Illinois doesn't want to play ball, go to Indiana. It's real simple IMO. Fans will get over it. The Giants have no trouble drawing & they've been playing in Jersey since the 70's. New Yorkers have always considered them the hometown team.

Illinois politicians both state & local are asleep at the wheel as usual so the loss of the team would be on them IMO.
 
#27      
Second place is 1st loser
Sounds like the move to Hammond is pretty much a done deal. The Bears cancelled the meeting with the State of Illinois because the situation, three years later, is incredibly messy. The Indiana proposal detailed everything on the table, from location to what the taxes will be for the state. They want this done. A vote was taken this morning and it was 24-0 in favor of passing the bill, while Illinois still can't get anything straightened out to get on the floor.

The comment is that Hammond has it 1st and 10 on the half yard and unless Matt Nagy comes back and runs a reverse from the shotgun formation Hammond will push it over the goal line.

Illinois had three years to figure this out and in their infinite wisdom said that the Bears weren't anywhere on the list of things to deal with in 2026. Indiana got everything on the table with total buy in...in one month with a better offer in hand.

Now, Pritzger's office comes out with....we were working with them and had positive discussions and is putting this on the Bears. He wanted the Bears to build their own stadium and they agreed. The Bears wanted some infrastructure support and they got a "we're big against it", they wanted a tax guarantee and it was, "we're in discussions". That's the only progress they made after three years.

Doing deals with a partner with someone who wants to get deals done versus someone who continues to kick you out of their office and tells you to come back when they aren't busy....the choice is easy.

"We're the pride and joy of.....Indiana."

George Halas, an Illinois grad, carrying the Orange and Blue North would spit in the McCaskey's and Warren's face if he knew how this got handled.
 
#29      
ChiefGritty
Curbelo Fanboy said:
As a lifelong Illinois resident I'm perfectly fine with the Bears getting the best deal they can get from whichever side of the state line they need to go to get it from.
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As a lifelong Bears fan I hope the State of Illinois tells them to go pound sand.

If Indiana is dumb enough to pay for a white elephant and the Bears are dumb enough to believe petty little financing issues are worth moving the team into an economic black hole that will be a drag on their precious franchise value for all eternity, let them wallow together in their stupidity, going to NFL games in person sucks anyway.
 
#30      
Second place is 1st loser
ChiefGritty said:
As a lifelong Bears fan I hope the State of Illinois tells them to go pound sand.

If Indiana is dumb enough to pay for a white elephant and the Bears are dumb enough to believe petty little financing issues are worth moving the team into an economic black hole that will be a drag on their precious franchise value for all eternity, let them wallow together in their stupidity, going to NFL games in person sucks anyway.
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Not coming anywhere close to a deal for three years despite the Bears agreeing to the "build your own stadium" request.....pretty sure the State did that a long time ago.

They could have just shut this down last year(or the year prior), but playing political football was more important. Now, it's spinning and selling that to 50% of the fans that disagree with you.

This is just another big business leaving the state. Shouldn't be a shock.

Separately, the deal that the Bears had with Chicago/Park District was brutally bad and one of Mike McCaskey's genius moves. The Bears got about $0.65 on the dollar for ticket sales and nothing from food/liquor. Add that to the fact that they have the smallest stadium in the league. It's big business. Can't blame them from walking away from a sweetheart deal, though I agree with you that in the long run, they'll regret their inability to build business around the stadium. Arlington Heights offered that, while I don't think Hammond is close to realizing that full potential.
 
#31      
ChiefGritty
Second place is 1st loser said:
Not coming anywhere close to a deal for three years despite the Bears agreeing to the "build your own stadium" request.....pretty sure the State did that a long time ago.

They could have just shut this down last year(or the year prior), but playing political football was more important. Now, it's spinning and selling that to 50% of the fans that disagree with you.

This is just another big business leaving the state. Shouldn't be a shock.
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The State of Illinois should not then and should not now lift a single finger for the NFL, and the expectations that states and municipalities are supposed to do that is indicative of catastrophic governance failure across the country.

The NFL is a disgusting cartel of vampire plutocrats who owe EVERY SINGLE PENNY of their eye-watering stomach-churning wealth to the municipalities they leech off of. If there were any justice in the world the league would be nationalized tomorrow.

This country put an end to the NFL's business practices in everything other than sports literally over 100 years ago, because that's what any public-oriented government worthy of the name had to do.

Leave any question or analysis of the State's business climate for actual businesses that are an actual productive force in society.
 
#32      
Illwinsagain
Well, I was hoping for Arlington Heights, I live close to a Metra station, so in and out would be easy! I haven't followed all of the back and forth. I haven't been to an in person game in Chicago for a couple of decades. In fact the last Bears games that I have been to have been in Atlanta and Tampa Bay. So, I guess it will not impact me much. I really wish that they could have pulled off a lakefront version that was floated a couple of years ago. It looks fantastic on TV.
 
#33      
Second place is 1st loser
ChiefGritty said:
The State of Illinois should not then and should not now lift a single finger for the NFL, and the expectations that states and municipalities are supposed to do that is indicative of catastrophic governance failure across the country.

The NFL is a disgusting cartel of vampire plutocrats who owe EVERY SINGLE PENNY of their eye-watering stomach-churning wealth to the municipalities they leech off of. If there were any justice in the world the league would be nationalized tomorrow.

This country put an end to the NFL's business practices in everything other than sports literally over 100 years ago, because that's what any public-oriented government worthy of the name had to do.

Leave any question or analysis of the State's business climate for actual businesses that are an actual productive force in society.
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Here in lies the question. The Bears feel that the businesses that would surround the stadium and the revenue/jobs it creates are the actual businesses that you speak of and the productive force that you want. I'm not sure how many jobs this whole ordeal would create for construction companies, restaurants, hospitalities, etc. I think they see/saw this as a Wrigley Field situation, where the Cubs built the stadium and every business around their flourished. Without the Cubs/Wrigleyville, those businesses are never there and all of the revenue and jobs aren't either.

Indiana views it as the exact opposite and the benefits far outweigh the costs.
 
#34      
ChiefGritty
Second place is 1st loser said:
Here in lies the question. The Bears feel that the businesses that would surround the stadium and the revenue/jobs it creates are the actual businesses that you speak of and the productive force that you want. I'm not sure how many jobs this whole ordeal would create for construction companies, restaurants, hospitalities, etc. I think they see/saw this as a Wrigley Field situation, where the Cubs built the stadium and every business around their flourished. Without the Cubs/Wrigleyville, those businesses are never there and all of the revenue and jobs aren't either.

Indiana views it as the exact opposite and the benefits far outweigh the costs.
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Well, in classical free market economics, there could be both an Arlington Heights Bears and a Hammond Bears, creating a consumer surplus of football to enjoy, and other attached business opportunities and neither government would have any reason to dedicate public money to supplement private investment.

But in the real world, the NFL is a cartel preventing any competitors to its artificially constrained monopoly on professional football, and with that position is passionately laser-dedicated to playing a never-ending ransom game with municipalities to extract public money to guarantee its own profits not just in its core business of football, but an ever-expanding universe of events, parking, concessions and other ancillary revenue.

A monopolistic market player acting as an avaricious choke point preventing other related businesses from operating on a free and equal playing field and encouraging graft and insiderism rather than innovation and competition, this was the railroads 150 years ago. We know how to stop this. We just handed sports a special exemption many decades ago and allowed this to fester.
 
#35      
Grandpa
ChiefGritty said:
Well, in classical free market economics, there could be both an Arlington Heights Bears and a Hammond Bears, creating a consumer surplus of football to enjoy, and other attached business opportunities and neither government would have any reason to dedicate public money to supplement private investment.

But in the real world, the NFL is a cartel preventing any competitors to its artificially constrained monopoly on professional football, and with that position is passionately laser-dedicated to playing a never-ending ransom game with municipalities to extract public money to guarantee its own profits not just in its core business of football, but an ever-expanding universe of events, parking, concessions and other ancillary revenue.

A monopolistic market player acting as an avaricious choke point preventing other related businesses from operating on a free and equal playing field and encouraging graft and insiderism rather than innovation and competition, this was the railroads 150 years ago. We know how to stop this. We just handed sports a special exemption many decades ago and allowed this to fester.
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Not true. There is a competing pro football league. They just aren't allowed to call their league "The NFL".

You can open a fast food burger joint, but you can't call it McDonalds.
 
#36      
illinistephen
Sad day for me. I live 2 miles from the Arlington Heights site, so it would have been great and very easy for me to go there all the time. I'm not going to bother with a 90 minute drive, at least with traffic, each way to get to the new place. It'll probably be a black hole like Sox Park with nothing around it anyways. Rockford or Milwaukee are easier and faster for me to get to.

Looking at maps of household income in Chicagoland, the belief seems to be that if you build it they will come. Maybe the wealthy people who can still afford tickets will come 10 times a year for marquee bears games and events. But believing that people will be willing to go to NW Indiana the other 355 days a year is a much different proposition.
 
#42      
mattcoldagelli
Second place is 1st loser said:
I think they see/saw this as a Wrigley Field situation, where the Cubs built the stadium and every business around their flourished.
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They might see it that way, but anybody else who does is an absolute sucker.

Baseball: at least 81 events, many during the week, mostly in the best weather of the year for the Midwest

Football: a maximum of 12 events, exclusively on the weekend (maybe a token Monday or Thursday), mostly in the worst weather of the year for the Midwest
 
#44      
oldman
As an Illinois taxpayer who thoroughly enjoys watching the Bears from the comfort of my family room, I am absolutely OK with Indiana taxpayers paying billions of dollars for the television background behind the game I will continue to enjoy from the comfort of my family room. Every neutral study ever conducted of the economic benefits of public investment in football stadiums has concluded the payback does not support the public investment. My biggest aggravation as an Illinois taxpayer is the fact I will continue to have to contribute to the repayment of the hundreds of millions of dollars still owed for the last Soldier Field renovation. Parenthetically, anyone who thinks even a tiny percentage of Illinois voters support enriching the Bears with public subsidies is only talking to their seatmate buddies at Bears games. Illinois elected officials learned their lesson with the Sports Authority’s boondoggles with Soldier Field and Rate Park. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Try to fool me a third time? Fortunately for Illinois taxpayers, the third times the charm.
 
#45      
mattcoldagelli
The other extremely galling thing here is that the current lack of infrastructure to support a stadium is why the Bears were able to get the parcel of land in Arlington Heights at the price they got it. This is the equivalent of saving money on your home purchase by buying a fixer-upper and then going to your town council to demand they help you out with the upgrades.
 
#46      
EllderIlliniFan
oldman said:
As an Illinois taxpayer who thoroughly enjoys watching the Bears from the comfort of my family room, I am absolutely OK with Indiana taxpayers paying billions of dollars for the television background behind the game I will continue to enjoy from the comfort of my family room. Every neutral study ever conducted of the economic benefits of public investment in football stadiums has concluded the payback does not support the public investment. My biggest aggravation as an Illinois taxpayer is the fact I will continue to have to contribute to the repayment of the hundreds of millions of dollars still owed for the last Soldier Field renovation. Parenthetically, anyone who thinks even a tiny percentage of Illinois voters support enriching the Bears with public subsidies is only talking to their seatmate buddies at Bears games. Illinois elected officials learned their lesson with the Sports Authority’s boondoggles with Soldier Field and Rate Park. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Try to fool me a third time? Fortunately for Illinois taxpayers, the third times the charm.
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This is an election year for governor. If a different year, it might have been a different outcome. Illinois politicians listen best (or only listen) before elections.
 
#48      
Battle89
mattcoldagelli said:
They might see it that way, but anybody else who does is an absolute sucker.

Baseball: at least 81 events, many during the week, mostly in the best weather of the year for the Midwest

Football: a maximum of 12 events, exclusively on the weekend (maybe a token Monday or Thursday), mostly in the worst weather of the year for the Midwest
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#49      
Illiniaaron
EyeoftheIllini said:
I don’t know what other guys might be available through free agency, but Crosby does have some advantages over Hendrickson. Whether they are enough to offset the trade cost associated with Crosby comes down to length of contract and salary cost for Hendrickson (or whoever else).

I don’t follow contracts that much, but seems like Hendrickson would want at least 3 years, and I’m going to also assume salary would be in the Crosby neighborhood. Crosby is signed for four years (ages 29-32). Trey will turn 32 late in 2026 season (Dec). Hendrickson is a great pass rusher when healthy, but doesn’t give you much else. I haven’t seen tons of Crosby, but doesn’t seem quite as gifted as a pass rusher (but still very good) at this point. However, I think he is a much more complete player from what I’ve seen.

Not sure what Bears have in available cap space. Would they need to cut another player(s) to take on a top FA pass rusher anyway? If so, might make sense to trade player and draft pick for guy you really want, assuming that is what Crosby is.
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Hendrickson is at the age where his athletic skills could really fall off a cliff.
 
#50      
Illiniaaron
ChiefGritty said:
As a lifelong Bears fan I hope the State of Illinois tells them to go pound sand.

If Indiana is dumb enough to pay for a white elephant and the Bears are dumb enough to believe petty little financing issues are worth moving the team into an economic black hole that will be a drag on their precious franchise value for all eternity, let them wallow together in their stupidity, going to NFL games in person sucks anyway.
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