Are the Bears Moving to Indiana? Where the Deal Actually Stands
Short answer: there is no deal. Indiana passed a law dangling up to $1 billion, but the Bears have signed nothing and their Soldier Field lease runs through 2033. Here is the full picture, with sources.
By Dear Kevin Warren · 2026-06-04
No. As of June 2026, the Chicago Bears have not agreed to move to Indiana. The state passed a law dangling up to $1 billion in public money, but the team has signed nothing, and its lease at Soldier Field runs through 2033.
That is the short answer. Here is what is actually going on.
What Indiana did
In February 2026, Indiana enacted SB 27. The bill authorizes up to $1 billion in public financing for a Bears stadium in Northwest Indiana, near Hammond and Lake Michigan. It passed the legislature 95-4.
Authorizing money is not the same as building anything. SB 27 cleared a path. It did not pour a foundation, sign a tenant, or solve the access problems that come with putting an NFL stadium in that corner of the state.
What the Bears have actually done
Nothing binding. The Bears have not signed an agreement with Indiana. They have not broken ground there. They still play on the Chicago lakefront, and the Soldier Field lease holds through 2033.
What they have done is let the Indiana option sit out in the open while Illinois watches. That is the tell.
Why Indiana looks more like leverage
The pattern is familiar. Dangle a rival site, let the home state feel the pressure, and use it to pry loose a better deal where you actually want to be. Kevin Warren ran a version of this in Minnesota before the Vikings landed a $498 million public subsidy for U.S. Bank Stadium.
Indiana gives the Bears a credible-looking threat. It does not give them a finished plan. The infrastructure is not in place, whatever boosters claim, and the logistics of moving a Chicago team to Northwest Indiana are not trivial.
So where does that leave things?
In limbo, which is where it has been for a while. Illinois HB 910 stalled without a floor vote. Warren's self-imposed March 2026 deadline came and went with no deal anywhere. No ground has been broken on a new stadium in any state.
If you want the running status, we keep a dated tracker. If you want the deeper analysis of the Indiana play, that is its own topic.
The bottom line
The Bears are not moving to Indiana under any deal that exists today. There is a law, there is leverage, and there is a lot of noise. There is no agreement, and the team is still at Soldier Field.
Update — July 13, 2026
Since this article was published on June 4, the situation has moved on several fronts:
Bears board voted to advance Hammond. On June 5 — one day after publication — the Bears' board of directors voted formally to "advance our stadium development project in Hammond." A 74-word joint statement from McCaskey and Warren. It was the most concrete action the Bears have taken since buying Arlington Park, but it was not a signed deal. No lease. No MOU. No binding commitment.
Pritzker opened the door. On June 9, the governor said he would call a special session this summer if legislators unify behind one bill — but the Bears have to say which bill they want. Speaker Welch ruled out a pre-fall return. As of mid-July, no special session has been called.
The Bears are writing their own bill. Pritzker revealed on June 23 that the Bears are actively combining elements of HB 910 and HB 958 into a single compromise vehicle. The team that spent months refusing to endorse either chamber's work is now drafting legislation itself. This is movement, but it is also still in Illinois — not Indiana.
Porter County is resisting. The Indiana tax package depends on local tax adoption, and Porter County Commissioner Jim Biggs is on record opposing the 1% food-and-beverage tax. Without Porter County's participation, the financing gap grows.
Braun says "red zone." On July 8, Indiana Governor Mike Braun told a business audience the Hammond bid is "in the red zone" — but he also said "Until you ink it, it's not done." The same report noted ongoing Porter County pushback.
The short answer remains: there is no deal. The Bears are advancing two tracks simultaneously — Hammond publicly, a merged Illinois bill quietly — and neither has crossed the finish line.
Update — July 15, 2026
Two new developments since the July 13 update add weight to the "no deal" side of the ledger:
The financing has a $5-7M hole. On July 14, the Chicago Tribune published the first independent analysis of Indiana's stadium financing by named academic economists. Geoffrey Propheter (University of Colorado Denver) and Deborah Carroll (University of Illinois Chicago) both concluded that even in a best-case revenue scenario, the tax streams authorized under SB 27 fall $5-7 million per year short of the $60-62M annual debt service on a $1 billion bond. Propheter: "Few lawmakers ever ask what's behind the curtain. They are so in love with what they see that they ignore what they can't see."
Porter County's resistance hardened. Commissioner Jim Biggs told the Tribune residents answer "almost 100% — not no, but, hell no" when asked about the food-and-beverage tax. Council President Andy Vásquez blamed his primary defeat on his stadium tax support. Without Porter County, the already-insufficient revenue shrinks further.
A GOP leader calls it 50-50. State Sen. Sue Rezin (deputy minority leader) told Shaw Local on July 14 she gives the Bears a "50-50 chance" of staying in Illinois — the first lawmaker to put a number on it since session ended. "It comes down to a legislative fix in Springfield," she said. If a Republican deputy leader sees the Hammond threat as a coin flip, it is not the fait accompli the headlines suggest.
The answer to the question in this article's title has not changed. It has just gotten more data behind it.