Bears Stadium News: Where Things Stand

Bears Stadium News: Where Things StandLast updated 2026-07-29. As of late July 2026, the Chicago Bears have not signed a stadium agreement anywhere — not in Hammond, not in Arlington Heights, not in Chicago. The Bears are drilling soil at Wolf Lake Terminals in Indiana, and that is all it is: due diligence. No lease, no financing, no NFL relocation vote. Illinois passed HB 910 through the House in April, then let it die in the Senate when the session ended June 1, and Springfield is not due back until the November veto session. Even Indiana's governor admits nothing is done until it is inked. The Soldier Field lease runs through 2033, and no ground has been broken anywhere.

2026-07-20 — McCook sweetens its pitch. The Bears don't call back.: McCook's mayor expanded his 150-acre quarry plan into an 80,000-seat dome with an entertainment district — and said the Bears have not contacted the village since June. His own estimate for the earliest opening at any site: 2031. A South Works pitch from Rep. Curtis Tarver drew the same silence from the team.

2026-07-18 — Next realistic Illinois vote: January 2027: Rep. Martin McLaughlin, author of one of three pending stadium plans, said there is no special-session vote coming and the January 2027 lame-duck session is the next real window for Illinois stadium legislation.

2026-07-16 — Warren speaks: no site, no timetable: In his first public stadium remarks since the board's Hammond vote, Kevin Warren kept Arlington Heights in play and repeated his conditions — property-tax certainty and infrastructure money. He named no site and no timetable.

2026-07-15 — Hammond's mayor: Indiana has to amend its own stadium law: Mayor Thomas McDermott said Indiana lawmakers must go back to the General Assembly and revise the February law to fit the Wolf Lake Terminals site. The enacted framework Indiana keeps pointing to is not site-ready as written.

2026-07-14 — A GOP Senate leader calls it 50-50: State Sen. Sue Rezin put the odds of the Bears staying in Illinois at 50-50, the first Illinois lawmaker to put a number on it since the session ended. If Hammond were a done deal, that number would not exist.

2026-07-08 — Braun: Hammond is "in the red zone" — and not inked: Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said the Hammond bid has "moved a long distance in a short time," then conceded the part that matters: "Until you ink it, it's not done." Nothing is signed.

2026-06-28 — Soil testing begins at Wolf Lake Terminals: Drilling rigs appeared at the Hammond site and the Bears confirmed geotechnical testing. That is site evaluation, not a deal: no lease, no environmental clearance, no NFL vote.

2026-06-05 — Bears board votes to "advance" Hammond: Four days after Springfield adjourned, the Bears board issued a 74-word statement saying it would advance the stadium project in Hammond, Indiana. No lease, no financing, and no land purchase came with it.

2026-06-02 — Deadline tracker updated: still no groundbreaking: The running tracker now folds in the Indiana pivot, the Hammond infrastructure hurdles, and the simple fact that no ground has been broken on a new stadium anywhere.

2026-06-01 — Springfield adjourns with nothing on the governor's desk: In overtime around 3:30 am, the Senate passed HB 958, the Municipal Stadium Authority Act, 37-17. The House went home an hour later without taking it up, so nothing reached Governor Pritzker. HB 910 died without a Senate vote.

2026-04-22 — Illinois House passes HB 910, 78-32: The megaproject assessment-freeze and PILOT bill cleared the House with votes from both parties, then sat in the Senate while the clock ran out on the spring session.

2026-04-01 — NFL Annual Meeting ends with no announcement: The NFL Annual League Meeting concluded in Phoenix with no Bears stadium announcement. Warren's self-imposed end-of-March deadline had just passed with no deal signed anywhere.

2026-03-25 — "Privately funded" arena asks for a tax break too: The Bulls/Hawks 1901 project, pitched as privately funded, sought a $55 million property tax break — a reminder of how "private" stadium money tends to work.

2026-03-20 — Pritzker: the Bears "had not set themselves up well": Governor Pritzker said the Bears "had not set themselves up well for getting something done," underscoring how little progress the team had made in Springfield.

2026-02-26 — HB 910 clears committee: The Illinois stadium-financing bill passed the House Revenue & Finance Committee 13-7. Earlier versions of the property-tax plan had been tracked as HB 2789 before HB 910 became the vehicle.

2026-02-26 — Indiana SB 27 becomes law: Gov. Mike Braun signed SB 27, authorizing up to $1 billion in public financing for a Bears stadium in Northwest Indiana. The Indiana House had passed it 95-4 two days earlier. The Bears have signed no agreement with Indiana.

2026-02-19 — The pivot to Indiana: The Bears swung their leverage from Illinois toward Indiana. George McCaskey was reportedly furious with Warren over the move.