Bears in Indiana
Stadium Watch

Bears Name Two Finalist Sites, Call Hammond Their "Sole Focus"

Speaking at Halas Hall ahead of the preseason opener — their first questions from reporters since June's board vote — chairman George McCaskey and president/CEO Kevin Warren said Hammond is now where the bulk of the team's time and resources are going. Warren narrowed the search to two parcels near Wolf Lake: Lost Marsh, along Calumet Avenue, and Wolf Lake Terminal. Warren said the topographical, geographical and environmental work at Lost Marsh is finished and that the team found the ground buildable; Wolf Lake Terminal remains in due diligence. He also said the team is assembling land and putting together the financing, and that a decision to break ground follows once both are done. McCaskey said the team keeps the Chicago name regardless of the address.

• What changed: the site list went from "to be selected" to two named parcels, one of them cleared — and Illinois contact was described as minimal, with no written offer on the table.
• What it isn't: a final pick, a signed deal, or a date. Warren declined to give a timeline, saying he's been told to stop naming target dates.

Two Parcels May Become One Footprint

What began as a choice between two Hammond parcels may not be a choice at all. Warren said the team is weighing Lost Marsh and Wolf Lake Terminal not just against each other but together — merging the two into a single development footprint. The second parcel surfaced during the vetting of the first: Warren said the team found Wolf Lake Terminal while completing its work at Lost Marsh.

• Why it matters: a combined footprint changes the math on acreage for the stadium plus the mixed-use district, and it means "site selection" may not end with one parcel being eliminated.
• What it isn't: confirmed. Warren raised it as a possibility, not a plan — no boundaries, acreage, or configuration have been made public.

Soil Testing Begins Near Wolf Lake

Crews moved drilling equipment onto Wolf Lake Terminals — an industrial and logistics site west of Interstate 90 in Hammond — to test the ground. It's one of a few parcels the team is weighing in the Wolf Lake area.

• What it is: routine geotechnical testing the Bears described as part of normal site evaluation.
• What it isn't: a final site pick — the team says it's still assessing multiple parcels.

Bears Board Votes to Advance Hammond Project

After an incentive package for the Arlington Heights site stalled in the Illinois legislature, the Bears' board voted to move the stadium project forward in Hammond. The team framed it as advancing the project — explicitly noting the exact site was still to be selected and that talks with Illinois would likely continue.

• The mechanism: Indiana's Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority is already in place to help finance public infrastructure.
• The caveat: "advance" is not "commit." No parcel, renderings, or groundbreaking date accompanied the vote.

Indiana Creates a Stadium Authority

Indiana passed Senate Bill 27, creating the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority — the public body empowered to help finance and build a stadium — and named Hammond as the intended site. It's the legal groundwork that made everything after it possible.

Cross-Border Exploration Begins

Amid tax disagreements around the Arlington Heights site, the team began publicly exploring Northwest Indiana. Early maps highlighted I-90 and I-80/94, plus the South Shore Line commuter rail, as the ways to move fans between a Hammond site and Chicago.