Adam Schefter source says Bears’ Hammond move is essentially a done deal
Adam Schefter source says Bears' Hammond move is essentially a done deal
For 106 years, the Chicago Bears have called Illinois their Home. That may be ending. The franchise’s board of directors voted last week Thursday to advance its stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, and a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter what that vote actually means.
“There is more work to do, but barring anything very strange, it’s a done deal,” the source told Schefter. Schefter posted the update to X on Tuesday morning: “The Chicago Bears are getting closer to becoming the Indiana Bears.”
In the franchise’s statement on Friday, Chairman George McCaskey and President/CEO Kevin Warren confirmed:
“Yesterday, the Chicago Bears Board of Directors met and voted to advance our stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site to be selected.”
The Wolf Lake area, specifically the Lost Marsh Golf Course near 1001 129th St., is the most likely site.
This is the first time in the three-year stadium saga that the Bears’ board has voted on any site at all. The weight of that cannot be overstated.
What Indiana has offered and why Illinois is left scrambling
Under Senate Bill 27, passed 95-4 by Indiana lawmakers earlier this year, the Bears would pay no property taxes, no rent for at least 30 years, retain all event revenue at the facility, and hold an option to purchase the stadium for $1 after 40 years.
Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston left no ambiguity about how he reads the situation.
The Chicago Bears are getting closer to becoming the Indiana Bears.
Cc: @tyschmit
🎧 https://t.co/voegt5o5h1 pic.twitter.com/xMubdzQz3X
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 10, 2026
“Done deal. This is going to happen in Hammond, Indiana,” Huston said. “We can’t wait to start getting shovels in the dirt.”
Illinois, by comparison, adjourned its legislative session on June 1 without passing the property tax bill the Bears needed. The Bears paid $197.2 million for 326 acres in Arlington Heights in 2023, land now sitting idle while Indiana finalizes the framework to receive a NFL franchise.
An Illinois lawmaker proposed new legislation Tuesday to keep the Bears in state, but the session doesn’t reconvene until fall.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office reportedly said the city would “continue to engage” until shovels actually hit the ground in Hammond. One source cautioned that Arlington Heights technically remains alive if Illinois finds a way this fall.
Hammond sits roughly 25 miles from Soldier Field and within the Chicago metropolitan area. The Bears would be the second NFL franchise in Indiana, joining the Indianapolis Colts 150 miles south.
Someone from Illinois told Schefter that the politics there are “totally dysfunctional,” and that the Indiana deal “must be unbelievable” to pull one of America’s iconic franchises from one of America’s great cities.
Now we can agree that everything points in one direction. Schefter’s source said, barring something very strange, it is done.
