The Chicago Bears have been engulfed in a long, arduous stadium search that has spanned years, multiple stadium sites and has resulted in no shovels in the ground.
The Bears announced their intentions to shift their focus to building a new stadium in Hammond, Indiana, which is one of the two sites they narrowed their search to, including their Arlington Heights property. But just because they’ve made a statement about Hammond, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to pan out. After all, they did the same with Arlington Heights, Chicago lakefront, back to Arlington Heights and now Hammond.
That’s just reinforced by a recent report by ESPN’s Courtney Cronin, who says a source tells her that while the Bears’ announcement about Hammond is “real” and “not a leverage play,” a departure from Illinois “is not a done deal” just yet.
Wrote Cronin: “Per source, Indiana is in the lead right now, but ‘Illinois can still get back in the race,’ granted the state has a lot of ground to make up after not passing legislation that would have insured the Bears property tax certainty.”
Adding fuel to the fire of this leverage move by the Bears, Illinois Senator Bill Cunningham told Capitol News Illinois’ Brenden Moore that Bears president/CEO Kevin Warren called and informed him they’d be issuing a statement about moving forward with Hammond but “he also said he looks forward to continuing discussions with me.”
The Bears’ statement on Friday is actually quite similar to the one they issued when they first announced their interest in exploring a stadium site in Hammond back in February.
So while Friday’s announcement about the Bears shifting their focus to Hammond, this process is far from over, which means Illinois could still make a play to keep the NFL’s charter franchise in state.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears leaving Illinois to build new stadium isn’t a done deal
Reporting by Alyssa Barbieri, Bears Wire / Bears Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Alyssa Barbieri, Bears Wire | USA TODAY Network
