Indiana legislative leaders said Thursday that time is running short to make a deal with the Chicago Bears to move their games to northwest Indiana but that conversations between the team and state officials have been positive.
House and Senate leaders say they plan to adjourn their 2026 session no later than Feb. 27 (although state law would allow them to go about two weeks longer) and want a stadium agreement in place before then.
“There’s lots of work to be done,” said House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers. “Hopefully we’ll have some action next week.”
Senate President Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, said the conversations with the Bears “are going relatively well” and that “we’ll know soon.”
The Senate has passed and the House is considering legislation that would create the framework for financing a stadium for the Bears. Senate Bill 27 would establish the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to issue bonds, acquire land, finance capital improvements and enter into leases with private entities.
The bill would require an NFL team to commit to a 35-year lease. It stipulates that the authority would own the stadium, and the team would pay for repairs and operational costs and receive operating revenue.
The measure passed the Senate with near unanimous approval and has been assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee. Huston is the bill’s sponsor.
The discussions in Indiana come as state and local officials in Illinois are working on a deal to keep the Bears playing in that state, likely in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. The team currently plays at Soldier Field in Chicago but has been seeking to build a new stadium for several years.
In December, the Bears announced that Illinois officials weren’t moving fast enough on its requests for an infrastructure and tax deal to make the Arlington Heights plan work. And so the NFL franchise said it was broadening its search for a stadium site to include the greater Chicagoland region.
That’s when Indiana officials said they would work to bring the team to northwest Indiana. Since then, the cities of Gary and Portage have made public pitches for the team. And Hammond officials have said the Bears have inspected sites in that city.
Meanwhile, the Illinois governor and Legislature started talking with the Bears about how to keep the team from leaving. Last week, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said at a news conference that officials have made progress toward a deal.
“I’m obviously involved in negotiations and so are my entire team, as well as members of the Legislature,” he said.
The Bears plan for Arlington Heights includes a privately-funded stadium and campus, with Illinois taxpayers footing the bill for about $855 million in infrastructure improvements. Indiana’s proposal calls for a publicly funded, state-owned stadium.
Bray, Indiana’s Senate president, said state officials are “not really taking a look at what Illinois is providing and trying to be in an open competition with them.”
“We just think we have an offer and a template that we’ve used down here in Indianapolis that’s really competitive and an attractive offer, that works both for the taxpayers of Indiana and maybe for the Chicago Bears,” he said.
Last weekend, Huston toured parts of northwest Indiana to gather feedback from leaders there about what local tax incentives might look like for a stadium project.
“The meetings last week were fantastic,” Huston told reporters Thursday. “There’s tremendous support up in northwest Indiana for this. I had a chance to talk to a lot of different people who are really enthusiastic about it.”
Also last week, Iowa threw its hat into the ring with legislation aimed at attracting a Bears stadium, though the club confirmed to IBJ it is not considering Iowa.
The 2026 legislative session was originally scheduled to extend into March. However, after lawmakers met in December to consider a mid-cycle redistricting bill, legislative leaders decided to finish earlier.
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