The Chicago Bears no longer seem committed to staying in Chicago, as the Bears are proceeding with plans to build a stadium in Hammond, Indiana. But the big issue is that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to keep the team in Illinois. He recently appeared on 104.3 The Score to discuss the team’s future, and while he touched on several topics, one detail stood out. Johnson admitted to leaving a Bears-Green Bay Packers game early to avoid Chicago traffic,

“Getting in and out of Soldier Field is an absolute nightmare. Let me tell you how bad it is. Bears vs. Packers, I’m at the game. We’re losing. I decide to leave to beat the traffic. Before I get out of the footprint, the Bears had come back to win. The ingress egress part, that’s what we have to fix,” Johnson said.

Johnson didn’t mention whether he left the Bears vs. Packers Week 16 showdown or the NFC Wild-Card round, when the Bears made a historic comeback. In both instances, however, Chicago had a lot to offer.

The Bears had already lost one game to the Packers before hosting them again at Soldier Field in Week 16, which eventually turned out to be one of the wildest finishes of the season. Green Bay led 16-6 with less than five minutes remaining, before the Bears kicked a field goal just as the two-minute warning arrived.

From there, Caleb Williams threw a touchdown to Jahdae Walker on 4th-and-4 to tie the game. In overtime, after a Malik Willis fumble, Williams found DJ Moore for a 46-yard game-winning touchdown, as the Bears defeated the Packers at Soldier Field for the first time since 2018.

The Bears finished the regular season 11-6 before facing the Packers once again at Soldier Field in the NFC Wild-Card round. The Packers dominated early, leading 21-3 at halftime. The Bears trailed 21-6 entering the fourth quarter. However, thanks to Williams’ back-to-back touchdown passes late in the game, the Bears scored 25 points in the fourth quarter to advance to the Divisional Round with a historic 31-27 win.

So, considering the Bears’ back-to-back comeback wins over the Packers, it’s fair to say that Johnson may have made the wrong decision by leaving the game early. But the problem wasn’t just the Bears’ struggles earlier in the contest. In fact, the bigger issue was the stadium itself. Soldier Field has long been plagued by multiple concerns, which have ultimately pushed the Bears toward considering a move.

For starters, Soldier Field is the smallest stadium in the NFL, with a capacity to host approximately 62,500 spectators, aligning with Johnson’s concern with ingress and egress issues in the stadium. On top of that, the stadium has a tiny footprint, occupying only seven acres.

At the same time, the issues are not limited to Soldier Field itself. In fact, the Bears don’t own the stadium. They rent it. The Chicago Park District owns Soldier Field, preventing the Bears from controlling the long-term revenue potential compared to other NFL teams. However, the Bears want to build a world-class stadium with better facilities and site improvements.

Besides, the stadium’s lease runs through 2033, but the team has the right to move out before the lease expires. And while it’s true that if the Bears leaving Soldier Field would affect the city financially, the franchise is already planning to leave the state they’ve been calling home since the franchise’s inception.

The Bears plan to build a stadium in Indiana

Soldier Field has been home to the Bears for more than half a century. At the annual league meetings in Arizona, however, the Bears’ president, Kevin Warren, admitted that the franchise is hoping to choose a new site to build a new stadium either in Illinois or in Indiana. Fast forward to now, and the Bears’ board of directors has voted to advance their stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana.

“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 team said in a joint statement from Warren and Chairman George H. McCaskey. “We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana to the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city. It will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses.”

The latest development in the Bears’ stadium saga gained momentum after the Illinois House adjourned its legislative session without approving the bill that would have allowed the team to avoid paying property taxes on a new stadium, potentially making Illinois less financially appealing and strengthening Indiana’s chances of landing the franchise.

At the same time, however, the team has yet to determine the specific site to build the new stadium. For a broader context, the Bears had bought land in Arlington Heights for $197.2 million back in 2023. However, the pending financial negotiations and property taxes became the major roadblocks for the Bears to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights, forcing them to move back to Chicago.

In 2024, Warren announced that the Bears had committed $2 billion toward building a new stadium in Chicago, leaving the Arlington property surrounded by uncertainty. Amid the uncertainty, Northwest Indiana lawmakers passed legislation designed specifically to attract the Bears. That led the Bears to begin evaluating Hammond, Indiana, alongside Arlington Heights.

And while that forced Illinois to respond with massive tax breaks, the Bears’ stadium saga seems to come to an end, with the franchise looking to move out of the state.