NFL Expansion to Indiana?

WANTED: Passionate Sycamore Fanatics. That You?

Register NOW to join our community of die-hard Sycamore fans.

Register Log in

Become a Supporting Member to remove this ad and help support the site.
Would be wild if this actually had some real legs to it. I never thought I’d say this but I’ll give kudos to ILL politicians for NOT using tax payer money for a private business. I do think they got themselves into this mess with crazy taxes, regulations, and overall hoops to jump through for a development this size. There is a massive exodus of people from Illinois to Indiana - why wouldn’t it be the same for businesses.

But on a real note, where the hell would they put such a thing in Northwest Indiana? You HAVE to be close to I-94, toll road and south Shore. That basically gives you Hammond, East Chicago, and Gary and if you really want to start stretching it out Portage, Chesterton and Michigan City.

I’ve been working in Gary, East Chicago, and Hammond a lot lately and I’m sure everyone has heard stories. It’s just a a different world in those towns and in those homes - Gary doesn’t even have working stop lights and every home floods when it rains - think about those infrastructure issues. Realistically the only way it would work is if the bears basically bought the entire city of Gary and literally rebuilt a town around it like Green Bay. On the flip side something like that might be the ONLY thing that can save a city like Gary and Indiana politicians might move mountains for something like that to happen, which I wouldn’t blame them.
 
They are scoping out the Hammond area. I believe it is just a ploy for Arlington Heights and the state to bend the knee to them tax wise. They have the property, just want help from Illinois for roads and a “Bearadise” infrastructure. Casino, Hotels, shopping mall. Will be interesting though because Pritzker will try to run for president in 2028 - and I doubt he wants to have the “helped rich people on tax breaks” thing people will point to.
As a Bears fan, the McCaskey family is extremely poor to NFL owner standards. All they have is the Bears, which was inherited. They could sell minority stakes of the team (what Lurie has done with the Eagles). And I don’t think they’d have enough cash to actually do it.
 
BigShotBob said:
They are scoping out the Hammond area. I believe it is just a ploy for Arlington Heights and the state to bend the knee to them tax wise. They have the property, just want help from Illinois for roads and a “Bearadise” infrastructure. Casino, Hotels, shopping mall. Will be interesting though because Pritzker will try to run for president in 2028 - and I doubt he wants to have the “helped rich people on tax breaks” thing people will point to.
As a Bears fan, the McCaskey family is extremely poor to NFL owner standards. All they have is the Bears, which was inherited. They could sell minority stakes of the team (what Lurie has done with the Eagles). And I don’t think they’d have enough cash to actually do it.
Click to expand...

Bears fan as well. Yes, the McCaskey's suck but Illinois will be absolutely moronic if they let this happen. Like it or not, tax abatements are how big business is done. I guarantee they have probably given out tens to hundreds of these to private businesses this year. They want to make a stink about this because it is pro sports.

I've been arguing with folks over this topic here in Vegas for several years now and I've come up right. Everyone is quick to point out old ass studies but moving from only Sunday football to a 365-day-a-year entertainment district completely changes the math. The last couple entertainment districts that included new NFL stadium builds have been massive successes and the ancillary businesses have been generating significant tax revenue. SoFi, Texas Live, Titletown and Allegiant have all been big time successes.

Moving from open air to a dome allows you to increase your event calendar which drives that district. Living in Vegas, I've been to Allegiant probably 6 times this year, 5 outside of football and I bet they've had 40-50 big time events there. I've also been over to the SoFi entertainment district for events and spent quite a bit of coin in the immediate area shopping, dining, etc. You're also guaranteed a SuperBowl and NFL Draft -- both bring in several hundred million in revenue. Vegas bungled the draft (it was a clusterfuck) and still made like $250m off the event. Hotels, restaurants all packed to the brim. Hell, Detroit even killed it for the draft a couple years back. Shitty ass Detroit.

A lot of these politicians are so wrapped up in public perception and their party ideologies that they will cut off their own noses to spite their face. The common citizen is a fucking moron that does little thinking, let alone reading, beyond whatever headlines or sound bytes their echo chamber algorithms have them shackled to.
 
Oh, and on the ownership, they have hinted at some private equity since Virginia's death. They also bought back the 2 percent that was owned by an estate in September.

McCaskey's have 77% and Ryan family has 23%. If they ever did sell the whole shebang, the Ryan family has first right of refusal.

They mentioned PE earlier this year when they were talking about the new AH stuff and I figured that is what they'd use to expand the project.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

George McCaskey says family intends to keep Bears after his mother’s passing

Bears chair George McCaskey revealed he and his family have no intention of selling the team following the death of principal owner Virginia Halas McCaskey.
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
 

Become a Supporting Member to remove this ad and help support the site.
As a Packers fan, I wholeheartedly agree with moving the Bears to Gary! They could update the logo to be a bear packing a gun! Yes, yes, yessssssssssssss! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
Such an interesting dynamic playing out with this. I do agree, I don’t think there is no way Illinois is going to give up the Bears. Bears are using it for leverage and the politics are using it for perception. It’s a song a dance as old as time. But I would love to know an exact site they would propose for Indiana. There is literally no where that isn’t an old steel mill/industry, neighborhood, dilapidated neighborhood, or just small amounts of marsh land here and there. You can stand anywhere in “da region”, throw a rock and break a window that’s already been broken for decades. I just know a single area you can feasibly build this thing
 
treeman said:
Such an interesting dynamic playing out with this. I do agree, I don’t think there is no way Illinois is going to give up the Bears. Bears are using it for leverage and the politics are using it for perception. It’s a song a dance as old as time. But I would love to know an exact site they would propose for Indiana. There is literally no where that isn’t an old steel mill/industry, neighborhood, dilapidated neighborhood, or just small amounts of marsh land here and there. You can stand anywhere in “da region”, throw a rock and break a window that’s already been broken for decades. I just know a single area you can feasibly build this thing
Click to expand...
Cline Ave near the Gary airport was their original intention. The idea included a Bear’s museum/ HOF (ala Green Bay) and a hotel. But no shopping mall etc
 
WOZ said:
Cline Ave near the Gary airport was their original intention. The idea included a Bear’s museum/ HOF (ala Green Bay) and a hotel. But no shopping mall etc
Click to expand...
That looks like it would be a good spot to put it. There's already an exit there off of I-90 (the toll road) and SR 912 / Cline Ave connects straight down to I-80/94 also and is a limited access freeway.
 
WOZ said:
Cline Ave near the Gary airport was their original intention. The idea included a Bear’s museum/ HOF (ala Green Bay) and a hotel. But no shopping mall etc
Click to expand...
That is about the only area that would possibly make sense. The transportation situation is crucial and would need to have the south shore train run next to the stadium (or at least a safe walk away), you have the toll road right there and 94. I’m no expert on aviation but I’m pretty sure Gary’s airport runway is long enough for essentially any plane to land and take off from (which is a big selling point). I’m typically against tax breaks and all the other benefits big corporations get but if I’m Indiana or Da Region politicians I’m doing everything within reason to make the bears think long and hard staying in Illinois. This is about the only type of business that could truly transform that area
 

Become a Supporting Member to remove this ad and help support the site.
Another interesting angle to this is just the income tax difference between Indiana and Illinois. There are a lot of high earners in the bears organization. Take a guy like Caleb Williams who is guaranteed $39,000,000 over his first 4 years in Chicago. In Illinois he is paying $1,950,000 in income taxes in that 4 year period whereas in Indiana he would pay $1,170,000 during that span. A difference of $780,000 over 4 years or $195,000 a year.

There are also about 8 players with bigger contracts than Williams. The biggest is DJ Moore at $110M for 4 years. Without doing the math that would be around an additional $500,000 a year in his piggy bank with the move.
 
Meanwhile in Chicago, Chicago State is officially set to launch football in the fall of 2026 giving Chicago it's first ever Division 1 football program. Maybe they'll be playing at Soldier Field and take the Bears spot when they leave? I'm not even sure how that school stays open or stays Division 1 other than it would be a horrible look for Illinois' ruling party politicians to let their only HBCU in the state shut down.

www.gocsucougars.com

Chicago State University Ushers in a New Era with Addition of Football, Bringing Chicago Its Only NCAA Division I Program - Chicago State University Athletics

CHICAGO, Ill. (December 18, 2025) — The Chicago State University Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the addition of football. This historic vote ushers in
www.gocsucougars.com www.gocsucougars.com

I see ISU still has an opening on our schedule for next season. Maybe we'll be playing them? If not us, I'm sure someone in our conference will schedule them.
 
Sycamorefan96 said:
Meanwhile in Chicago, Chicago State is officially set to launch football in the fall of 2026 giving Chicago it's first ever Division 1 football program. Maybe they'll be playing at Soldier Field and take the Bears spot when they leave? I'm not even sure how that school stays open or stays Division 1 other than it would be a horrible look for Illinois' ruling party politicians to let their only HBCU in the state shut down.

www.gocsucougars.com

Chicago State University Ushers in a New Era with Addition of Football, Bringing Chicago Its Only NCAA Division I Program - Chicago State University Athletics

CHICAGO, Ill. (December 18, 2025) — The Chicago State University Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the addition of football. This historic vote ushers in
www.gocsucougars.com www.gocsucougars.com

I see ISU still has an opening on our schedule for next season. Maybe we'll be playing them? If not us, I'm sure someone in our conference will schedule them.
Click to expand...

They've had D1 football schools in the past. Nothing modern era, but UIC, Loyola and DePaul all had football programs. As did the University of Chicago, which use to be pretty damn solid -- founding member of Big 10 and had the first Heisman winner.
 

Become a Supporting Member to remove this ad and help support the site.
treeman said:
Another interesting angle to this is just the income tax difference between Indiana and Illinois. There are a lot of high earners in the bears organization. Take a guy like Caleb Williams who is guaranteed $39,000,000 over his first 4 years in Chicago. In Illinois he is paying $1,950,000 in income taxes in that 4 year period whereas in Indiana he would pay $1,170,000 during that span. A difference of $780,000 over 4 years or $195,000 a year.

There are also about 8 players with bigger contracts than Williams. The biggest is DJ Moore at $110M for 4 years. Without doing the math that would be around an additional $500,000 a year in his piggy bank with the move.
Click to expand...

Yep, I bet players would be stoked. Don't forget the "jock tax" also exists where opponents pay income tax for playing in Chicago.
 
WOZ said:
The last time the Bears considered NW Indiana, mayor Daley and Bill Clinton made sure it didn’t happen.
Click to expand...

Personally, don't care where any NFL calls home; even if they build a sparkling new stadium on the site of an old Gary Steel Mill - they'll still be the Decatur Staleys

NY Giants left NYC 50 years ago, only loopy Christine Todd Wittman tried to call them the NJ Giants
 
Jason Svoboda said:
Yep, I bet players would be stoked. Don't forget the "jock tax" also exists where opponents pay income tax for playing in Chicago.
Click to expand...

Not a Chicago thing but an Illinois thing; pretty sure it's implemented across the NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, etc -- players have to pay it but based on sound tax policy.

Also believe the Leagues, Franchises do 95% of all of the paperwork for the player

No sympathy from this corner
 
4Q_iu said:
Not a Chicago thing but an Illinois thing; pretty sure it's implemented across the NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, etc -- players have to pay it but based on sound tax policy.

Also believe the Leagues, Franchises do 95% of all of the paperwork for the player

No sympathy from this corner
Click to expand...

Correct, no city-level income tax in Chicago, just state. That said, Chicago, nor Illinois is so flush with cash that they can afford to lose the millions that alone brings in. That was the point and that is just one piece of the economic generation engine the Bears are.

Arlington paid back their public debt 10 years early. Allegiant here in Vegas is one of the Top 3 grossing stadiums in the country with all of the other events they do outside of football. Inglewood has completely been transformed by the SoFi district although it has received scrutiny that it has now become gentrified. Before it though, you didn't drive through the area at night unless you were looking for hookers, drugs, or trouble.

If Illinois ends up fucking this up, this could potentially revitalize whatever NWI area they pick and that area needs a LOT of help. I still remember working in Gary and being stopped at 4pm by my site host because I was white. "Sweetie, I need you out of town by 5pm or I won't be able to sleep tonight."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top