Bears Expected to Announce Major Stadium Decision Thursday: Report

The Bears are expected to announce a major stadium decision Thursday as questions continue over the team’s long-term Chicago future. Getty

The Chicago Bears are expected to make a major announcement about their stadium plans Thursday as the franchise continues to weigh its options for a new home.

With the Bears’ long-running stadium search potentially approaching a pivotal moment, Thursday’s announcement could provide the clearest indication yet of where the franchise intends to build its future.

David Haugh of 104.3 The Score reported Wednesday that “sources indicate the Bears are expected to make an announcement Thursday regarding the stadium project, which they haven’t publicly addressed for months.”

Haugh added that a Bears representative told state and local officials across the state line in Indiana they will want to hear what the team has to say, “raising hopes. Again.”

Haugh followed with a second post confirming Chairman George McCaskey and President/CEO Kevin Warren will address the matter directly.

“Bears have told reporters covering team to plan on George McCaskey and Kevin Warren talking midday Thursday,” Haugh wrote in an update. He noted that “speculation abounds, with an Indiana government source focused on viability of Wolf Lake Terminals site—110 secluded acres with easy access off Toll Road,” before posing the question himself: “Leverage?”

Hammond, Indiana, Mayor Tom McDermott says the Bears told him directly that Thursday would bring news, though he wasn’t given specifics on what the team plans to reveal.

Read More From Heavy

Bears Could Strike Indiana Stadium Deal as Early as September, Mayor Says

Chicago Bears’ Hammond, Indiana Site Faces Final Scrutiny

“I hope it’s about the stadium,” McDermott said, according to a report published Wednesday by NBC Chicago. “I don’t want to presume, but I was told there’s going to be an announcement tomorrow, and that’s the issue we’re all dealing with.”

McDermott’s comments follow closely on remarks McCaskey made earlier in the week, when he confirmed the organization was still working through logistics on a second Hammond location beyond the earlier Wolf Lake and Lost Marsh Golf Course-area target.

“We’re doing some due diligence on a second site in Hammond,” McCaskey said. “I think Kevin and I will have more to report in the coming days,” he told reporters this week.

McCaskey offered a single word when asked whether Illinois had produced any fresh movement: “No.”

That left Arlington Heights, where the Bears still own the former racetrack property, without any apparent path forward for now.

Read More From Heavy

Chicago Tribune Rips Bears Stadium Saga as ‘Insane’ in Scathing Editorial

Bears’ Stadium Search Has Bounced Between Illinois and Indiana

The organization has chased a new domed venue for years, hoping to replace Soldier Field with a facility built largely on the team’s own dime and generating revenue well beyond ten home games a season. Chicago’s lakefront was ruled out first, followed by a stalled push in Arlington Heights after Illinois lawmakers failed to pass a property-tax framework the Bears wanted before adjourning their spring session.

Indiana moved fast to fill the gap. Gov. Mike Braun signed legislation in February creating a stadium authority capable of steering roughly $1 billion toward the project, and the Bears’ board voted in June to formally advance the Hammond option.

Braun has struck an upbeat tone throughout, saying the deal has “moved a long distance in a short period of time” even as he stopped short of calling it finished.

For Hammond, the payoff would be substantial, with a roughly $2 billion investment from the team itself, construction jobs and a marquee tenant sitting just miles from the Illinois border. For Chicago and Arlington Heights, Thursday could instead mark the moment a decades-old NFL franchise formally begins planning its exit from the state that has hosted it since its founding.

Read More From Heavy

NFL Insider Mike Florio Calls Bears’ Indiana Stadium Plan a ‘Bluff’

Like HEAVY's content?Be sure to follow us.

This article was originally published on HEAVY

The post Bears Expected to Announce Major Stadium Decision Thursday: Report appeared first on HEAVY.