LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears have at least one viable site for a new stadium in northwest Indiana and they are examining a second location as they move closer to finalizing a place for their new home.
The Bears ramped up their focus on Indiana after a proposal to provide financial incentives for the team to build its new home in Illinois stalled in the state legislature. A committee in the Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill in February that established a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, construct and lease a stadium. The Bears have been pursuing a new home for years, but the process has been hampered by repeated twists and turns.
The Bears, a charter NFL franchise, have played in Illinois since the team’s founding in 1920 as the Decatur Staleys. They moved to Chicago in 1921 and called Wrigley Field home before they started playing at Soldier Field in September 1971.
