One of the major sports stories of Thursday was that Indiana lawmakers unanimously approved an Indiana Senate Bill, by a vote of 24-0, for a planned proposal that paves the way for the Chicago Bears to potentially have a brand new domed stadium built near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana.
Wolf Lake is roughly 22 miles from downtown Chicago, but again, Windy City traffic has to be factored in.
While this one hasn’t been finally decided yet by any means, as Illinois lawmakers will likely at least propose a rebuttal, this appears to be further down the tracks than just purely posturing and leverage by Bears ownership.
If you ask the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, Illinois lawmakers and Bears ownership “mostly agreed on a deal” yesterday before the franchise suddenly hit pause and released a shocking team statement regarding the progressing stadium construction plan development for Northwest Indiana.
However, Pritzker also indicated that Bears officials told him that the recent team statement isn’t confirmation that the Bears are necessarily Hoosier-bound. However, the added pressure is on.
This actually has a real chance of happening though, and barring meaningful action by Illinois lawmakers (i.e., regarding providing more tax money for new stadium construction), is no longer out of the realm of realistic possibility:
Per The IndyStar’s Joel Erickson, the Colts stance on the Bears joining them in the State of Indiana so far remains unchanged—simply wishing them the best going forward.
By NFL rule, Hammond is within a 75 mile radius of downtown Chicago, meaning that the Bears already hold the marketing rights because it’s in their exclusive jurisdiction regardless:
“The Colts do not purchase advertisements in the area, do not hold events in the area and do not send team marketing representatives to the area,” writes Erickson.
While it seems unlikely that they’ll be called the Indiana Bears or Hammond Bears anytime soon for fear of revolt by the always passionate Chicago Bears faithful, it does mean that there could potentially be a 2nd NFL team with both its domed stadium and team headquarters based in the State of Indiana.
The two squads that faced off in Super Bowl XLI could possibly find themselves as in-state neighbors soon.
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