Indiana's Emerging Football Powerhouses: Could the Bears Switch Teams Next?
A turf war over a football team is developing between two Midwestern states with a sometimes-discordant history. The storied Chicago Bears want to leave historic Soldier Field, where they've played for half a century. Indiana lawmakers are attempting to lure them from the Windy City with a plan to finance and build a domed stadium in Hammond, Indiana, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from their current home on Lake Michigan's shore.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A turf war over a football team is developing between two Midwestern states with a sometimes-discordant history. The storied Chicago Bears want to leave historic Soldier Field, where they've played for half a century.
Indiana lawmakers are attempting to lure them from the Windy City with a plan to finance and build a domed stadium in Hammond, Indiana, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from their current home on Lake Michigan's shore. The Illinois General Assembly has responded with legislation that would give tax breaks to so-called megaprojects of at least $100 million, a plan that would encompass the Bears' proposal to build a complex in the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, about the same distance from Soldier Field as Hammond. Critics complain it's a bad deal for Illinois, where property taxes are already among the highest in the nation — especially when taxpayers still owe hundreds of millions of dollars on a Soldier Field renovation from two decades ago.
Here's a look at what's shaping up to be a showdown. Why the big deal? The Bears, one of only two remaining NFL founding members, are legend.
Their nine championships, including a Super Bowl win, are second only to the rival Green Bay Packers — though recent decades have brought mostly heartbreak. The franchise carries an $8. 9 billion price tag, among the most valuable of the NFL’s 32 teams, according to Forbes.
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