LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears have a "sole focus" on Northwest Indiana as the next site for the team's home stadium, Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren said Thursday.
Warren said the team continues its due diligence in studying a new site at Hammond's Wolf Lake Terminals while also feeling confident in a previously identified site at Hammond's Lost Marsh property.
And Bears chairman George McCaskey took to the same podium, noting the team has no deal with the neighboring state of Illinois to keep the Bears there.
The Bears have completed their due diligence at Lost Marsh and continue to study the Wolf Lake Terminals property, including conducting environmental and soils tests, Warren said. He clarified that the Wolf Lake Terminals site is not a pivot from the Lost Marsh property: “That is a viable site. We can build there. It works,” Warren said.
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"We discovered a new site that could be better," Warren said of the Wolf Lake Terminals site.
Warren also mentioned the possibility of merging both sites, which are near each other, in the overall project.
Kevin Warren, president and CEO of the Chicago Bears, speaks on Thursday.
“We thought if we could cohesively bring those together and just make sure that entire area comes together from a mixed-use standpoint, it would be even better,” Warren said.
His Thursday update represents the clearest indication yet that the Bears' stadium search is centered on Northwest Indiana. Warren said the franchise remains in almost daily communication with Indiana officials as it works through environmental and geographic studies, assembles the land needed for the project and develops the financing structure required to bring it to fruition.
"Our sole focus is working on a mixed-use development in Hammond," Warren said.
Warren praised Indiana officials as professional and diligent partners and said the Bears see an opportunity to create a "win-win partnership" with the state. The team has an “excellent” deal on the table from Hoosier lawmakers that includes property tax and infrastructure certainty the team has made a prerequisite throughout negotiations, he said.
Regarding an offer from Illinois officials to stay in that state, however, Warren said there is “nothing in writing.”
“We don’t have any legislation in Illinois,” McCaskey said, taking the podium after Warren. “We don’t have a deal with Illinois."
The project would extend well beyond the construction of an NFL stadium, Warren said. The Bears envision a world-class stadium surrounded by a large mixed-use development, adding to the complexity of selecting a site and assembling the necessary property and financing.
Because of the significance and scale of the project, Warren said, the franchise is taking its time to "get this right."
The Bears continue to have occasional meetings with Illinois officials, Warren said, and remain grateful to the state. But, both he and McCaskey described contact with Illinois lawmakers as “minimal” as of late and several times reiterated the team's current focus is on Hammond.
The franchise will have substantive discussions with Illinois lawmakers if they’re to be had, McCaskey said, but those discussions in Indiana have been “very proactive, very communicative (and) very solution-oriented.”
McCaskey mentioned several times how the franchise believes fans and the league as a whole will make the adjustment to the Bears being located in Hammond, stating the team sees “many parallels” to the Kansas City Chiefs’ impending departure from Arrowhead Stadium.
“When I’ve driven that route, other than a sign telling me so, I wouldn’t know that I’ve just crossed the state border,” McCaskey said. “As Kevin said, once people see the building, once they get in there, once they understand that our top priority from day one was a world-class stadium experience, we think (Bears fans will) make that adjustment.”
The Bears’ board of directors voted in June to advance its stadium project in Hammond — the first vote of its kind throughout the years-long saga. An exact site hadn’t been selected at the time, but the Bears did proclaim belief that “a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana to the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city.
“It will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses,” a statement from the team read.
Since then, the flagship NFL franchise has continued to do “due diligence” on two separate Hammond sites, testing soil at Wolf Lake Memorial Park near the Lost Marsh Golf Course in December and more recently at Wolf Lake Terminals in late June.
Warren penned an open letter regarding the project in December 2025, which laid out the reasons for why progress had stalled on construction of a world-class domed stadium and surrounding multi-purpose developments on land it owns in Arlington Heights, Illinois — a Chicago suburb about 25 miles northwest of the city’s downtown.
The Bears’ timeline for a decision lies in their own hands. But the longer it drags on, Warren said, more complications are created from an operations standpoint.
“We’re reaching that point where we have to make a determination and decision,” Warren said.
In closing, Warren quipped that his wife, Gretta Warren, told him about six months ago to stop giving out target dates for when a decision will be made. Instead, the target is the “right time,” and the Bears will know when that is, Warren said.
“But I will say we’re making very, very good progress here,” he continued. “We have one site that works, Lost Marsh, and then to have another site is really unique. And we think if that comes together that we have an absolutely dynamic atmosphere in Hammond, Indiana. … I’m grateful to have been able to kind of work on this and it will be an exciting day when it comes to fruition, but the time is now and it’s time to bring this to a close.
“I’m grateful of where we are and I think everyone will be pleased once we make a final decision, two, once we break ground, and three, once we open up and (are) able to enjoy it. The Chicago Bears fans deserve a new environment.”
The Chicago Bears host the Cleveland Browns at Soldier Field for their preseason opener at noon Saturday.
