The National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell toured potential Chicago Bears stadium sites in Northwest Indiana and Arlington Heights before Saturday's playoff game against the rival Green Bay Packers, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations.
Goodell, Bears Chairman George McCaskey and Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren travelled on Saturday to visit potential sites for a new domed stadium near Wolf Lake in Hammond, as well as at the former Arlington Park horse race track, which the Bears have purchased, in Arlington Heights.
After looking at each location, they then traveled from Soldier Field to the Hammond site and to the Arlington Heights site, and from the Arlington Heights site to Hammond, to show how far both locations were from Chicago and how far the Hammond site was from season ticket holders in the northwest suburbs, according to the source.
Gary was explored as part of the planned Planet Park site near the Lake Michigan lakefront in the mid-1990s, but the Lake County Council declined to pass an income tax to fund the project. The team instead did renovations of Soldier Field.
But after a wave of new NFL stadium construction in markets like Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Bears have been looking to move out of the 101-year-old Soldier Field, a multi-use stadium which is owned by the City of Chicago, making it less profitable for the team than stadiums other NFL teams own outright.
The team has since sent drilling equipment to test a site south of Wolf Lake just off the Indiana Toll Road, abutting the state line. Wolf Lake is half in Hammond and half in Chicago.
Gary also has been trying to interest the Bears in a potential stadium site just off Interstate 80/94 near the Hard Rock Casino, in an entertainment district where a hotel and the Lake County Convention Center are slated to be built.
Support of the Bears moving to Indiana has been expressed by Gov. Mike Braun.
The Bears and the National Football League did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
