I'm rooting for the Gary Bears!

You can have them. In fact, I'd be willing to pay for the Bears to get the hell out of Dodge.

There are two kinds of Chicagoans: A. People who accept that the Bears suck. B. Those who need psychiatric treatment.

Da Bears Want Da Subsidies

Taxpayers could get sacked, as two states vie for a football arena.

By The Editorial Board, WSJ

March 27, 2026 5:35 pm ET

The NFL’s Indiana Bears? That could soon be the geographic truth, if not the football team’s actual name. The Bears want to move out of Chicago’s Soldier Field, and a competition to be their future home is pitting Illinois against Indiana. Yet the reality of big stadium deals is that, despite promises of economic gains, taxpayers often get sacked.

The Bears have been considering a site in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, but Mayor Jim Tinaglia recently warned that time is running out. “The pressure is on to try and wrap it up with capital ASAP,” he told CBS News. A committee of the Illinois House advanced a bill last month to give tax breaks to “megaprojects” that hit certain investment thresholds.

Meantime, Indiana is trying to bait the Bears to lumber over the state border and set up a den in the city of Hammond. Gov. Mike Braun recently signed a bill to establish a Northwest Indiana stadium authority. Some news stories say the state’s offer includes about $1 billion of public funds, with money coming from added surtaxes on food and hotels in Lake and Porter counties.

Stadium decisions take on outsize influence because pro sports fans have abiding loyalties. The Bears franchise began playing in Chicago in 1921. To some in Illinois, letting the storied team leave for Indiana might look like a sin worse than putting ketchup on a Chicago hot dog. What’s more coldly impartial, however, is the economic research.

“Nearly all empirical studies find little to no tangible impacts of sports teams and facilities on local economic activity,” says a 2022 review of decades of research. “The level of venue subsidies typically provided far exceeds any observed economic benefit.” In other words, the short-term loser of this Bears stadium playoff might really be the long-term winner.