Gary Mayor Wants To Build A Bears Stadium-Village 

The Indiana city is looking for an economic catalyst.

Now that the season is over, the owners of the National Football League’s Chicago Bears franchise can concentrate on getting the business’s first big victory of the 2026 season. Find some community in the Chicagoland area who is willing to give the business property and money to build a stadium-village. Gary, Indiana officials have stepped up and want the football business in town. Gary is a poster child of what happened after the decline of the American steel industry. The city has about 100,000 less residents than it did in  the 1960s and has suffered a great deal of urban decay. But city officials see landing the Bears business as part of a renaissance. Gary political and business leaders have rolled out drawings of what a Bears stadium-village would not only look like but how it would impact the city of 78,000 people.

The city would like to construct the stadium-village in one of three areas. The West End or off the shore of Buffington Harbor or off the shore of Miller Beach. Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said his city shouldn’t be overlooked and Indiana lawmakers have promised help. “They just passed Senate Bill 27, which is to create this authority to help build a facility for the Bears,” Melton said. “To have our governor already make the commitment to say we’re going to do whatever it’s going to take to get the Bears here, I don’t think that’s an opportunity a business would want to pass up.” Gary is about 30 miles southeast of Chicago. In an ideal world, the Bears ownership would like to see Illinois politicians get into a bidding war with Indiana politicians and get the best deal possible in terms of tax breaks and incentives. Indiana Governor Mike Braun is ready to invest money into a stadium-village. It is how the stadium game works.

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Proposed Gary Chicago Bears stadium.