INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) — Gov. Mike Braun on Tuesday said he has continued to meet with Chicago Bears leadership as speculation mounts whether the team will move to Indiana.
Braun said he expects Bears management to announce within a month or so whether they will move the team to Hammond, Indiana, just over the state line, or to the north Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. The team's management has repeatedly said it is only considering those two locations and it expects to make a decision soon.
Braun said he has been meeting with Bears management twice a week since Indiana lawmakers passed a bill near the end of session authorizing a stadium authority in Hammond.
"We move at the speed of business, and that honest conversation we had should have been cued (Illinois lawmakers) that they needed to do something other than adjourning without any result," the Republican governor said. "I think this puts the punctuation on the fact that (the Bears) were doing their due diligence all along."
Bears management has ruled out remaining in the city of Chicago itself, where the team has played since 1922, first at Wrigley Field and then, since 1971, at Soldier Field.
