Gary Pitches Chicago Bears Stadium at Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana
Posted on: January 17, 2026, 09:49h.
Last updated on: January 17, 2026, 09:49h.
- Gary is hoping to attract the NFL’s Chicago Bears to Northwest Indiana
- Gary has presented the team with three stadium proposals
Billed as “The Ultimate Comeback Story,” the City of Gary has unleashed a campaign to lure the NFL’s Chicago Bears with a bounty of tax incentives to Northwest Indiana.
The Chicago Bears organization is exploring options to build a new, modern stadium. Possible locations include just south of the current Soldier Field stadium and Arlington Heights, northwest of the city and O’Hare International Airport.
The Bears’ lease with the city-owned Soldier Field runs through 2033, but the team has the right to break the terms in exchange for a multimillion-dollar fee. City officials in Gary are making their case for bringing the storied NFL team roughly 25 air miles southeast.
Hard Rock Casino Stadium District
Gary’s proposal includes three possible sites for a new Bears stadium. Along with Buffington Harbor and Miller Beach, the city is pitching Gary’s West End next to the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana.
The city’s presentation says the 400-acre casino site includes prime access to Interstates 80 and 94, the casino and its entertainment amenities, and the forthcoming Lake County Convention Center.
Gary is sweetening the deal with Indiana’s Headquarters Relocation Tax Credit, which provides refundable tax credits to businesses and corporations that relocate their headquarters to Indiana. The city designating the three stadium sites as opportunity zones would additionally eliminate capital gains taxes on long-term investments.
In football, potential gets you drafted, but performance wins games. I have taken my quarterback mindset and applied it to municipal results. We aren’t just planning a comeback; we are living it. We’ve cleared blight, we’ve secured historic funding for our transit center, and we are seeing business return to Gary. The scoreboard doesn’t lie — Gary is winning,” declared Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, who played quarterback at Kentucky State University.
Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana opened in May 2021. The casino has over 1,700 slot machines, 80 live dealer table games, and a sportsbook. The venue has six restaurants and bars, plus the 2,700-seat Hard Rock Live.
There is not yet an on-site hotel, though the $100 million Lake County Convention Center approved last year, adjacent to the casino, will include a 300-key hotel.
Gary becoming the home of the Chicago Bears seems a bit far-fetched. The Bears remain owned by descendants of George “Papa Bear” Halas, the Chicago native who founded the NFL team in 1920. Current owner George McCaskey was born in Chicago and resides northwest of Chicago.
Northern Indiana Ties
Northwest Indiana has historically been included in the definition of Chicagoland. The Windy City’s metropolitan area, for statistical purposes, includes Indiana’s Lake County and Gary.
Gary was founded in 1906 by the US Steel for its new plant, Gary Works. In its heyday, the city was a major industrial hub, with the steel plant creating a diverse, thriving city where the population perpetually increased through the early 1970s.
Gary’s economy and quality of life for its residents began declining in the 1970s and 80s, as global competition from steel mills in Europe and Japan, combined with automation, led to mass layoffs at Gary Works.
Today, Gary’s population is approximately 69K residents, less than half of the nearly 180K residents Gary counted in the late 1960s.
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