As the Bears continue to zero in on a specific stadium site near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana, they have begun testing land at Wolf Lake Terminal, which is west of Interstate 90 and near their original proposed plot.
The Bears said in a statement Sunday that they “have an excellent option already in place” but “continue to assess additional parcels of land in the Wolf Lake region to ensure we place the stadium and mixed-use district in the very best location to serve all of Chicagoland.” They called the soil testing “part of the normal site evaluation process.”
The Bears’ board of directors voted earlier this month to move forward with their Hammond plans but fell far short of committing to building a stadium there. The team said then it still needed to narrow down the exact plot of land near Wolf Lake.
Wolf Lake Terminal houses storage facilities and other businesses.
The Bears own 326 acres in Arlington Heights and remain open to continued talks with Illinois lawmakers. Property tax concerns prompted the team in December to say it was expanding its stadium site search across state lines. In February, the Indiana legislature voted to set up the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority, a mechanism to help with construction, funding, operating and maintaining a stadium in Hammond.
