Illinois Staging 'Tazmanian Devil' Rally to Keep Bears From Moving to Indiana

While Indiana lawmakers are making progress on luring the Chicago Bears with a new stadium, Illinois is finally joining the fight to keep them.

Soldier Field | Quinn Harris-USA TODAY NETWORK

As good as the Chicago Bears games were this year against the rival Green Bay Packers, the offseason showdown pitting Indiana vs. Illinois might be just as juicy.

Looking to upgrade from 101-year-old Soldier Field, Bears' president Kevin Warren recently sent a letter to season-ticket holders announcing plans to build a new stadium in northwest Indiana. While that state's lawmakers are moving quickly to lure the Bears, Illinois politicians and civic leaders are also hustling to keep their team in place.

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Indiana's plan is to build a state-of-the-art stadium - modeled after the Indianapolis Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium - on a plot of land near Wolf Lake in Hammond. State senators met this week and unanimously approved a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority group to oversee the financing of the project.

While the wheels are clearly in motion in Indiana, in Illinois lawmakers are suddenly running an up-tempo, no-huddle offense.

The Bears originally wanted to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights, but the state wouldn't agree to infrastructure improvements to make that plan feasible. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker now says he's open to helping keep the Bears by funding those upgrades.

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"It's amazing how quickly this has turned around," Sportscorp Ltd CEO Marc Ganis said. "From two years of no activity, to activity the Tazmanian Devil would be proud of."

The Bears set an NFL record with seven dramatic comeback wins after trailing in the final two minutes. Now it appears Illinois is attempting to stage a rally of its own to keep their suddenly popular football team.

Caleb Williams | David Banks-Imagn Images

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