Why is Roger Goodell allowing three of NFL’s most famous teams to build $8.8bn homes and ditch fans?

Aug 14, 2026 - 12:00

Long-suffering Browns fans living and working in the heart of Cleveland deserve better than this.

So do passionately devoted Bears fans who are on the verge of watching one of the NFL‘s oldest franchises take the money and run away from downtown Chicago.

Soldier Field sits in front of the Chicago skyline on a cold day on Jan. 22, 2026. — The Bears want to move away from historic Soldier Field and downtown Chicago

Bears and Browns fans deserve better

“We will be the Chicago Bears whether we’re in Arlington (Heights, Illinois) or whether we’re in Hammond (Indiana),” said Bears chairman George H. McCaskey, before a preseason game between Chicago and Cleveland on Saturday at 101-year-old Soldier Field.

“Our focus is on Hammond. That’s where we’re advancing our efforts and that’s where the bulk of our time, attention and resources are being devoted.”

Of course, this is all about the billions.

The National Football League prints money and the pursuit of $25 billion in annual revenue could soon see American football go full blast on international expansion, with an 18th regular-season game effectively becoming a home or away contest overseas for all 32 teams.

But playing in London, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Mexico City, Melbourne and Rio de Janeiro is one thing.

The NFL is spreading the sport across the globe, expanding its reach in a 24-7-365 sports world increasingly dominated by streaming, and building off an already saturated American market that can’t get enough football.

Within the United States, leaving a still-usable NFL stadium simply comes down to athletic greed.

Chicago would lose 100 years of Bears history

Allowing the Chiefs to leave Missouri and cross state lines into Kansas is an insult to decades of Kansas City fans who turned ear-rattling Arrowhead Stadium into one of the best home-field advantages in America.

But it’s allowing the Browns to move out of downtown Cleveland that truly burns, especially when coupled with the fact that the Bears keep ruling out remaining in downtown Chicago, which is one of the USA’s greatest cities and sports obsessed.

“We don’t have an offer from the state of Illinois,” Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren said.

“And our focus now is on Indiana. And obviously, like I said, there have been occasional meetings that have taken place. But right now our focus is on Hammond, Indiana, to make sure that we bring that to life.”

The Bears, Browns and Chiefs could all leave for new stadiums

Browns fans will lose their team in downtown Cleveland and must head to the suburbs in 2029

A render of what the new Kansas City Chiefs stadium site could look like in Kansas City — The Chiefs are set to leave Missouri and cross state lines into Kansas

The Bears are Chicago.

The Browns are Cleveland.

Yet the NFL is bucking the ‘build up and support American downtowns’ trend by supporting two massive relocations to the suburbs.

“The Chicago Bears have exhausted every opportunity to stay in Chicago, which was our initial goal,” the team said in a May statement.

“There is not a viable site in the city. As a result, the only sites under consideration are in Arlington Heights and Hammond.”

What happened to keeping up old stadiums?

Hammond, Indiana would represent another NFL leap across state lines if the Bears choose that region for relocation.

“They’ll have two viable sites that the Bears can make their decision from,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said.

Neither Arlington Heights nor Hammond rings a bell with 99.99 percent of Americans, which means that neither ‘deserve’ an NFL franchise that dates back to 1920 and has been playing football games for more than a century.

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Downtown Cleveland needs the Browns even more, and fleeing to suburban Brook Park — which is located about 16 miles south of the NFL team’s current home, Huntington Bank Field — primarily benefits franchise managing partners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, whose estimated net worth tops $10 billion.

With America’s modern pastime now receiving a hard look from the Justice Department — an investigation is underway examining whether the NFL violated anticompetitive practices in the league’s television contracts — it’s surreal that the NFL is being allowed to leave downtowns in middle-American cities in 2026.

The three new proposed stadiums for the Chiefs, Bears and Browns could cost $8.8 billion, while a new $2.2bn stadium for the Titans has already been rewarded with the 2030 Super Bowl being played in Nashville.

The NFL prefers a stadium to have a roof to host its annual big game, and the temptation of modern perfection just miles away has been too tempting in Kansas City, Chicago and Cleveland.

Never mind the millions of fans who’ve bought tickets, worn jerseys, stood in the snow and rain, and remained devoted for decades to their local teams.

More than ever for the NFL, it’s all about making another billion and vacating stadiums that would still be state of the art in the rest of the world.

The Chiefs and Browns are already leaving.

The Bears are toying with the hearts of Chicago fans — and making it worse by promising to still be the Bears in Indiana.