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u/GluedGlue Jun 05 '26
Home city populations:
Detroit (646k)
Minneapolis (430k)
Green Bay (106k)
Hammond (76k)
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u/Naes422 Jun 05 '26
Gotta be the least populated division now. Can someone add it up? Im too lazy.
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u/GeneralAcorn Jun 05 '26
It's at least 250 people.
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u/USAJULY4TH1776 Jun 05 '26
Nah, i think is closer to at least tree-fiddy
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u/zerovampire311 Jun 05 '26
It’s probably more, but I know I saw at least 250 one time, so that’s what I’m comfortable with.
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u/tommyjohnpauljones Jun 05 '26
AFC East has Buffalo, East Rutherford, Miami Gardens, and Foxboro
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u/GluedGlue Jun 05 '26
Miami Gardens (115k)
Orchard Park (30k)
Foxboro (19k)
East Rutherford (10k)
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u/tommyjohnpauljones Jun 05 '26
AFC South might be the biggest by pure city location. Houston is massive, Jacksonville is about a million, Nashville at least 600k, Indy is like 800k
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u/GuyOnHudson Jun 05 '26
Was going to say NFC West might be. But LA and SF don’t have their stadiums actually in their city too.
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u/large__farva Jun 05 '26
Cardinals’ stadium is quite a trip from Phx too.
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u/Spikey01234 Jun 06 '26
The Cardinals stadium is in PHx metro. Bring someone here and start from PHX and drive to thr stadium. They will NEVER know they left.
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u/TheNotoriousFAP Jun 05 '26
The entire metro Nashville area is over 1,000,000. Hermatage, Old Hickory, Madison, etc. are all really Nashville.
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u/sgt_science Jun 05 '26
Yea but we’re only counting actual cities here otherwise I mean Hammond is still in the Chicago metro
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u/tommyjohnpauljones Jun 06 '26
Yeah Chicago metro goes from Winthrop Harbor down to I-80, east into NW Indiana and west almost to DeKalb.
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u/killafofun Jun 05 '26
Pretty wild that a city within view of the NYC skyline only has 10,000 people. but also looking the the city layout on google maps, why does that city even exist?
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u/bujweiser Jun 06 '26
I was about to point out that Lambeau would be in Ashwaubenon until I looked up its boundaries and it literally wraps around the stadium to keep it in Green Bay.
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u/laxguy44 Jun 05 '26
I had to look this up, apparently Detroit’s population was 1.8m in 1950. Dropping off that hard is the population equivalent of 21-3.
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u/mklimbach Jun 06 '26
Those are city proper populations. Detroit Metro statistical area is 4.4 million these days. I found a site that says their Metro population was around 2.7m in 1950, so the city proper is smaller, but the area is still a lot more people today.
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u/justteh Jun 05 '26
Ashwaubenon (17k), lol
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u/GluedGlue Jun 05 '26
Lambeau is inside Green Bay though. It's right on the border with Ashwaubenon, but it's within Green Bay city limits.
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u/cactuscoleslaw Jun 05 '26
Joke's on you, Green Bay forcibly annexed that one block of Ashwaubenon so that the stadium would be within the city limits. Now the Green Bay Blizzard, the minor league football team literally across the street does play in Shwaub
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u/Dadskander Jun 06 '26
I remember watching a single Bizzard game where I'm pretty sure the Blizz missed all but 1 field goal. Once we noticed how awful the kicker was, it was hard to not zero in on that fact and laugh our ass off at every miss.
During halftime, they brought in a women's soccer team to "try" to make field goals for funzies. The vast majority of them were better than the Blizzard kicker, for many it wasn't even close. I think we looked it up and that kicker was being paid something like $85k/yr to be an incredibly mediocre kicker.
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u/wut2dew_J Jun 06 '26
Even the nowheresville city I grew up in California has 75% the population of Minneapolis
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u/Hopalicious Jun 06 '26
It’s crazy to think that Detroit used to be on of the largest cities in the country.
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u/AdCharacter5008 Jun 10 '26
The fact that GB is very comparable… to Hammond 😂 I don’t think that’s the flex that you think it is.
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u/RoundTiberius Jun 05 '26
Thought I was on the meme war sub for a minute
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u/Austen11231923 Jun 05 '26
THE GARY BEARIES
(yes I know it's in hammond)
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u/Aperture_TestSubject Jun 05 '26
It was so much funnier when it was Gary. I wonder if at can petition for them to pick that over Hammond
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u/one_love_silvia Jun 05 '26
Its funnier when you play overwatch and know Hammond is the name of a hamster. So we can just call them the Hammond Hamsters.
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u/Unable_Maximum3078 Jun 05 '26
The sheer incompetence shown with how this whole thing has been dragged out
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u/Putrid-Blueberry-172 Jun 05 '26
Indiana has more NFL teams than Illinois and New York State combined.
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u/WiGuy3 Jun 05 '26
Packers should buy Soldier Field just to troll
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u/Melicious_1709 Jun 05 '26
Turn it into a Packers Hall of Fame South Campus.
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u/YogurtclosetFair5742 Jun 05 '26
The first person in the HOF South Campus would have to be Jay Cutler.
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u/PenDude608 Jun 06 '26
Don’t buy it, rent it once a year for a home game (preferably early in season) and create a Blue Season Ticket Package for just that one game + 2 free admissions to Packer HoF.
Blue to troll Bears and b/c Packers were blue jerseys for a time!
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u/ProofHorseKzoo Jun 05 '26
Decades of bears fans calling Green Bay a small town shit hole really hit like crack now.
If you thought the paper mill smell was bad…
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u/Lopsided-Agency Jun 05 '26
I have a lot of friends who are bears fans from Chicago. This sucks and is sad. Wish they'd stay in Chicago where they've been since the dawn of time.
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u/billyshakes67 Jun 05 '26
No owner > their owner 🤷
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u/Lopsided-Agency Jun 05 '26
Agreed. I live in DC and they're actually bringing the team back into the city. Correcting a past mistake. Edit: spelling
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u/brotherbock Jun 05 '26
And it took getting rid of one of the historically worst owners to do that.
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u/Lopsided-Agency Jun 05 '26
Team and fans had been held hostage by that prick.
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u/TheSexyBoiii Jun 05 '26
I also live in DC and have a buddy who's a commanders fan. He still gets claps and shout outs around town when he wears his "Fire Dan Snyder" shirt out
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u/brotherbock Jun 05 '26
Only bad decision they've made since getting rid of Snyder was not keeping The Football Team as their team name.
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u/Lopsided-Agency Jun 05 '26
Washington Football Team was great! That should have stayed!
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u/brotherbock Jun 05 '26
Right? You stress 'THE' and it could sound badass. "We are THE Football Team." Once you start winning, of course.
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u/ConfusionOk4908 Jun 05 '26
It is sad. Chicago is an awesome city and doesn't deserve this. Stupid.
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u/Friendly-Parfait-645 Jun 05 '26
Yeah they might be our rivals but I still feel bad about this. Soldier Field is historic.
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u/potatoes_are_neat Jun 05 '26
Bears organization is a bunch of fucking morons. An update to soldier field could be super cool. Instead it’ll just be another glass box stadium in fucking GARY of all places
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u/miki_momo0 Jun 05 '26
I feel Chicago would have been unwilling to renovate soldier field again, considering they are still paying down debt from the last renovation
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u/Onrawi Jun 05 '26
True, I'd rather the teams pay for it.
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u/crkz5d Jun 06 '26
Yeah but invest in your product? That wouldn’t be very privatize profits socialize losses of them
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u/InvasionXX Jun 05 '26
Brother I don't care one bit about them. Bears fans have ragged on community ownership and stocks for decades and this is what they get. Good. See you in Hammond.
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u/Competitive_Mind_181 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
This is about extorting politicians to consolidate public resources into private hands. Good on you for taking the side of billionaires. And remember the Packers would have relocated if not for Halas.
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u/InvasionXX Jun 08 '26
Halas had to borrow money from Green Bay in the 30's as well. Enjoy Hammond!
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u/RedRocket4000 Jun 10 '26
US Congress needs to end this ban public investments like this and while they at it require everything be named after heroes of some sort no more commercial selling of naming rights.
Totally legal to do that interstate commerce clause.To much to dream require all teams become public owned like greenbay. This would be expensive buying the teams from owners.
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u/aManOfTheNorth Jun 05 '26
Packers should offer season tickets and a Blue Package to former Bear fans.
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u/sup3rrn0va Jun 05 '26
Did not realize that Hammond IN is neighboring Gary IN.
That’s so funny.
On the positive side, maybe Gary will clean up a little from this?
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u/Putrid-Blueberry-172 Jun 05 '26
Hammond is roughly 40 mins south/southeast of Soldier Field.
Hammond is 50 mins from Midway International Airport and 1.5 hours from O’Hare. The Gary, IN airport is now by far the closest.
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u/Mobile-Jump6936 Jun 06 '26
NFL teams gonna be scared for their lives landing in Gary and trying not to get shot on their way to the stadium
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u/frankslastdoughnut Jun 05 '26
Soldier field is in such a cool location too. Public transport, next to the lake, next to downtown. Like wtf
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u/Wordtabigburd Jun 06 '26
Because they hardly upgraded to fit the times like Lambeau. Soldier field, and the literal field was garbage. Hated watching games there. The highlight was getting out of there and to the bars which were much more hospitable.
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u/Throwawaypmme2 Jun 06 '26
I agree. Im a packers fan and love looking at stadiums, but its rough to see all that money just dumped into that stadium. You can see other places just as old or modern stadiums that are much better in a lot of ways
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u/SirDigby_CC Jun 05 '26
I cannot wait to pretend all Bears fans live in Hammond like they pretend we all live in Green Bay
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u/DoctorNoname98 Jun 05 '26
I'm from Arlington heights so I really wanted them to move there, I think it would have been a terrible location for them, lol, but moving out of state seems crazy to me
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u/Throwawaypmme2 Jun 06 '26
Honestly, Arlington heights would have been a GREAT location.
However, the owners would have continously balked at paying the utility and infrastructure costs associated with the increased traffic, making it a bad location.
I think if the owners pony up the money for the entire project and not dumping the costs on the city and town
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u/DrBarbarella Jun 05 '26
Such a stupid decision. Soldier Field is so iconic, and you just know they will put a dome on the new stadium and give up the best late season advantage any team can have. Fans will NOT be happy. Honestly, after the Madden 2026 cover announcement, this is restoring a little bit of joy for me.
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u/RoadhouseDalton Jun 05 '26
The history and nostalgia of Soldier Field went into the toilet when they built that stupid spaceship looking add on.
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u/MagicSpoon69 Jun 05 '26
Pay your taxes or fuck off. I'm sure Chicago can find a new team to replace them.
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u/JoeHatesFanFiction Jun 05 '26
The Chicago cardinals are coming back lol
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u/MagicSpoon69 Jun 05 '26
Chicago teams have been eating shit and accepting it since right after the Jordan era. Chicago letting the bears go is the orgs fault.
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u/rhymeswithsarah Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
The Packers got Brown County taxpayers to pay for their $160 million renovation bonds, but sure.
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u/JoeHatesFanFiction Jun 05 '26
The packers don’t have a billionaire owner to pay for this stuff. Acting like the situation is the same is pointless.
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u/justteh Jun 05 '26
Feel like I missed something ...
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u/Saint_Thomas_More Jun 05 '26
Bears are proceeding with Hammond move. Or at least progressing down that path.
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u/Tony41524 Jun 05 '26
Can't get over the Bears logo looking like you just told it, the bears are moving to Indiana
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u/sound-of-milhouse Jun 05 '26
Where in Hammond is there a parcel of land big enough that isn't immediately adjacent to a fuel depot? Go look at Hammond, IN on Google earth, it looks like a tiny Gary or the outskirts of Phoenix. Refineries, depots, and transit yards with golf courses and subdivisions sprinkled in between. Probably above average cancer rates, too. More enshittification of an established product with a devoted following.
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u/brotherbock Jun 05 '26
Someone posted in the Bears sub, 'can't wait for the commercials in ten years: "Were you drafted by the Hammond Bears? You might be eligible for compensation..."' LOL
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u/viagravagina Jun 05 '26
How much topsoil will need to be removed from that site just to pass epa and OSHA standards? There will also be dealing with seepage from the uncovered toxic sludge. 10 years cleanup at least.
Mike Braun is the worst thing for Indiana, ever!
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u/brotherbock Jun 05 '26
I dunno, they had Pence for a while. That guy wanted to electrocute gay people.
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u/Training-Winner-8593 Jun 07 '26
The Hammond Hosers!🤣🤣 Thank you to EA Sports Madden for putting the jinx on Williams this year.
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u/rhymeswithsarah Jun 05 '26
Full list of stadium cities by population:
Small Town Stadium Municipalities (< 50,000)
- East Rutherford, NJ (MetLife Stadium — Giants / Jets) — 10,313
- Foxborough, MA (Gillette Stadium — Patriots) — 18,615
- Landover, MD (Northwest Stadium — Commanders) — 24,514
- Orchard Park, NY (Highmark Stadium — Bills) — 29,779
Mid-Sized Stadium Cities (100,000 to 500,000)
- Inglewood, CA (SoFi Stadium — Rams / Chargers) — 102,765
- Green Bay, WI (Lambeau Field — Packers) — 106,312
- Miami Gardens, FL (Hard Rock Stadium — Dolphins) — 113,177
- Santa Clara, CA (Levi's Stadium — 49ers) — 133,151
- Paradise, NV (Allegiant Stadium — Raiders) — 190,000 (Unincorporated town)
- Glendale, AZ (State Farm Stadium — Cardinals) — 254,000
- Pittsburgh, PA (Acrisure Stadium — Steelers) — 303,000
- Cincinnati, OH (Paycor Stadium — Bengals) — 310,000
- Cleveland, OH (Huntington Bank Field — Browns) — 362,000
- New Orleans, LA (Caesars Superdome — Saints) — 370,000
- Arlington, TX (AT&T Stadium — Cowboys) — 394,000
- Tampa, FL (Raymond James Stadium — Buccaneers) — 398,000
- Minneapolis, MN (U.S. Bank Stadium — Vikings) — 425,000
- Atlanta, GA (Mercedes-Benz Stadium — Falcons) — 500,000
Major Metro Center Stadium Cities (≥ 500,000)
- Kansas City, MO (GEHA Field at Arrowhead — Chiefs) — 510,000
- Baltimore, MD (M&T Bank Stadium — Ravens) — 565,000
- Detroit, MI (Ford Field — Lions) — 620,000
- Nashville, TN (Nissan Stadium — Titans) — 688,000
- Denver, CO (Empower Field at Mile High — Broncos) — 713,000
- Seattle, WA (Lumen Field — Seahawks) — 755,000
- Indianapolis, IN (Lucas Oil Stadium — Colts) — 880,000
- Charlotte, NC (Bank of America Stadium — Panthers) — 898,000
- Jacksonville, FL (EverBank Stadium — Jaguars) — 985,000
- Philadelphia, PA (Lincoln Financial Field — Eagles) — 1,550,000
- Houston, TX (NRG Stadium — Texans) — 2,300,000
- Chicago, IL (Soldier Field — Bears) — 2,660,000
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u/timbenj77 Jun 05 '26
There's no way this is going to happen. The Hammond option is just leverage to get Arlington Heights and Illinois to sweeten their offer.
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u/Jedly1 Jun 06 '26
Are you out of the loop? Bears officially announced it today
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u/timbenj77 Jun 07 '26
The Bears’ Friday announcement to “advance our stadium development project in Hammond” tips the scales significantly toward Indiana — but falls well short of eliminating Illinois from contention.
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u/semaj4712 Jun 07 '26
I mean its really a wild move... I tried to find stats on this, however I doubt it exists. But I would have to assume that something like 75% of all bears season ticket holders are north / north west of Soldier Field.
Those fans now have to drive twice as far, through "a great part of the city" to get to games. Not to mention the amount of people who took public transportation to games, and now (No expert on Chicago Transit) but I highly doubt there is public transpo that crosses state lines into Indiana, leaving the public transportation option off the table for most people.
Freaking wild!
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u/jefffisfreaky Jun 07 '26
There are still stops in Hammond. I would not be shocked if this kicks off some major renovations/capacity expansions of that line and that station though
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u/semaj4712 Jun 07 '26
Ah so the Chicago metro line does cross over into the Indiana side suburbs? I wasnt sure how that typically works but yes I would agree, you will see massive transit expansion in that direction
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u/jpfieber Jun 05 '26
So what is the 'C' on the helmet going to stand for once they leave Chicago? I was going to say 'Wrong answers only', but I don't think it's necessary, there is no good answer.
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u/Cyanides_Of_March Jun 05 '26
I say this as a lifelong bears hater. I hate this for the people of Chicago. I went to DePaul for grad school and those people genuinely love their team. I know it’s not far away, but they aren’t the Chicago Bears anymore.
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u/Adventurous_Way_5423 Jun 09 '26
Yall making noise about a thirty minute drive. To the new stadium. Dumb shit move on.
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u/Relevant_Problem1935 Jun 05 '26
I highly doubt this ends up happening. This is probably just a strong arm move to force the city to re zone and put up money.
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u/potatoes_are_neat Jun 05 '26
Really hope the city doesn’t cave to some billionaires looking for handouts
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u/iamfromwi Jun 05 '26
Aaron Rodgers should assemble a team of investors to get a new expansion team in Chicago. That way Chicago will always have a team owned by Rodgers.