The Chicago Bears have made it seem for months like they were bound and determined to build a new lakefront stadium south of Soldier Fields. Team president Kevin Warren stated his grand vision was to have a state-of-the-art facility along that Chicago skyline for primetime games. Renderings for the idea were certainly intriguing. However, many weren’t ready to buy it. They felt it was a carefully hatched ploy by the organization to get better concessions from Arlington Heights over the property taxes for their new plot of land at Arlington Park.
Warren insisted this wasn’t the case. The team was solely focused on a Chicago solution. There is just one problem: Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and the state government haven’t even considered any public money for the project. It isn’t that they’re being stubborn in negotiations. It’s that they aren’t even willing to negotiate, period. Warren stated he doesn’t feel bothered by this roadblock. The process has only started. Yet they say actions speak louder than words. According to Mark Carman of CHGO, it appears the Bears may have shifted plans back to Arlington Heights.
Source: The Bears have made progress in their discussions with Arlington Heights and the school district board for their stadium deal. The belief is that Kevin Warren’s timeline to get a deal done remains aggressive.
Warren said he’d like to start building the stadium by 2025, which means it would open in 2028. Based on the reception he’s gotten from the state politicians, he may have realized it would take too long to make any headway in a downtown facility. Meanwhile, Arlington Heights appears to have softened its stance on property taxes, realizing it ran the risk of that huge 326-acre plot of land going unused. Remember, the Bears own that property. They won’t have to get clearance from the state to use it. All they’d have to do is find the funding to build the stadium and surrounding property.
They already stated they could secure around $2.8 billion between their private coffers and help from the NFL. The problem was the $900 million in public money for infrastructure. Going with Arlington Heights would ease that burden considerably and also dodge the advocacy groups trying to protect public land on the lakefront. It might not fit the glitzy vision Warren had in mind. Still, it is by far the more viable route as things stand. The Chicago Bears will likely reach a decision by the end of this season.
