Team president Kevin Warren has spent months making a determined push to build a new lakefront stadium for the Chicago Bears south of Soldier Field. The plan was for it to be established on the Museum Campus, driven by a massive private investment. It sounded great on paper. The problem is it immediately ran into opposition from several local groups, especially Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and his state legislature. They have zero interest in using public money to help fund what would be a ludicrously expensive gloried vanity project.
Since then, there has been no movement on talks. With 2024 coming to a close, it appears Warren has elected to shift gears. Rather than keep banging their heads against the wall, the Bears have discussed a different downtown option. Justin Laurence of Chicago Business revealed the details.
The Chicago Bears are calling an audible after their push to land a deal in Springfield to finance a new domed stadium south of Soldier Field appears to have stalled out.
After publicly labeling the former Michael Reese hospital site as unsuitable for the new venue, the team is said to be reconsidering the 49-acre property south of McCormick Place in hopes of jump-starting discussions with politicians to keep the team in Chicago, according to sources familiar with the talks.
The advantages of this move are straightforward.
Building on the Michael Reese campus would demand less public money and fill an area of downtown land that has been vacant for several years. Putting a stadium there might finally bring back tourists to the area, driving up revenue for the local businesses. Jim Reynolds of Loop Capital is getting credit for swaying Warren on the idea.
The financial structure for a Michael Reese campus is not known, but the Bears understand a larger private investment is needed and may hope planting the stadium on a long-vacant South Side development could gain more political support, especially among the Chicago delegation in the state capitol…
…Loop Capital CEO Jim Reynolds is said to have played an instrumental role in convincing Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren to take a second look at the site and has emerged as a broker between the team, politicians and the developers.
The advantages don’t end there.
Since the plot of land isn’t owned by the Chicago Park District, it won’t result in a battle with local advocacy groups, particularly Friends Of The Parks. For years, they have put up the strongest resistance to building anything along the lakefront. Word is they are much more open to the Michael Reese idea.
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Despite the team’s initial reluctance, there are advantages the Michael Reese site has over the Museum Campus, including that it could avoid a fight with Friends of the Parks, a park advocacy group that has threatened a lawsuit to prevent a new stadium south of Soldier Field on land owned by the Chicago Park District.
Friends of the Parks joined local politicians, including Robinson, earlier this year in calling for the Bears to consider the Michael Reese site.
The Chicago Bears have finally accepted reality.
It was clear from the jump that a lakefront venue just south of Soldier Field would never get off the ground. Pritzker had his heels dug in and made it clear there would be no discussing the matter unless the Bears planned to fund the entire project themselves. Warren had hoped with some discussions, the two sides might reach a compromise. That hasn’t happened. Remember, the Bears president made it clear his goal is to have shovels in the ground by next year. If things kept going at this pace, he would’ve had to move that deadline back. That isn’t something he seems prepared to do.
Moving to Michael Reese feels like a viable compromise. It’s still downtown, close to the lakefront, not currently in use or protected by rights activists, and is still plenty big enough to build a sprawling, revenue-generating property. The biggest hurdle remains the same, though. Can the Chicago Bears bring Pritzker to the negotiating table with a proposal he would accept? It appears this might be their best shot.
