The Chicago Bears have bounced back and forth on their stadium plans for years now. It started with Arlington Heights when they purchased the Churchill Downs property for just shy of $200 million. However, things took a significant shift when a standoff ensued on property taxes. New team president Kevin Warren made it clear his intentions were to keep the team downtown in the city, preferably on the museum campus south of Soldier Field. Unfortunately, the state government has offered zero support for such an idea.
Warren hasn’t backed down since then, insisting progress is being made despite no outward evidence. Meanwhile, the property tax issue in Arlington Heights was resolved. Word is the Bears are about to take another key step in the process of building the stadium there if that is their wish. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune didn’t bother dancing around the subject. Based on his understanding of the situation, it wouldn’t be surprising if an announcement came sooner than later.
Arlington has the inside track now.
There was a little buzz during the week that the Bears might be making progress on the stadium initiative that has seen very little progress since it began. President/CEO Kevin Warren hasn’t just doubled down on the idea the project will get rolling in 2025 — he has tripled down, saying repeatedly he expects a shovel to be in the ground this year.
The only place that makes any sense is the Arlington Heights property the team owns, and Mayor Tom Hayes told the Tribune’s Robert McCoppin on Thursday that, while “there’s certainly no done deal yet,” the team will submit traffic and financial studies soon.
The Bears have spent a year — and who knows how much money — focused on a lakefront project that has gone nowhere. I’d imagine they’ll do their very best to control the message and timing. I can envision an email on a random Wednesday this spring announcing a news conference at 11 a.m. the next day. It would take something unexpected, in my opinion, for this to happen anywhere but Arlington Heights.
The Chicago Bears have their course.
It might not be what Warren wanted, but nobody besides him cares at this point. Fans just want the team to get started on the new stadium. Arlington Heights is a good location with plenty of potential. It might end the team’s longstanding streak of playing in the city limits, but things change. The park district had jerked the Chicago Bears around for years with their unwillingness to modernize Soldier Field. This outcome was always coming. It was only a matter of when. Arlington gives them the chance to own the entire property for the first time in franchise history. There is zero reason to deviate from that just because you happen to like the skyline shots on national television. No matter what Warren says, it looks like a direction was chosen for him.
Well stupid sally…I can afford to go to games anywhere I want. And I have 10 free range chickens on my 25 ac compound that I get eggs from everyday to the point of giving some away to others in need. Will definitely go back to Chicago to see the Bears in AH. Would be like an away game for me now. As of now Tampa and Nashville are on the bucket list to see the Bears
My HC Ben
44444
555555
44444
555555
44444
555555
44444
555555
44444
555555
I think this whole thing was posturing, you don’t spend 200 million dollars on property and not use it, especially the very Frugal McCaskey family. Virginia was still with us, and you know she was all about the Bears. So really this was a done deal when they bought the property, but the school district of AH wanted to get greedy.
“It might not be what Warren wanted, ….” Or, it might be just what Warren wanted, but he also wanted the leverage of another possible site to drive a much more favorable deal with the city of Arlington Heights. If he talked up the lakefront for several months to get that, and people think that’s a bad look for him, he doesn’t really give a pile of rat excrement what people think as long as he builds a state of the art stadium that can host a Super Bowl and keep the team in the black. That would also help… Read more »
@I dug Plank….im with you brother