The Chicago Bears have called Soldier Field home since the early 1970s. They’ve called Chicago itself home since the 1920s. How would people react if that were no longer the case? Not to say the team moves to an entirely new city. More of a shift away from downtown to the suburbs. The Bears have always played their football in close vicinity to the lakefront. Could that somehow change?
What might shock a lot of younger fans is it almost happened already. Twice. It’s easy to forget that the organization has flirted with the idea of moving the team to Arlington Heights. First George Halas nearly made the jump in 1975, hoping to put a new stadium next to Arlington Racetrack. Money issues got out of hand though and the idea was dropped. Then Michael McCaskey reopened the exploration towards the end of the 1980s. There were discussions but eventually they quieted too.
According to Brian Hanley of ESPN 1000, whispers continue that the McCaskey family could finally make the move at some point.
Kevin Kaduk of Midway Minute elaborated on this wild scenario.
“With the long-term fate of Arlington Park Racetrack up in the air after owner Churchill Downs passed on a casino, the thought of the site one day luring a high-tech Bears stadium has been mentioned more than a few times.
It won’t happen anytime soon, of course. The Bears’ lease with the Park District for Soldier Field goes until 2033 and we all remember how long it took the team to force that renovation. (Seems crazy to think it’s been finished for 17 years now.)
But the problems that existed when engineers shoehorned that spaceship in between the columns still remain.”
Chicago Bears fate could depend on Virginia McCaskey
It’s not hard to see why ownership would be interested in this. A move out of the city would alleviate traffic and parking issues. It would allow them to add more seats to the new stadium. Remember Soldier Field has the lowest fan capacity in the NFL. An additional 20,000 people every Sunday is a lot of money to bring in. Obviously there would be a ton of red tape to wade through for this to happen.
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Yet much of it could be set in motion by a crisis of ownership. Kaduk believes the eventual death of Virginia McCaskey, who is 97, could set the wheels in motion. It might eventually lead her children to sell off their inherited shares, paving the way for new majority ownership. Without her keeping things status quo, this would streamline the idea of a shift to the suburbs.
George McCaskey has gone on record saying that will never, ever happen. Of course, things change and it’s unclear whether he has enough power within the organization to stop such a sequence of events. It will be some time before any of this happens. Still, the fact it remains a possibility 45 years later says a lot.
