For months, the Chicago Bears haven’t made any definitive statement about their true stadium hopes. When Ted Phillips was still team president, it was obvious he wanted to build that mecca in Arlington Heights after purchasing the Arlington Racecourse International property. However, things took a significant shift when Kevin Warren replaced him. As school districts in Arlington Heights worked hard to stall progress on a stadium with demands for high property taxes, the Bears suddenly shifted their approach.
Warren met with other potential stadium sites until he met with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. When it became clear there was mutual interest in potentially keeping the Bears downtown, work began finding a site. The South Lot near Soldier Field seemed to gain the most traction. Still, nobody was ready to come out and say this was the Bears’ new intention. That changed at the league meetings in Orlando this week. Warren spoke to the media for 30 minutes, finally making his intentions clear.
Chicago is now the priority. If he has his way, the organization will have a new lakefront stadium there in the near future.
Kevin Warren isn’t the only one driving this.
There are whispers the NFL itself might prefer this outcome. Keeping the team downtown is good for television and has greater revenue opportunities. With Lori Lightfoot and her regime out of the way, the path seems clearer for the Bears to get something done. They may also have an ally in the form of the Chicago White Sox. The baseball organization is also seeking a new stadium. Reports suggest the two sides may work together, pooling their resources to work with the city on getting something done.
🔥 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel to hear Chicago legends tell stories you’ve never seen in headlines — real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.
Whatever the case may be, it’s clear the Chicago Bears hope to build momentum towards a state-of-the-art dome complex on the South Lot. Kevin Warren said it should be three years once shovels are in the ground. There figures to be plenty of resistance to this idea, especially from advocacy groups trying to protect public land along the lakefront. They prevented a George Lucas museum in that location a few years ago. It seems logical they would battle to do the same to the Bears’ stadium hopes. That would prove difficult if they find enough support among the city’s politicians.
