Details for the Chicago Bears’ new stadium in Arlington Heights are difficult to come by. That is because not everything is set in stone yet. However, it sounds like the McCaskey family and their advisors are close. An announcement was made next Thursday they’ll unveil a presentation with their plan for the 326-acre property. Fans are dying to know what the stadium will look like. Will it be a dome or open-air? What state-of-the-art amenities will be involved? What about the travel situation?
All valid questions. However, there is another that is prevalent—seating capacity. Soldier Field was notorious for being the smallest stadium among all NFL teams at just 61,500 seats. Embarrassing for such a large fanbase. The new building will obviously house more, but nobody knows how much more. Will they seek to join the Giants, Jets, Packers, and Cowboys by crossing the 80,000 threshold or something more modest? Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune got answers to that from expert Marc Ganis.
“I doubt they will go that large (the 81,441 capacity of Lambeau Field in Green Bay),” Ganis told me. “I would think the high-60s would be the right number. There’s an odd cost factor associated with the geometry of the stadium. The most expensive seats to construct are the seats that are the furthest away from the field as you expand the building. As you increase the capacity, you have to expand the size of the entire building. So you add five rows at the top of the stadium to add another few thousand seats. Those are the most expensive seats to build while being the seats that generate the lowest revenue.
“Is it 66,000? 69,000? Do they have an ability to have standing room to get it to 72,000? That is the general range.”
Chicago Bears seem to be following the Allegiant Stadium blueprint.
The architects who designed and built the Las Vegas Raiders’ new building are advising the McCaskeys. Allegiant has a capacity of 65,000. Now the fanbase in Vegas is considerably smaller than Chicago, so it’s a fair bet the Bears will go slightly bigger than that. So the estimate seems about right, somewhere between 66,000 and 70,000. That should make for a much more spacious stadium with extra standing room to accommodate fans.
Maybe the McCaskeys hatch a surprise, but that doesn’t feel likely. They aren’t the type of owners to overreach on things. They don’t mind spending money, but it has to be within reason. It will be interesting if they decide to buck tradition by going with a dome, ending a century of the Chicago Bears playing outdoors. September 8th figures to be an exciting day once details finally come out.
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Did you just serious type that the McCaskeys don’t mind spending money? Find a new job if you’re convinced of that….that invalidates your whole career.
This is a great opportunity for the Bears to finally be able to play in a state of the art stadium at home. I hope they think big because they finally have a GM who is going to make them a perennial contender.
Who cares about a super bowl being hosted? Screw that.
Honestly, I hate Soldier Field and would love to see it moved to Arlington, but I will always now miss Arlington Park horse racing. Had some really awesome times there over the years. I’ll never go see a Bears games as football is better on TV unless you go there specifically to tailgate. But even then, who’s going to drive home?
Who cares, the common “slub” will not be able to afford to go anyway.
It’ll be just enough to host a Superbowl, & it will have a retractable roof