Arlington Heights Village Trustee Jim Tinaglia was elected as the new mayor of the northwest Chicago suburb Tuesday, and a day later, he was weighing in on the conditions that would have to be met for a new Chicago Bears stadium to succeed there.
Tinaglia said he supports a new Bears stadium in Arlington Heights, but the franchise and the village need to come to an agreement on common goals.
"The common goals are win-win — win-win meaning the Bears. I know the Bears have to have a good solution. Otherwise, they're not going to come," he said. "But they have to know that our residents need a good solution. Otherwise, we can't let them come."
Tinaglia said there are four items that need to be taken care of for a new Bears stadium in Arlington Heights to succeed.
"Number one, the development has to be safe," he said. "It has to be really well thought-out, so safety is paramount."
Tinaglia said the economics of the stadium plan also have to work for both the Bears and the village, so as to make sure "everybody wins financially on this."
"Third, traffic has to be really well thought-out and controlled. We can't have our neighborhoods wrecked because traffic wasn't thought out well enough," he said, "and fourth, the infrastructure — whether that's stormwater management, and roads, and everything else, fire, police — all of those things have to be well thought out."
Tinaglia has also expressed concerns about strains on village staffing as a result of the stadium.
Tinaglia's comments came the same day Chicago Bears President Kevin Warren addressed the new media at the NFL owners' meeting, and spoke glowingly of the Arlington Heights location. Warren said the franchise is now focused on both Arlington Heights and the lakefront — in a shift from recent discussions.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday also reiterated his preference for the team to stay in the city of Chicago.
The prospect of the Bears moving to the former Arlington International Racecourse property in Arlington Heights dates back to 2021, when the team first bid on the property. The Bears ultimately bought the site for $197 million in February of 2023. Demolition of the grandstand and other structures on the site was completed in October of last year.
For some time, it seemed as if a new Bears stadium in Arlington Heights was all but a done deal. When he first signed on in January 2023, Warren said the Bears' sole focus for a new stadium was in Arlington Heights.
But months later, the team put the Arlington Heights plan on the back burner in favor of building their new stadium along the Chicago lakefront.
In April 2024, the Bears announced a $4.7 billion plan for a new domed lakefront stadium complex, including added green space and other amenities on the Museum Campus and their current home at Soldier Field just to the north of the proposed new stadium.
The plan called for $900 million in public financing in upfront costs and another $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds for infrastructure improvements around the stadium.
While Mayor Brandon Johnson came out in favor of the proposal, Pritzker in May 2024 called the Bears' proposal a "nonstarter."
In November 2024, month, the Bears suggested they were considering building on yet another site—the former Michael Reese Hospital site in Bronzeville.
Meanwhile, Arlington Heights has come back into the picture as a possible stadium site. The Bears reached a tentative deal over property taxes in November 2024, and the village board approved an agreement between the Bears and nearby school districts the following month.
Marie Saavedra
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Marie Saavedra joined the CBS2 Chicago news team in October 2020 as an anchor. She grew up in Evanston and is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism.