The former Arlington International Racecourse on March 12, 2024, in Arlington Heights, Illinois. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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During an appearance on the Fox broadcast of the Chicago Bears’ exhibition game on Sunday night, team president Kevin Warren provided a cheerful update about the team’s efforts to build a stadium on land it owns in the northwest suburbs.
The franchise’s goal is to “move dirt” before the end of 2025 in Arlington Heights, with a target of moving out of Soldier Field, the NFL’s oldest stadium, by 2028 or ’29. But Warren continues to link the start of construction to the Illinois legislature passing a so-called “mega projects” bill that would essentially freeze property taxes for large-scale construction projects, which Warren says would allow the team to proceed.
Warren and Bears Chairman George McCaskey had hoped the legislature would consider the measure in its regular 2025 session but it failed to reach the floor before adjournment on May 31. The state’s leaders reconvene in October but it remains unclear if stadium funding will be on the agenda.
“I haven’t talked to a single member about the Bears,” House Speaker Chris Welch told the Chicago Tribune. “(Legislators) are so focused on talking to their neighbors and getting (candidacy) petitions signed, and what they’re hearing at the doors is property taxes, grocery prices, gas prices — they’re talking about things around the kitchen table. You know what they’re not talking about? The Chicago Bears.”
The Bears have drawn up public-private funding plan that has the team and the NFL spending about $2.7 billion. They are seeking help on needed infrastructure improvements around the 326-acre site, which previously was home for the Arlington Park horse track.
Warren has been pitching the project as a stimulus for the local economy in recent interviews. He says the new stadium would create 56,000 jobs during construction and 9,000 permanent jobs.
But the team hasn’t found a path to getting beyond negative feelings that linger from the state funding a $632 million renovation of Soldier Field in 2002-03. The team extended its stadium lease to 2033 as a condition of that funding. The Tribune reports there is $525 million in outstanding public debt remaining from the project.
While the McCaskey family purchased the suburban acreage before hiring Warren, the former Big Ten commissioner and Minnesota Vikings executive once said his preference was a roofed stadium on a lot near Soldier Field. He briefly received support from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson but Illinois Governor JB Pritzker remains a consistent opponent of public funding for sports facilities.
Warren subsequently shifted the team’s focus to the Arlington Heights site.
“These things take time,” McCaskey told reporters during an appearance at training camp. “It’s on us to convince the governor and the state legislators that this is a good idea for the people of Illinois and we need to do a better job at that.”
The Tribune reports the Bears should brace themselves for requests from a variety of blocs within the legislature. The story from political reporters Rick Pearson, Jeremy Gorner and Olivia Olander says Chicago-based reps are likely to seek additional funding from the team to maintain Soldier Field or to contribute to schools and public transportation while downstate reps introduce their own local initiatives.
Warren said the fate of a new stadium is tied to the “mega projects” bill.
“It is very, very important that it passes because without that legislation, we are not able to proceed forward,” Warren said. “We stand ready. The stadium is designed. If that bill passes in October there are items we have to work on and, obviously, there is a process you have to follow with the village of Arlington Heights from an approval process. But obviously they are committed.”
Can the Bears pull this off on such a short timeline? They had better find a lot of friends fast.
Consider the perspective of John Curran of Downers Gove, who leads the GOP minority in the state senate. Like Welch, he seems to hear about the Bears more from the media than his constituents or Springfield peers.
“This has not been top of the list at all,” Curran told the Tribune. “We’re engaged with our Democratic colleagues on a lot of issues. This has not been one (of them).”