While financing for the Chicago Bears’ proposed new lakefront stadium remains in doubt, opponents of the plan have sent an unequivocal “hands off” message regarding any use of lakefront property for private interests.
Soldier Field
The Bears would pitch in $2 billion, plus use a $300 million loan from the NFL; billions more in taxpayer money would be used to finance the other half of the stadium as well as to make infrastructure improvements and add park and public space to the area.
Last week’s announcement of a proposed new domed, lakeside stadium brought with it more questions. Namely, the price tag.
Mayor Brandon Johnson enthusiastically endorsed the plans for a new stadium, calling the renderings of the futuristic oval-shaped stadium with a translucent roof “miraculous.”
The news that the Bears now want to remain the Chicago Bears in more than just name is the latest twist in the team’s high-profile search for their forever home that faces at least two major obstacles: the need for millions of dollars from taxpayers to subsidize the new stadium and an all-but-certain legal challenge.
As the Bears and White Sox are on the hunt for taxpayer cash to fund new stadiums, Quinn says it’s once again time to ask the voters what they think.
he defeat Tuesday of a three-eighths cent sales tax to fund a new downtown Royals ballpark and renovate the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium was almost assuredly not the end of the matter. Other teams and cities have faced similar setbacks, and that hasn’t slowed a wave of stadium construction underway across the U.S.
Should the former governor succeed, a nonbinding referendum would ask Chicago voters on Nov. 5: “Shall the people of Chicago provide any taxpayer subsidies to the Chicago Bears or the White Sox in order to build a stadium or a real estate development?”
Several news organizations on Monday morning reported that the team has backed off possible plans to build a stadium in suburban Arlington Heights and will instead now provide private funding for a new publicly owned stadium in Chicago.
Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks will headline a double-bill at Soldier Field on June 21, officials said Thursday morning.
As reports surfaced Thursday that the Bears were exploring Soldier Field’s south parking lot as a potential site for a new stadium, opposition immediately mobilized.
The Bears confirmed Williams, 53, submitted his resignation Wednesday morning. He had been with the team since February 2022.
The Chicago Bears have been stymied thus far in plans to win tax breaks to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights. That’s opened the door to other communities to try and lure the team, but Chicago might still be in the game. Could the city come up with a late comeback and lure the Bears to stay?
Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Bears President Kevin Warren met Wednesday, a clear sign that relations between the city and the Monsters of the Midway have thawed, which may set the stage for talks to keep the team in Chicago, if not at Soldier Field.
Conversations about alternate locations for a new Bears stadium have also reignited the possibility of the team sticking with the city, with a source telling WTTW News that talks between the city of Chicago and the team could resume as early as this week.
Building a stadium on the former Arlington Heights racetrack “is no longer our singular focus,” said Scott Hagel, the Bears senior vice president of marketing and communications.
