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The Chicago Bears have been trying to build a new stadium for quite some time. Chicago continues to play at Soldier Field while they explore options for building a new stadium outside of the city. The team has also explored plans for building a huge lakefront stadium along Lake Michigan. Chicago is now shifting its focus on where it plans to build a new stadium.
Bears team president and CEO Kevin Warren explained on Wednesday that the team is expanding their options for a new stadium. Warren said Chicago will consider Arlington Heights, Illinois as another potential venue for a new stadium.
“The focus now is both downtown and Arlington Heights,” Warren said via ESPN's Courtney Cronin. “These are not linear processes or projects. They take time, they take a lot of energy and effort. I am very, very pleased with where we are. I think we, collectively as a group, are where we thought we would be.”
The Bears purchased the land in Arlington Heights for $197.2 million in the fall of 2021. They have not begun developing the land since that time.
When purchased, the land was expected to become a multibillion-dollar stadium project that features restaurants, retail space, and real estate per Cronin.
The Bears have brought up the Arlington Heights location before while planning where to build their new stadium.
Bears still hoping to begin construction on news stadium in 2025
The Bears may still be uncertain about where to build their new stadium. However, they still have a clear deadline in mind to move the project forward.
Warren noted that the team has made “progress” with Arlington Heights, but there is still much work to be done.
“Because these projects are so complex and so difficult, they're literally virtually impossible to do if you don't have all hands on deck and everyone committed,” Warren said. “Even if you have that they're difficult. So that was important to see the focus on it.”
Bears owner George McCaskey noted that private equity could be used as part of the plan to finance the construction of the new stadium.
“Yes, my goal still remains, to be able to move dirt around in 2025, which is important because there's a lot of preconstruction work that needs to go into these projects, whether you're at the museum campus, Michael Reese [hospital site] or downtown, to get things ready to go, and so we're only one-quarter of the way through the year,” Warren said.
Hopefully the Bears can get approval for their new stadium site as soon as possible.
