Bears, Without State Funding, Officially Pivot Stadium to Suburbs

Just hours before hosting their season opener on Monday Night Football at Soldier Field, the Bears declared their days along the downtown Chicago lakefront as officially numbered. 

The team said Monday afternoon in an open letter it is now pursuing suburban Arlington Heights, Ill., for a new domed stadium. The Bears own 326 acres of land at the site of the former Arlington International Racecourse, but they had previously sought a downtown stadium, in part due to a tax dispute with officials in the suburban locale. 

Since then, though, the effort to build a $4.7 billion stadium near Soldier Field has run into significant obstacles from political leaders and community organizers. Negotiations surrounding the Arlington Heights tax issue, meanwhile, have improved considerably, though they are not yet finalized. As those situations developed, the racecourse location has become the sole focus for the Bears in recent weeks.

“We are partnering with political, labor, business, and community leaders across Illinois to develop a plan for property tax certainty and a fair contribution toward essential infrastructure that will benefit the entire community,” Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren wrote. “Arlington Heights is the only site within Cook County that meets that standard. It allows us to better serve our fan base and deliver a truly transformative and elevated gameday experience.

“Moving outside of the city of Chicago is not a decision we reached easily,” Warren continued. “This project does not represent us leaving, it represents us expanding.”

The stadium pursuit has been a key focus for Warren since he took the Bears job in April 2023. 

Reworked Economics 

Notably, Warren said the new location “requires zero money from the State of Illinois.” That is a significant departure from the downtown plan, which originally called for half the costs funded with public money but ran into heavy resistance, particularly from Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 

The Bears have not detailed the specifics of a revised stadium financing plan and related infrastructure, but it is now expected to be based heavily, if not entirely, on private funds. There has been no retreat, however, in the core vision for the project. The team’s goal is to build a domed stadium capable of hosting major events such as the Super Bowl, Final Four, and College Football Playoff—all competitions currently out of reach for the No. 3 U.S. media market.

To that end, Warren said the Bears aim to host a Super Bowl as soon as 2031, something that would likely require a groundbreaking no later than 2027, and ideally, next year. Getting to that, however, requires plans to be finalized in the next few months, and to that end, Warren wrote, “this is the year” to get that done. 

“This is the type of venue and destination that you all have deserved for years, and we are working every day to make progress,” Warren wrote. “This stadium will allow us to have the best home-field advantage in the National Football League. While we do not yet have all the answers, we are optimistic about working with the Village of Arlington Heights to obtain necessary approvals and begin building our new home.”

The Bears host the Vikings on ESPN and ABC in a game that concludes the league’s opening week of play.