Chicago Bears still ‘extremely focused' on Arlington Heights for site of new stadium

New York Times

3 days ago

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Chicago Bears president/CEO Kevin Warren said Friday that the franchise remains 'extremely focused' on Arlington Heights as the site of a future new stadium.
'We strongly believe that is the only location in Cook County that will allow us to build a stadium, a new Chicago Bears stadium with a fixed roof,' Warren said at Halas Hall. 'We are making great progress.'
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Warren said the team is having weekly meetings with the Village of Arlington Heights. The Bears hoped that the 'mega project' bill would pass in May, but it didn't even get to a vote. Next up would be a potential October vote.
'It is very, very important that it passes,' Warren said. 'Because without that legislation, we are not able to proceed forward.'
The bill would provide property tax certainty for companies that back a 'mega project' in the state.
'There's been some conversation that people have said this is a Chicago Bears bill,' Warren said. 'Would the Bears benefit from this mega project, property tax bill, from a property tax standpoint? Absolutely. But this is a jobs bill. The climate that we are in, from an economic standpoint locally but also from a national standpoint, especially here in the state of Illinois, people need to be put to work. You're talking about this stadium project that would create over 56,000 construction jobs, 9,100 permanent jobs.'
Warren said if the bill were to pass in October, that the goal would be 'to move dirt this year' and then 'hopefully break ground next year.' He said the stadium design is done.
'This is a world-class facility for a world-class fan base. Chicagoland deserves it,' chairman George McCaskey said. 'We're missing out on major events. It's a great opportunity to provide jobs both on a temporary basis and permanent basis, and it's a chance to attract major events to the greatest city in the world. The village of Arlington Heights would benefit. The city of Chicago would benefit. The county of Cook would benefit. And the great state of Illinois would benefit.'
The team first publicly shifted focus back to Arlington Heights in early April at the league meetings, following a year of trying to get a new stadium started in downtown Chicago on the Museum Campus near the Bears' permanent home since 1971, Soldier Field.
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The Bears signed an agreement to purchase the 326 acres in Arlington Heights in Sept. 2021. The next fall, they presented plans at Hersey High School for a stadium and surrounding infrastructure. They closed on the land in early 2023 before putting their focus on Chicago in 2024.
Warren didn't necessarily provide any new information since we heard from the Bears in April, other than to confirm the team's commitment to Arlington Heights and nowhere else. It also provided him with an opportunity to state the team's case for the mega project bill.
Meanwhile, McCaskey would not go into details about a report from Sportico that his family and the Ryan family agreed to share the two percent stake in the team held by the late Andrew McKenna. McCaskey did say, 'The important thing, as far as we're concerned, the thing that Bears fans might have on their minds, might be concerned about, is that the Halas-McCaskey family was, is, and will remain what the NFL calls 'the controlling owner' of the team.'
McCaskey did confirm that Edwards L. McCaskey, his nephew, has taken the vacant board seat held by Virginia McCaskey, the team's matriarch, who died in February.
'I told him, you have big shoes to fill, kid,' McCaskey said. 'He's been fantastic so far. He's bright. He's articulate. He asks great questions. He's eager to learn. And it's exciting to have the next generation of our family on the board.'
McCaskey reiterated what he said in April about the plan for ownership moving forward.
'We're together,' he said. 'I said then — she gave us the game plan, she coached us up, and we need to execute the game plan. Our goal is to remain owners of the Bears, my brother Pat says, until the second coming. I say another 100 years. Either of those would be great. But we've gotta stick together, that's the important thing.'
(Top photo of Bears helmet by Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
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