Bears shift focus on new stadium location to Arlington Heights; downtown still in play

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Chicago Bears have shifted focus, publicly, back to the Arlington Heights site for their future stadium.

President and CEO Kevin Warren and chairman George McCaskey addressed reporters Wednesday morning after the conclusion of the annual league meeting at The Breakers. While both kept the museum campus, where Soldier Field resides, open as an option for a new stadium, there has been a clear change in tone when discussing the Arlington Heights site that the team purchased in 2022.

“The focus now is both downtown and Arlington Heights,” Warren said. “Now the pace will definitely pick up and we’re fortunate to have optionality and … downtown from a museum campus standpoint, there’s been some discussion about the Michael Reese site, but then also Arlington Heights is, I keep going back to it, it’s an absolutely fantastic piece of land. I thank George and his family for having the foresight.”

Last year at this meeting, then in Orlando, Warren first presented the team’s plan as centered on a new stadium on the museum campus. A month later, the Bears, along with Mayor Brandon Johnson, gave a presentation at Soldier Field with their plans.

At every opportunity over the past year, Warren never ruled out Arlington Heights but would often only describe the site in terms of the Bears being the largest landowners in the suburb.

“Right now, we’re putting our energy to downtown Chicago, to the museum campus, just from an energy and resource standpoint,” Warren said last March. “So we still own the land. We’re the largest landowner. We’ll stay in communication with Arlington Heights, but the focus now has to be on Chicago to give us the best opportunity for success.”

Now, after failing to get support from legislative sessions in Springfield and benefitting from the memorandum of understanding the Arlington Heights Village Board voted on in December, the Bears are speaking about that site the way they did in 2022, before Warren took over as president.

“To be able to find 326 acres that close to a wonderful city is difficult to do. I don’t know if it exists anywhere in the country,” Warren said Wednesday. “I feel really good with the options downtown and then especially with Arlington Heights.”

Warren noted the Michael Reese Hospital site is a third option but that it’s a narrow site. When speaking about Arlington Heights, Warren went through its benefits.

“One thing about Arlington Heights, I always try to look for the positive elements,” he said. “To have that beautiful piece of land that has great topography — you can actually see downtown from there. To have the Salt Creek that runs in between it, it’s almost split equally from an acreage standpoint. And you think of the Metra spots, it has an Arlington Park location there.”

He did mention, too, that the Bears have never owned their own stadium in their 105-year history, which would be another perk in Arlington Heights.

“Arlington Heights is unique,” Warren said. “I don’t think there’s another piece of land like this in the world. Because the biggest thing for me as I represent the family’s interests, I not only look at this generation, but I really say it and I seriously mean it — this is a decision that will impact this franchise for the next 100 years. And my biggest thing that my focus will continue to be on is the fan experience.”

The stadium renderings the Bears unveiled last April as part of their museum campus plan would still work in Arlington Heights, Warren said.

While Warren has made this public shift in a year to speaking glowingly about Arlington Heights, he says it’s always something he has thought about throughout the process.

“I dream all the time, and there have been many times I’ve driven out to the property to be able to just think about what could happen,” he said. “You look around the NFL, and even at Tottenham when we were there last year, there were people there who were living across the street. When you start thinking about building a world-class, fixed-roof stadium, to host Chicago Bears games, college football games, Big Ten championship games, Final Fours, Super Bowls — to be able to bid for a Super Bowl — WWE, UFC, boxing matches, concerts, all those different things. The economic value that would bring to our community is astronomical. It doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. And then you start weaving in mixed-use development, hotels, housing, restaurants, it does really create a destination. And downtown and Arlington Heights are both in Cook County, which is good and I think is important to understand.”

Tax certainty, in any location, is a major consideration. In December, the Arlington Heights Village Board voted unanimously to set the Bears’ taxes at $3.6 million per year at the Arlington Park site.

“We still have a long way to go. I mean I think the biggest things at Arlington Heights — any location for the stadium — will always be tax certainty. That’s critically important,” Warren said. “We are always focused on being great corporate citizens. We want to pay taxes. We just want to make sure they are rational and reasonable and they’re not exorbitant and they’re not raised at some point in the future. So we have some certainty in a limited period of time, but we’re working on and making sure we can get long-term certainty.”

Warren reiterated that the Bears will fund the stadium and all of its construction but would need public subsidies “from an infrastructure standpoint, and that’s just roads and sewers and highways and transportation.”

The goal remains to have a shovel in the ground in 2025, Warren said. And that certainly seems to be looking more and more like it’ll be in Arlington Heights. A spring legislative session would provide another opportunity for the Bears’ plans in Chicago, and Warren expects more clarity in the next few months.

“Two great locations: downtown and Arlington,” McCaskey said. “Both have their pluses and minuses. Both present fantastic opportunities and we’ll just have to see how it plays out.

“George Halas identified (Arlington Heights) more than 50 years ago as an ideal place for a Bears stadium, and I don’t know if anything that’s happened since then changed that evaluation. As Kevin mentioned, it’s pad ready, it’s got the Metra stop, plenty of acreage, topography is good. It can be an outstanding, beautiful green space with enhancements to Salt Creek, but the downtown locations have their advantages, too. Kevin has said it since he’s been here. Beautiful spot by the lake. It’s idyllic and if there were sufficient improvements in infrastructure to make that location accessible 365 days of the year, it can be a fantastic opportunity as well.”

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

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