Getty Head coach Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears
If the Chicago Bears do decide to leave legendary Soldier Field, they may wind up sharing their new stadium. The Bears have been the only professional football team in the city of Chicago for the span of recent memory, but that may change.
The Chicago Cardinals’ time in the Windy City overlapped with the Bears for 39 years. The Cardinals played in Chicago from 1920-1959, but the Monsters of the Midway have owned the city ever since. Now, according to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, should the Bears decide to continue looking into a move to Arlington Heights, another NFL franchise could eventually join them.
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Florio Names Chicago & London as Top Cities for NFL Expansion Teams
On a recent episode of his podcast, Florio discussed the NFL’s recent addition of a 17th game, and what the future of the league may hold. He named Chicago, San Diego and London as the most likely cities to receive another franchise, should the league decide to expand again, as it has multiple times in the past.
“I think there’s room for two teams in London,” Florio said on July 9. “I think the NFL is looking at this in a linear fashion. First, they got to 17 games. Next, they’ll get to 18 games … The only way to increase the inventory of total games after you get to an 18-game season is to expand the number of teams. More teams, more games.”
Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks were added in 1976, the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars were added in 1995 and myriad moves and relocations have also been made. It would be no surprise if history repeats itself again.
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The Potential Move to Arlington Heights is Key
The Bears submitted a bid to purchase the Arlington Heights International Racecourse property last month, and with a feasible out in their current contract with Soldier Field coming in 2026, a move out of the Windy City seems more than a tad possible.
“This whole Chicago/Arlington Heights thing has gone from not even a whisper to a roar in just a few weeks,” Florio added. “If the Bears are going to be building their own stadium, state-of-the-art, maximum revenue streams, No. 3 market in the nation — and the No. 1 market (New York) has two teams, the No. 2 market (Los Angeles) has two teams — I think Chicago would be a potential site for either relocation or expansion.”
Florio also wrote the following just last month:
Could Chicago become the third American city to host a pair of football teams in one stadium? It’s not as crazy as it may sound at first blush. Stadium politics will compel some owners who can’t get free money to build or renovate stadiums in their existing cities to consider other alternatives. If Bears build their own stadium (like Rams owner Stan Kroenke has done), adding another team to the mix and the extra 10 home games per year that go along with it, a team in a market that can’t or won’t pay for all or most of a new or renovated stadium could be inclined to make the move. … Other than London — which quite possibly will end up with two teams in its two NFL-ready stadiums — Chicago may be the only viable spot for a team. Especially if the relocation/expansion of a team to Chicago makes it more financially viable for the Bears to buy and build a replacement for Soldier Field.
Whether the Bears eventually have to share their stadium with another NFL franchise remains to be seen — but it’s certainly a situation that bears watching, bad pun and all.
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