The Chicago Bears have been around since 1919, and they’ve played their home games at Soldier Field since the early 1970s, but that will change when the team makes its inevitable move to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
The current owner, Virginia Halas McCaskey, is 99 years old and is the daughter of team founder and former coach and player, George “Papa Bear” Halas, and her son, George H. McCaskey, is the team chairman. The McCaskey family owns 80% of the franchise, with Andy McKenna and insurance billionaire Patrick Ryan buying the other 20% stake in 1990, according to Forbes.
The Bears purchased the Arlington Heights Racecourse property for $197.2 million in 2021, and the sale of the property is expected to close in the first half of 2023. A September 2021 report by the Chicago Tribune estimated the cost of the new stadium in Arlington Heights would be around $2 billion. The report also noted that considering the public funded $432 million of a near-$700 million Soldier Field renovation in 2003, it wouldn’t be likely to see that happen if and when the Bears build a new stadium.
Now, a new report courtesy of the Tribune is suggesting the public might be involved more than initially thought.
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Arlington Heights Mayor Weighs in on Public Funding
Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes said in a recent interview with the Tribune that while the stadium won’t be anywhere near fully funded by the public, limited fiscal support from area residents and interested donors is now being explored and considered.
“People would love to see the Bears come, but they don’t want their property taxes to increase, and they don’t want traffic nightmares,” Hayes told the Chicago Tribune in an April 4 report. “We’re still in the process of evaluating what we might be able to do from a financial perspective. … We want to make this happen, so we’ll have to see what their needs and our abilities are, and try to balance the two.”
He then got specific about how this might work.
“Such help might come in the form of a tax increment financing district or another local tax district that would use the site’s property taxes to pay for roads, sewers and other infrastructure,” Hayes said. “Any proposal would be subject to a public hearing. With the Bears hoping to do a deal by early 2023, Hayes said, a public hearing would likely be before the end of this year.”
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New Bears GM & Head Coach Have Expedited Process, Hayes Says
According to the Tribune, since new Bears general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus were both hired in January, the team “seems to be working more quickly to investigate the Arlington site.”
Hayes also seems certain the new stadium is happening.
“We’re past the hypothetical stage,” he said. “They’re doing their due diligence in terms of potential infrastructure and roadway improvements, who all the stakeholders are, and how we might work with them to get all those questions answered to make it a viable site.”
It’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds and how much public money will actually be used to support the new stadium, but at least one Bears legend is having some fun with it:
If @elonmusk can buy 9% of @Twitter, can I buy 9% of Da @ChicagoBears?
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Bears’ New Arlington Heights Stadium Sees Doors Open for Public Funding: Report