ORLANDO, Fla. — Building a stadium on the Chicago lakefront would give the Bears “the best opportunity for success,” president and CEO Kevin Warren said Tuesday at the NFL’s annual meetings.
It was the latest declaration from the Bears that playing downtown — not on the 326-acre property they bought in Arlington Heights for $197.2 million — is their preferred course of action.
“Right now, we’re putting our energy to downtown Chicago, to the museum campus, just from an energy and resource standpoint,” Warren said.
As for Arlington Heights?
“We are the largest landowner in Arling-ton Heights right now,” Warren said. “We own a beautiful piece of land. . . . 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.”
The Bears took issue with the property-tax appraisal on the former Arlington International Racecourse site.
“One of the concerns with Arlington was, if we couldn’t even have a resolution of short-term property taxes, how did that bode for the next 40 years?” chairman George McCaskey told the Sun-Times.
Earlier this month, the team said its focus had shifted from the suburbs back to the city. McCaskey argued that approach made sense, saying he didn’t “know of another team that more closely identifies with the character and the nature of the city.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he discussed the matter with Mayor Brandon Johnson on the phone recently.
“I understand what he expects and what he hopes to be able to create in the city of Chicago,” Goodell said. “[I’m] also very aware of what’s being proposed in Arlington. I think they’re both exciting options. But there’s a long ways to go with this.
“I don’t think any of us have said, ‘This is where we want to be’ or ‘This is where we want to do it.’ You respect the process, you go through the process, and hopefully determine the best thing for our fans, for our team and overall for the community.”
Warren had an introductory meeting Thursday with Friends of the Parks, the group that successfully scuttled filmmaker George Lucas’ planned museum south of Soldier Field eight years ago. Among the issues discussed were a domed stadium, opening up green space by 20% and adding other amenities to the lakefront.
“I understand their mindset because I feel the same way,” Warren said. “I want the lakefront to remain beautiful also.”
A dome would allow Chicago to host the Super Bowl (although cold-weather cities typically do so only once), as well as Final Fours, Big Ten championships and other sporting and entertainment events.
The Bears have promised to give $2 billion of their own money to build a publicly owned stadium but likely would require at least $1 billion worth of infrastructure for the museum campus. Asked about the public dollars needed for that infrastructure, Warren said he didn’t know the exact details.
“One thing that I can guarantee you: I am fiscally conservative, and I am financially responsible,” he said. “So anything that we recommend from a financial standpoint will be very well thought-out.”
Plans for the museum campus would include expanding or moving stadium exits from DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
McCaskey called the campus a jewel of the city.
“But it needs better access,” he said. “And this is an opportunity to provide that and bring out all that the museum campus has to offer. And I think if we do it right, it will be great for the museums, great for Bears fans, great for the people of the city of Chicago and great for the region.”
The Bears have held meetings and formed a partnership with the White Sox, who are seeking a new baseball stadium in the South Loop, to form what McCaskey called “an understanding about public financing to make both projects succeed.” Warren said he didn’t feel the Bears were competing with the Sox for the same money.
“With the intellectual horsepower that we have in Chicago, we should be able to figure this out,” Warren said.
But it’s complicated. Beside questions of public funding, the Bears would have to find a way to make up for the revenue they’d lose by not owning their own stadium, as they would in Arlington Heights.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll have enough opportunities and enough say in the management of any facility on the museum campus that it will be a workable situation for us,” McCaskey said.
Warren, who lives downtown, said he’s so focused on business there that he counts the construction cranes when he drives. He cited a Sports Business Journal story earlier this month that didn’t include Chicago as one of the 25 best sports business cities. Orlando, Florida, was voted No. 1.
He wouldn’t give a timeline for the Bears’ plans moving forward. Stadiums typically take three years from the start of construction to completion, but the Bears have a long way to go to get a shovel in the ground.
“We’re getting close to having a plan ready to take public,” Warren said.
He wants progress in the next nine months.
“I really believe that this is the year that we have to pull together and collectively — across the state and across the city and the county — do everything we possibly can, in a manner that makes sense,” Warren said. “Not being reckless, but in a manner that makes sense to pull together.”
