If the Bears want to make the most of a potential lakefront stadium, a state lawmaker whose district includes Soldier Field wants the team to think big — by using a little-known VIP busway to make the lakefront more accessible and surrounding a new stadium with an entertainment district to attract fans before and after games.
State Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, has long been an idea machine, as demonstrated by the ambitious plans he trotted out during his failed 2023 mayoral campaign.
Now, he’s got a ton of ideas about how to help the Bears finance a new domed stadium that could finally bring a Super Bowl and the NCAA Final Four to Chicago and use that project to solve several long-standing issues: transportation to and along the lakefront; the absence of bars, restaurants and entertainment venues around Soldier Field and the long-standing desire to turn surface parking lots into green space.
The key, Buckner said, is forging a partnership — not just with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which financed Soldier Field, but with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which has even larger bonding powers.
The governmental agency better known as “McPier” also operates the busway that whisks VIPs and conventiongoers to and from McCormick Place.
Developer Bob Dunn, who knows Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren from their days together building the $1.1 billion U.S. Bank Stadium for the Minnesota Vikings, wanted to use that busway as a cornerstone for his long-stalled One Central project.
Make lakefront access easier
Buckner thinks the roadway between Randolph Street and McCormick Place that former Mayor Rahm Emanuel dubbed “the Bat Cave” could be used to help make the lakefront more accessible.
“Right now, to get from McCormick Place to Soldier Field to Navy Pier, which should be seamless, is almost impossible,” Buckner told the Sun-Times.
“ I’ve heard folks talk about cable cars, like trolleys, up and down that VIP bus space. Or light rail,” he said. “I don’t know which one makes sense. ... But that has to be part of the conversation if this is gonna move forward.
“There may be some federal funds that can be leveraged here when it comes to connecting of the lakefront. This is a big, monumental project.”
To entice the Bears to stay in Chicago, a new lakefront stadium — “somewhere between the south parking lot and the McCormick Place East” building — also needs surrounding restaurants, bars and even a hotel, Buckner said.
That would make it a miniversion of the environment the team has dreamed of building at the 326-acre site of the old Arlington International Racecourse. The Bears spent $197.2 million to purchase that property, only to be stymied by a property tax stalemate with suburban school districts.
“What NFL teams have done recently is create a total fan experience outside of a football game. ... Much like the Ricketts family did, and I helped them work on with the Wrigley Field project,” said Buckner, who spent three years working for the Cubs.
Creating ‘a total fan experience’
“Right now, the Bears have a pretty bum deal. They can’t do much to Soldier Field in terms of parking and concessions. ... They can’t make it a total fan experience. A fan experience in Chicago really should be more than walking under Lake Shore Drive in frigid temperatures,” he said.
Forging a partnership with McPier would not only open the door to using the busway, but also unlock the bonding authority to finance a new stadium without forcing state lawmakers to, as Buckner put it, “choose between our children,” referring to the Bears and White Sox.
Those teams both hope to use the limited borrowing power of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, backed by the same two percentage point increase in the hotel tax that financed the Soldier Field renovation.
The developer working with the Sox on a potential South Loop stadium told the Sun-Times Monday he’s trying to forge a “financing partnership” with the Bears to pave the way for Chicago to build two new stadiums at the same time.
Related Midwest President Curt Bailey and spokesperson Tricia Van Horn had no immediate comment on Buckner’s ideas. Neither did the Bears.
Jason Lee, a senior adviser to Mayor Brandon Johnson, could not be reached. Neither could Dunn, who has a vested interest in keeping Soldier Field viable because of One Central, his dream of a $20 billion high-rise community. Dunn helped now former Mayor Lori Lightfoot craft her plan to put a dome over Soldier Field. Some observers expect him to surface in the Bears stadium sweepstakes.
Buckner said he does not believe the Lakefront Protection Ordinance would prevent a new lakefront stadium and entertainment district, though Friends of the Parks has vowed the same court fight that prompted movie mogul George Lucas to abandon putting his interactive museum on Lake Michigan and move it to Los Angeles.
That ordinance “says no new private construction east of DuSable Lake Shore Drive,” Buckner said. “If the Bears partner with the Chicago Park District and McPier, it would be public construction.”
Friends of the Parks Board member Fred Bates said his organization — the top civic line of defense against any lakefront development — is “deeply concerned” about the Bears’ potential aspirations near Soldier Field.
“We have not been approached by the team, and I’m somewhat puzzled by that. We had a sense of what was in the wings since Kam Buckner moved the idea into the limelight, so this didn’t catch us by surprise, but it troubles us.”
Bates added: “We have the same view we’ve had in the past: that this is fundamentally a private enterprise that doesn’t belong on the lakefront.”
Contributing: Mitchell Armentrout
