CHICAGO (WGN) — In an open letter sent to fans Monday afternoon, on the precipice of the Chicago Bears’ 106th season, team president and CEO Kevin Warren said it’s been chosen where the Bears’ new stadium will be built and that the team is planning a bid to host the Super Bowl as soon as 2031.
Warren’s letter Monday confirmed what WGN-TV’s Patrick Elwood first reported over the weekend, that the Bears’ stadium project was advancing in Arlington Heights.
“In evaluating options for a new stadium, the focus of the McCaskey family has been clear: build a world-class stadium that requires zero money from the State of Illinois for its construction,” Warren wrote. “We are partnering with political, labor, business, and community leaders across Illinois to develop a plan for property tax certainty and a fair contribution toward essential infrastructure that will benefit the entire community.
“Arlington Heights is the only site within Cook County that meets that standard. It allows us to better serve our fan base and deliver a truly transformative and elevated gameday experience.”
The plans include a multibillion-dollar stadium, built with no public money, along with an entertainment district. Warren’s letter also placed an emphasis on getting stadium plans finalized this year in order to “officially bid to host a Super Bowl as soon as 2031.”
Additionally, Warren addressed in his letter the Bears’ decision to move out of the City of Chicago and into the northwest suburbs.
“Moving outside of the City of Chicago is not a decision we reached easily,” he wrote. “This project does not represent us leaving, it represents us expanding.
“The Bears draw fans from all over Illinois, and over 50% of our season-ticket holders live within 25 miles of the Arlington Heights site. The project provides us the opportunity to build a stadium and mixed-use development that will benefit our fans, our region, and our future together.”
What’s next?
Warren’s statement offers a metaphorical stamp on the direction the franchise is taking in its quest for a new stadium, in what’s been a long and winding saga. While his words make a move to Arlington Heights seem like a foregone conclusion, there are still legislative and financial hurdles for the Bears to overcome before the decision is cemented.
For one thing, the Bears’ lease at Soldier Field runs through 2033, but the team can buy itself out of the lease in 2026 by paying $84 million.
Sports marketing consultant Marc Ganis told Elwood that moving forward with a new stadium in Arlington Heights hinges on two linchpins in the northwest suburban village — infrastructure around the stadium and the state giving the Bears a tax break on the property.
According to Ganis, the most important hurdle to overcome is “that the Bears will pay for the entirety of the stadium without looking for public sector assistance to pay for it.”
The franchise will then need to provide clarity on how infrastructure associated with the stadium on the 326-acre Arlington Park property, the former home of Arlington International Racecourse, will be paid for and what kind of property tax cap maximums will be associated with the stadium itself.
As for when stakeholders can expect more clarity on the Bears’ stadium pursuits in Arlington Heights, a bill on the property tax matter is set to be voted on during the state’s upcoming legislative session in October.
While Gov. JB Pritzker has been steadfast that taxpayers will not provide funding to help build a new Bears stadium, he did say he’d be open to taxpayer money being used for infrastructure associated with the stadium.
Bears Chairman George McCaskey, meanwhile, said “this project can be transformative,” giving the Bears the type of venue necessary to host concerts and major sporting events like the NCAA Final Four and the Super Bowl.
But McCaskey also said any further delays “would be a greater expense, and it also means we are missing out on another round of assignment of major events.”
The Bears estimate a new stadium would create 48,000 jobs and generate $9.4 billion in overall economic impact.
“It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Chicago, its surrounding communities, and the State of Illinois to become the pinnacle of sports and entertainment destinations,” Warren wrote in his letter.
How did the Bears get here?
The Bears have owned the Arlington Park property since February 2023, when they purchased it for $197.2 million.
Still, Warren kept insisting the team wanted to remain in Chicago along the lakefront. In April 2024, the Bears unveiled a proposal for a domed stadium, to be built just south of Soldier Field.
About a month prior to that, Warren said the team would even contribute more than $2 billion in funding to build a publicly-owned domed stadium and park space along the lakefront. But those plans still required significant public funding, something Pritzker and state leaders repeatedly said there was no appetite for among taxpayers.
Another potential new stadium site in Chicago, the former Michael Reese Hospital property in Bronzeville, was also floated by developers.
For his part, Mayor Brandon Johnson declared several times the city’s intention to keep the Bears in Chicago, but with no advancement on public funding, the mayor in May admitted “there are certain things that are beyond my control.”
All the while, the Bears continued to own the Arlington Park property, making a move to the northwest suburbs seem more and more likely as securing public funding for a new stadium in the city seemed less and less likely.
The big hang-up in Arlington Heights, however, was a property tax dispute between the Bears and local school districts that hinged on the valuation of the land.
In November 2024, Bears and Arlington Heights officials said they’d reached a “memorandum of understanding” for how property taxes and other development and financing details would look if the Bears decided to move forward with a building a stadium and entertainment district at Arlington Park.
That seemed to get things moving in Arlington Heights, with the Village Board voting unanimously in March to move forward with studies on the viability of a new Bears stadium and entertainment district at Arlington Park, specifically on new and anticipated traffic patterns created by such a major development.
In May, the Bears informed the mayor they intended to build in Arlington Heights, then three days later, the village began laying the groundwork for what it will take to staff an NFL game.
Now, Warren’s letter to fans Monday would seem to indicate the Bears are going full-steam ahead with building their new stadium in Arlington Heights.
For Bears fans, the stadium news comes as the team begins a new era led by new head coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams, who just started his second NFL season after the Bears drafted him No. 1 overall in 2024.
And for a franchise that hasn’t won a Super Bowl since the 1985 season, hasn’t been to a Super Bowl since the 2006 season and hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2010 season, the future is looking bright, for now.
“I’m excited to see what the next journey is for the Bears,” fan Randy Fugaj said outside Soldier Field before Monday night’s season opener. “New players, new leadership, new coach — I’m very hopeful for the future.”