Plenty Of Work To Be Done On Bears' Arlington Heights Move: McCaskey

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — Arlington Heights remains the main target for a landing spot for the Chicago Bears, team officials said this week. But the process of moving toward building a new stadium on the former Arlington Park Racecourse remains slow going.

Bears Chairman George McCaskey told reporters Tuesday night at the NFL owners meeting in Phoenix that there is still a lot of work to do before team officials formally decide whether they will develop the 326-acre property in Arlington Heights.

The Bears have closed on the $197.2 million property agreement for the former racecourse property, but McCaskey and other team officials have said that they have yet to decide whether they will develop the property and if those plans include building a stadium. The team has released renderings of the property as it would look if they fully developed the land but have not announced any formal plans for the stadium — only to say it would be an enclosed stadium. McCaskey said last fall that the "multi-billion" dollar project could take up to 10 years to complete.

On Tuesday, McCaskey told reporters that the team is still in an information-gathering process that needs to be thorough. He added that he doesn’t have a timeline for when next steps could take place.

“Really in the timeline, we haven’t really kicked off the ball yet,” McCaskey told reporters on Tuesday night.

New Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren said earlier this week that Arlington Heights has to be the team’s focus since it purchased the Arlington Park property. Warren, who will officially start as the team’s full-time President on April 17, said he expects a stadium to take 36 months to build once ground is broken.

Yet, once that takes place remains unknown. McCaskey likened the process to that of building a new home. He called the team’s closing on the process just one of many steps that needs to take place while moving toward the possible development of the plan.

A message left for Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas Hayes seeking comment on McCaskey's comments on the stadium project was not immediately returned on Wednesday.

The Bears have maintained that they will not seek public funding for the stadium itself but would be seeking assistance in paying for the rest of the project which would be $10 billion by the time all is said and done.

The Bears are also seeking legislation that would provide them with a long-term property tax break for developing the Arlington Heights property. A bill that was recently introduced in Springfield could allow for tax freezes on major development projects — such as the one the Bears are proposing in Arlington Heights. However, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said that the bill has "a lot of hoops to jump through" and said he does not believe that the public has an obligation to fund a private business like the Bears in a major way.

The Arlington Park development project is projected to have a large entertainment district that would include residential and business properties that the Chicago Tribune reported could cost $2 million at the low end by itself. McCaskey said he will lean into Warren’s experience in overseeing the building of a new NFL stadium in Minneapolis during Warren’s time working for the Minnesota Vikings.

“Because he knows there are ebbs and flows, ups and downs. It’s much like a football game,” McCaskey said. “The pace and the momentum can go back and forth many times. So you just have to keep a long view and just like in a football game, not get too rattled by the setbacks and not get too over your skis about any victories that may come.”

While Arlington Heights remains the team’s focus, McCaskey left the door open that the team may resume conversations with the City of Chicago once next week’s mayoral election is over. Although conversations with Mayor Lori Lightfoot broke down long ago over a possible renovation of Soldier Field, McCaskey said that the franchise is open to picking up talks about remaining on the Lakefront after either Paul Vallas or Brandon Johnson are sworn into office.

McCaskey said the team would “like to have those conversations” with the new mayor although he doesn’t expect where the Bears play in future years to be a huge priority for Chicago’s new mayor.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the league said that the league has no issue with the Bears not playing in Chicago. If a move takes place, the Bears would join the large contingent of NFL franchises who play outside of the city that is attached to their name, including teams in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“Those are things the Bears have to explore,” he said. “How do they continue to see the long-term reputation of their game? And the stadium is a big part of that,” Goodell told reporters. “They’re not the first team to look at areas outside the city that they play in. That’s something that’s a natural thing for our clubs to do. They obviously recognize the lease restrictions they’re under (at Soldier Field). Investigating and exploring that is something they owe to the fans and their community.”

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