Sorry, sports fans: The Chicago Bears will be taking their talents to Arlington Heights after all.
Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren broke the news to season ticket holders — and later on social media — in a letter ahead of Monday night’s season opener against the Minnesota Vikings, bringing years of speculation to a close. Team brass said they are focused on building out a new fixed-roof stadium on the former site of the Arlington International Racecourse in suburban Arlington Heights with hopes of hosting a Super Bowl as early as 2031.
“Moving outside of the city of Chicago is not a decision we reached easily,” Warren wrote in the letter. “This project does not represent us leaving, it represents us expanding.”
The Bears have called Soldier Field home since 1971. In announcing his team’s departure from its longtime Chicago stadium, Warren emphasized that more than half of Bears season ticket holders live within 25 miles of the Arlington Heights site.
“The Chicago Bears belong to more than just Chicago. We belong to the entire state of Illinois. The Nation. The World. We are at a pivotal juncture of the Chicago Bears franchise to build a new stadium, our future home in Arlington Heights, which will require zero state money for construction,” Warren wrote.
The Bears are expected to present its latest plans for the Arlington Heights property at a community meeting in the fall, according to the Tribune.
Warren said the team expects to create more than 56,000 construction jobs and 9,000 permanent jobs, which it predicted will add $10 billion in economic impact attributed to statewide construction and an annual $256 million in new business and tourism.
It also envisions that the new stadium and corresponding mixed-use development will attract major events such the Super Bowl, college basketball’s Final Four, global soccer games and concerts.
In 2023, the Bears purchased 326 acres of former horse racing facilities in Arlington Heights — which is more than 25 miles northwest of Chicago — sparking fears that the team would leave the city proper. Warren said Monday that the team also “thoroughly evaluated other sites within Chicago’s city limits, but none were viable.”
Read Bears President Kevin Warren’s open letter to the fans here.
