Report: Bears are leaning against building stadium at Arlington

A published report Friday said the Chicago Bears have shifted their focus away from the land where Arlington Park stood for 96 years. They are said to want their new stadium closer to their current one on Chicago’s lakefront.

Writing in Crain’s Chicago Business, longtime columnist Greg Hinz said “multiple sources in government and close to the team tell me building in the central area is not just a lever to extract better tax terms from Arlington Heights, but the real goal.”

Flashback: Timeline of Arlington Park, 1927-2021.

Hinz said the Bears have prioritized building a domed stadium on the Waldron Deck parking garage that is next to the south side of Soldier Field. It would be paid for by bonds authorized by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. The team reportedly hired an engineering company to figure out what it would take to build the new venue there.

The Bears paid Churchill Downs Inc. $197.2 million in early 2023 to buy the 326 acres where Arlington Park stood. The team tore down the track grandstand last fall, two years after the last horse races were run there.

Hirz said three factors led the Bears to shift their sights. Two of them involved changing leaders. The team’s new president Kevin Warren is said to be more keen on staying in Chicago than his predecessor Ted Phillips was. Chicago’s first-term mayor Brandon Johnson reportedly has a better relationship with the Bears than Lori Lightfoot did. Then there is the rising cost to develop the suburban land, complete with a $100 million difference of opinion between the Bears and Arlington Heights school districts about the land’s tax value.

Arlington Heights mayor Tom Hayes told Wirz that his village and the Bears are still talking.

With Arlington Park gone, Hawthorne is the only track hosting Thoroughbred races in northern Illinois. Its 78-day season starts March 23.