Report: Chicago Bears look to city, not Arlington Park site

The Chicago Bears are leaning toward a lakefront site in the city instead of the former site of Arlington Park for its new stadium.

The team is willing to provide $2 billion in private funding for an enclosed stadium and park space just south of the current Soldier Field, according to a report by Robert McCoppin of the Chicago Tribune.

This is a change from the plans announced in 2021, when the Bears purchased Arlington Park and its surrounding property for $197 million from Churchill Downs and announced plans to build the stadium there. The sale was formalized in 2023. The contents of the Arlington facility were auctioned off in 2022, and the building was torn down in 2023.

Through that time, the Bears and Cook County have been locked in a protracted dispute about the taxes on that land, including the valuation and whether it should be taxed as vacant land or a developed commercial property. According to a report from McCoppin at the Chicago Tribune, a February ruling by the Cook County Board of Review lowered the property valuation to $125 million but said the property should be taxed as a commercial property since the demolition was not finished until December 2023.

However, the decision of where the Bears will build the new stadium is not final. Development along the lakefront is severely restricted under city ordinance. An area nonprofit called Friends of the Parks, which in 2016 defeated plans for a George Lucas museum on the lakefront, is following the case and issued a statement Friday decrying the sense of urgency around stadium plans.