NFL
More bad news for Bears fans as stadium timeline hints emerge
Everything points to little or no progression on the Bears’ desire to secure public funding for a new stadium.
Hopes that Chicago Bears could be playing at a new stadium for the 2028 seem to be dashed for the moment after team President Kevin Warren has been informed that there is very little support from Illinois local government to publicly fund the Bears’ proposed stadium project with the team looking for more than $1.5 billion in public money to fund such a project.
Other high profile sports teams in the city are also knocking on the doors of the lawmakers as Chicago White Sox continue to explore building a new stadium at The 78 and Chicago Red Stars women’s soccer team are also in the market for upgrading their current SeatGeek Stadium and state lawmakers have said that equity among men’s and women’s sports clubs needs to be at the forefront of these discussions.
The Chicago Bears claim that their new stadium project will cost approximately $3.2 billion and the NFL team propose to privately finance, with some assistance from the league and are looking for the state of Illinois to issue at least $900 million in bonds to cover the shortfall.
High ranking Democratic lawmaker, State Rep. Kam Buckner stated: “It’s fair to say that there won’t be any Bears action … in this legislative session, which I think is fine,” Buckner said Saturday (via the Tribune). “I think a proposal of this magnitude deserves sunlight and scrutiny. And very often what has happened in this building is that things get rammed through at the last minute without much public input or transparency. So I welcome conversations that will probably begin to happen once we’re done here.”
The Bears currently play at the 61,000 capacity Soldier Field Stadium.