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The Chicago Bears' $200 Million Stadium Project
Huddle Up is a daily newsletter that breaks down the business and money behind sports.
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Hey Friends,
After a $660 million renovation put a bandaid on stadium concerns almost two decades ago, the Chicago Bears are finally getting fed up with having a 61,500 seat stadium — the smallest in the National Football League.
In June, the Bears announced that they had placed a bid to purchase Arlington International Racecourse, a 326-acre chunk of land in Arlington Heights (1 hour north of Chicago) that could eventually serve as the home to a brand new stadium.
But Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot wasn’t entertained by the idea:
“The Bears are locked into a lease at Soldier Field until 2033. In addition, this announcement from the Bears comes in the midst of negotiations for improvements at Soldier Field. This is clearly a negotiating tactic that the Bears have used before.
As a season ticketholder and longtime Bears fan, I am committed to keeping the “Chicago” name in our football team. And like most Bears fans, we want the organization to focus on putting a winning team on the field, beating the Packers finally, and being relevant past October. Everything else is noise.”
Still, the Chicago Bears don’t appear to be entertaining Mayor Lightfoot’s comedic response either, officially signing a purchase agreement yesterday to acquire the 326-acre property for $197.2 million.
The closing of the sale is expected around late 2022 or early 2023.
Now, I think it’s important to note that no one really knows what will end up happening here. The Bears’ lease at Soldier Field in Chicago runs through 2033, and even if they wanted to break the lease and leave early, they would have to pay about $85 million and wait another five years to do so.
But, with that said, this is also the strongest step that the organization has taken to leave their Chicago home since they moved from Wrigley Field to Soldier Field roughly fifty years ago to meet the NFL’s seating capacity requirements.
The dilemma is this — Chicago is one of the largest markets in the NFL, yet they have the smallest stadium in the league and have sat by and watched 17 new stadiums open since 2000. That includes SoFi Stadium, a brand new $5.5 billion state-of-the-art stadium that opened in Los Angeles last year.
Most Expensive NFL Stadiums
SoFi Stadium: $5.5 billion
Allegiant Stadium: $1.9 billion
MetLife Stadium: $1.7 billion
Mercedes-Benz Stadium: $1.5 billion
AT&T Stadium: $1.48 billion
Stadium projects for professional sports teams are always tricky. There are obvious things, like the public vs. private funding argument, but there are also a million other things to consider.
What land would a new stadium sit on? How long would it take to build? Would the team have to move in the meantime? How much money will the project generate? Can they just renovate the stadium again?
I could go, but you get the point. This story is going to take 12-24 months to play out, at least. There will be more negotiating between the organization and the city of Chicago, both publically and privately.
Still, it will be fascinating to see how this turns out. Have a great day, and I’ll talk to everyone tomorrow.
If you want a deeper dive into the stadium situation in Chicago, I highly recommend checking out this article from the Chicago Tribune — read more here.
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Huddle Up is a daily newsletter that breaks down the business and money behind sports.
If you would like to join more than 47,000 other professional athletes, business executives, and casual sports fans that receive it directly in their inbox each morning, subscribe now.
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