Wake Up Babe... New Bears Stadium Just Dropped
Well, it's happening. On September 8th the Bears will hold a meeting to unveil the conceptual plans for a stadium in Arlington.
The meeting, which will be held at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, will detail what a Bears statement called «one of the largest development projects in Illinois state history.» The stadium site will feature a «transit-oriented mixed-use entertainment district.» The meeting will not feature specifics about a stadium design.
The Bears are in escrow for the former Arlington Racetrack site, for which they signed a $197.2 million purchase agreement last year. President/CEO Ted Phillips said in January he anticipated closing on the land to take until the end of this year and possibly even drag into early 2023.
«Our focus for long-term development is exclusively on that property at Arlington Park,» Phillips said in January.
Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes said neither he nor members of the Arlington Heights village board would be part of the community meeting intended to field concerns and suggestions from residents of the suburb.
But Hayes said he expects the village to take up more substantial discussion about their negotiations with the team later this month.
«We expect to get this ball rolling soon,» Hayes said.
The village board is next scheduled to convene Tuesday.
While their current home at Soldier Field is historic, its stature is diminished by its deficiencies compared to state-of-the-art stadiums around the NFL. Soldier Field opened in 1924 and earned National Historic Landmark status in 1984 before losing it in 2006 after renovations left it with a mismatched look as though a spaceship had landed on top of the iconic columns.
The stadium has no weather protection and stands far behind the amenities of most modern stadiums. The NFL has a habit of rewarding new stadiums with Super Bowls, so this could bring some stardom back to the windy city.
