CHICAGO — Three days before hosting their biggest game at Soldier Field in years, the Chicago Bears are exploring a move outside of the city they are named after.
In an open letter to fans Wednesday evening, team president and CEO Kevin Warren said the Bears will explore other sites — including outside Cook County, where the team owns a 326-acre property in Arlington Heights, Illinois — to build a domed stadium.
This includes the possibility of moving the bears out of Illinois entirely.
“In addition to Arlington Park, we need to expand our search and critically evaluate opportunities throughout the broader Chicagoland region, including Northwest Indiana,” Warren said. “It’s not about clout. We’ve spent years trying to build a new home in Cook County. We’ve invested significant time and resources evaluating multiple sites and made a rational decision about Arlington Heights.”
“Our fans deserve a world-class stadium. Our players and coaches deserve a stadium that lives up to the championship standards they strive for every day. With that in mind, our organization must keep every credible path open to achieving this future.”
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker pushed back against the team’s potential move out of state.
“Proposing the Bears move to Indiana is an incredible slap in the face to all the beloved and loyal fans who have rallied around the team during this strong season,” Pritzker spokesman Matt Hill said in a statement. “The governor is a Bears fan who always wanted them to stay in Chicago. He also said they are ultimately a private company.”
The Bears purchased the Arlington Park property that formerly housed Arlington International Racecourse for $197 million in 2023, shortly before Warren replaced Ted Phillips as team president and CEO. The Bears have proposed building a 60,000-seat fixed-roof stadium as part of a $5 billion mixed-use project.
Shortly after closing on the land in Arlington Heights, the Bears began exploring options for a new stadium site when they announced that their plans to build at the Arlington Park site were “in jeopardy” as negotiations over $100 million in property taxes reached an impasse.
Shortly before the 2024 draft, the Bears turned their focus to building their new lakefront stadium south of Soldier Field. They announced that they would invest more than $2 billion of private money in building and developing the stadium and its surrounding areas.
Although the team maintained that construction of the new stadium would be privately financed, concerns about the burden placed on taxpayers to fund infrastructure around the stadium led to an impasse. This led the Bears to once again explore Arlington Heights as an option, which Warren announced during the league meetings in April. Before the Bears’ home opener against the Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 8, Warren issued a message to fans, saying the team’s sights were on building in Arlington Heights. He has said throughout the year that the goal is to break ground before the end of 2025.
However, the Bears have been in a battle with lawmakers over tax breaks and securing $855 million in public funding for costs related to building the new stadium.
“We did not ask for state taxpayer money to build the stadium at Arlington Park,” Warren said. “We only asked for basic local infrastructure to be adhered to [roads, utilities, and site improvements]which is more than typical for projects of this size. Additionally, we sought reasonable property tax assurance to secure financing. We listened to the state’s leadership and relied on their guidance and direction, but our efforts were not met with legislative partnership.”
The Bears’ lease at Soldier Field runs through 2033. On Saturday night, the Bears (10-4) will host the Green Bay Packers (9-4-1) in a high-stakes meeting that will largely determine Chicago’s path to the postseason.