{"id":57095,"date":"2025-05-17T09:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T09:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/57095\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T09:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T09:56:09","slug":"chicago-bears-release-statement-on-new-stadium-plans-nbc-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/57095\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bears release statement on new stadium plans \u2013 NBC Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bears released a statement Friday after news broke that the team was changing direction <\/a>for their planned new stadium. <\/p>\n

In a statement to NBC Chicago, the Bears confirmed they have “made significant progress with the leaders in Arlington Heights, and look forward to continuing to work with state and local leaders on making a transformative economic development project for the region a reality.”<\/p>\n

The statement came after a spokesperson for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said executive leadership from the team have “indicated they intend to prioritize the development site located in the Village of Arlington Heights.” <\/p>\n

The change marks the most concrete shift away from Chicago since the team revealed it was focusing its efforts on a new lakefront stadium next to Soldier Field.<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s not necessarily surprising since the Bears have been met with resistance from Chicago and state lawmakers over their requests for some public financing of the project and have also encountered questions from advocacy groups like Friends of the Parks <\/a>over the lakefront location.<\/p>\n

“As the Mayor has said several times, the door remains open in the city of Chicago,” the spokesperson for Johnson told NBC Chicago.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Arlington Heights’ new mayor,<\/a> Jim Tinaglia, said he spoke with Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren about the development just before his swearing-in ceremony. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe came by just to sit and chat and talk about things. And he is just a really good guy,” Tinaglia said. <\/p>\n

According to Tinaglia, discussions between the two were positive. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good about it,” he said. “Kevin is, I think if I was able to read his mind, I would say I think he wants to come here. I\u2019m pretty sure that he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bears had previously pivoted away from building a domed stadium and entertainment district in Arlington Heights, though they never ruled out the property entirely. Then, while speaking to Pro Football Talk\u2019s Mike Florio and Chris Simms last month,<\/a>\u00a0Warren confirmed that the Bears\u2019 stadium project is \u201creally down to the Museum Campus and downtown Arlington Heights.”<\/p>\n

The team bought the now-shuttered Arlington Park racecourse for nearly $200 million in 2023, but a property tax dispute stalled their plans.<\/p>\n

The village board recently approved an agreement with a consulting firm to evaluate an economic impact study surrounding the new stadium<\/a> and proposed entertainment district. The village also hired a consultant to take an in-depth look at the traffic impacts of the proposed stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main goal is to work with the Bears and work with the team, work with Kevin and George to make sure that the entire project is something that everybody\u2019s really proud of,” Tinaglia said. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bears released a statement Friday after news broke that the team was changing direction for their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,10655,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-57095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-bears-stadium","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114522579694104158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}