Stadium shuffle: Bears’ relocation saga in 2025 went from lakefront to Arlington Heights to Northwest Indiana
On the football field, the Bears’ 2025 calendar year at the beginning and toward the end was marked by improbable victories over the rival Packers.
But off the gridiron, the team’s quest for a new stadium and the state subsidies that could help pay for it hadn’t yet been tallied in the win column.
Where the professional sports franchise’s play place would take root — the lakefront in downtown Chicago, the old Arlington Park racetrack in Arlington Heights and now, as of just weeks ago, somewhere in Northwest Indiana — remained in limbo.
Here is a replay of the Bears’ stadium saga over the last 12 months:
Feb. 21: Team President/CEO Kevin Warren confirms in a letter to Arlington Heights Village Manager Randy Recklaus that consultants have resumed economic impact, traffic and other evaluative studies and begun to refine conceptual site plans for a potential redevelopment of Arlington Park. The studies were paused when a property tax dispute arose with area school districts two years before. But a memorandum of understanding with the schools, brokered by the village, resolved the tax battle and called for the evaluative studies to continue.
March 3: Arlington Heights officials re-up with a traffic consultant of their own to vet the Bears’ traffic study when it arrives at village hall.
March 13: In his final state of the village address, Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes predicts the Bears’ relocation to Arlington Park is “going to happen.” At this point in time, the team’s professed stadium development focus remained on the Chicago lakefront: a new publicly owned domed stadium as part of a $4.7 billion redevelopment. But the plan was dead on arrival in Springfield. At the same time, Warren never closed the door to developing the 326-acre Arlington Heights property the team purchased in 2023.
April 2: At the NFL owners meetings in Florida, Bears brass make another public shift in where their new stadium could go, confirming that the team’s land in the suburbs is back in the mix. “The focus now is both downtown (Chicago) and Arlington Heights,” Warren said. “We’re fortunate to have optionality.”
But the Bears president added there is still “a long way to go” to achieve long-term tax “certainty” on the prime real estate. Just like the doomed Chicago lakefront plan, the Bears’ ask for a long-term property tax break on the sprawling Arlington Park site previously got a chilly reception from state lawmakers.
The so-called megaproject legislation would freeze the property’s assessment for up to four decades and allow the team to make negotiated payments to local governments, including the village and schools.
“We are always focused on being great corporate citizens. We want to pay taxes,” Warren said. “We just want to make sure they are rational and reasonable and they’re not exorbitant and they’re not raised at some point in time in the future.”
April 21: Village officials retain a consultant to peer review the Bears’ economic impact study. Preliminary drafts of both the traffic and economic impact studies have been received at village hall, Recklaus confirms.
May 5: New Mayor Jim Tinaglia holds an introductory meeting with Warren hours before being sworn in at village hall.
May 16: The Bears officially announce their long-rumored and much-anticipated shift in stadium development focus back to the Arlington Heights property, where the team initially proposed a $5 billion redevelopment in 2022.
May 27: Officials in neighboring Rolling Meadows retain three consultants of their own — a lobbyist, traffic engineer and noise expert — in light of the Bears’ renewed interest in Arlington Park.
Late May: Lawmakers adjourn their spring session in Springfield without approving the Payments in Lieu of Taxes financing mechanism long-sought by the Bears, amid resistance from city legislators reluctant to let the team depart for the suburbs.
Early July: The Bears send season ticket holders a survey that includes a proposed seating chart, ticket price levels and amenities in and around a potential new stadium.
Aug. 8: During training camp at Halas Hall, Warren tells reporters the NFL club won’t be able to move forward with a stadium in Arlington Heights unless lawmakers agree to the tax break bill, and declares the “time is now” — at the upcoming fall veto session — for legislative leaders to approve it. Acknowledges team Chairman George McCaskey: “It’s on us to convince the governor and the state legislators that this is a good idea for the people of Illinois, and we need to do a better job at that.”
A Sportico report details a recent valuation of the franchise at $8.8 billion, after a deal in which the McCaskey and Ryan families agreed to split a 2% equity stake they bought back from the estate of the late Andrew McKenna.
Sept. 8: Before the team’s Monday Night Football season kickoff, Warren bears down on the idea of leaving Chicago for a new stadium in Arlington Heights, writing in a letter to season ticket holders that the “Bears belong to more than just Chicago.”
Sept. 10: Gov. JB Pritzker, who has said he prefers the Bears remain within city limits but also expressed support for the megaproject concept, declares it a “prerequisite” for the Bears to first pay off some $500 million still owed for the 2003 renovations of Soldier Field.
Mid-September: Tinaglia details the lengthy municipal review process he expects to kick off in the coming months, predicting it could take “more than a dozen meetings and more than a dozen months.” He and village officials are meeting weekly behind closed doors with Bears staff and consultants to finalize a site plan for the Arlington Park acreage before the sketches are unveiled publicly.
Sept. 30: Long-awaited economic impact reports released by village officials show a Bears stadium and mixed-use redevelopment would generate at least $15 million a year in new revenues for village coffers from taxes on sales, food/beverage, amusement and hotel/motel. Officials caution that some of that new money will be needed to pay for infrastructure, village services and even new employees.
One report reveals the Bears want $855 million of public funding for infrastructure.
House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch meets that day with mayors and village managers of Arlington Heights, Rolling Meadows, Palatine and Mount Prospect. Later that night at a town hall in Arlington Heights, Welch says he’s unsure if the Bears-backed bill has a chance of passing when legislators return to the state Capitol in October.
Late October: The Bears’ latest bid for favorable state legislation fails to gain momentum during the six-day veto session. The team offers a $25 million exit payment for Chicago parks, playing fields, Soldier Field maintenance or to help pay the balance on the debt. But the Bears maintain they’re not responsible for the outstanding debt held by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which issued bonds backed by a 2% Chicago hotel tax to pay for the Soldier Field work.
Dec. 12: Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle brokers a meeting attended by representatives of the Bears, state, county and city of Chicago to again pitch the team on redevelopment of the former Michael Reese Hospital site in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. The Bears have rejected the 48.6-acre hospital site as too small.
Dec. 17: Warren decries a lack of “legislative partnership” in Springfield and announces the team is expanding its stadium search to Northwest Indiana.
“We have not received that sense of urgency or appreciation to date,” Warren said of state officials. “We have been told directly by state leadership, our project will not be a priority in 2026, despite the benefits it will bring to Illinois.”
Pritzker called a potential move across state lines “a startling slap in the face” to fans.
Tinaglia, who says the stadium planning process that was underway at village hall is now in “a holding pattern,” takes the possible relocation seriously.
“The last thing I want to see happen is that Illinois loses. Illinois cannot afford to lose this,” he said. “Forget about focusing on Arlington Heights — let’s think about Cook County as a whole and Illinois as a whole. We can’t let that happen.”