Bears reiterate Chicago stadium options are ‘exhausted’
CHICAGO — The Bears reiterated Thursday that they plan to go away Chicago as they proceed to take a look at constructing a stadium in suburban Illinois or Hammond, Indiana.
“The Chicago Bears have exhausted every opportunity to stay in Chicago, which was our initial goal,” the group stated in a press release. “There is not a viable site in the city. As a result, the only sites under consideration are in Arlington Heights and Hammond.”
The assertion, which seems once more to shut the door on the group staying in Chicago, comes after group president Kevin Warren stated final month on the NFL’s annual league assembly in Arizona that the Bears have been hoping to decide on a brand new web site for an enclosed stadium in Illinois or Indiana late this spring or early in the summertime.
The Bears have performed at Soldier Field for greater than half a century. Indiana are trying to lure them from the Windy City with a plan to finance and construct a domed stadium in Hammond, about 25 miles from their present dwelling on Lake Michigan’s shore.
The Illinois General Assembly responded with laws that may give tax breaks to so-called megaprojects of at the very least $100 million, a plan that may embody the Bears’ proposal to construct a posh on a 326-acre tract of land they personal in Arlington Heights.
“Both of the sites are excellent sites,” Warren stated final month.
The Bears are a constitution NFL franchise that has performed in Illinois for the reason that group’s founding in 1920 because the Decatur Staleys. Since shifting to Chicago in 1921, the Bears have by no means owned their stadium, whether or not taking part in at Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970 or Soldier Field since.
