Bear Digest

Bears stadium project seems no closer to reality than a winning team

Analysis: An Arlington Heights Daily Herald article laid out necessary hurdles to be cleared for the Bears stadium and it seems more daunting even than Ben Johnson's task.
Gene Chamberlain|
Arlington Park without the grandstand, and now the Bears could get a permit to level the entire property.
Arlington Park without the grandstand, and now the Bears could get a permit to level the entire property. | Chicago Bears On SI Photo: Gene Chamberlain

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If it seems the Ben Johnson era for building up the Chicago Bears will be a long, drawn-out process after just two weeks of this season, then you should look at where their project for building their stadium in Arlington Heights currently sits.

While Gov. J.B. Pritzker threw his weight behind those in Chicago who want to force the Bears to stay in the city, there is a lot more going on that makes the stadium at the former tracetrack site seem like a long way off.

Although Bears president Kevin Warren has made it clear the team is looking only the suburban site, it needs legislation passed so the Bears can seek tax "security" or a freeze while they build a stadium and an adjoining hotel and restaurants near the stadium.

Beyond that, Arlington Heights mayor Jim Tinaglia set out a process on a local basis in an article by Christopher Placek in Sunday's Arlington Heights Daily Herald that seems to make any kind of groundbreaking this year impossible or only superficial.

The process, according to Tinaglia, will include constant continual meetings with the Bears and it's almost as if they're back to the 2022 starting point when they held a public meeting at Hersey High School.

  • First, the Bears need to obtain a preliminary positive recommendation  for their plan from the village staff for the stadium and district.
  • Then they need to host a series of neighborhood meetings with drawings and blueprints like the one they had at Hersey in 2022.
  • The Bears have a planning department and engineers with their designs but Tinaglia told Placek Arlington Heights' own planning department engineers will have their thoughts. "'And I think its going to take a little time yet to fine tune that and come to an agreement that we'll say to each other, 'OK, we all agree this is the best approach,' " Tinaglia told Placek.
  • Following the community feedback meetings, there will be a non-binding review of  the project by the village board and then the design, housing and planning commissions will consider it formally during public meetings. The final approval will be given to go ahead by a vote of the village board.
  • Also, the trustees and Tinaglia must vote to give a master zoning  permit for what essentially will be a "town within a town," or the area around the stadium.

"The entire process could take 'more than a dozen meetings and more than a dozen months,'" Placek quoted Tinaglia as saying.

The mayor expressed uncertainty it could all take place before the end of this year but did say the Bears, in the meantime, can apply for a demolition land permit so they can level out the site. Most of the obstacles and all of the strutures were already torn down.

When it begins, construction of the stadium will take place on one-third of the 326-acre site, with the other two-thirds for the entertainment district around the indoor stadium.

Tinaglia told Placek the facility itself will be a matter of "cut-and-paste," with the stadium itself. It would be the same structure they had planned for the lakefront.

"While we do not yet have all the answers, we are optimistic about working with the Village of Arlington Heights to obtain necessary approvals and begin building our new home," Warren had written in an open letter to fans just as the season was starting.

None of this includes getting that much-desired bill passed in Springfield for a stadium the Bears plan to build mostly with their own money. That might be the toughest hurdle to clear of all.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.