Bear Digest

Bears Ticket Prices Shooting Skyward Just Like Their 2025 Win Total

Ticket prices have gone up over 30% the last three years following the announcement by team ownership of higher prices for 2026.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears fans had a lot to cheer about in 2025, and now apparently the bill has come due for their fun.
Bears fans had a lot to cheer about in 2025, and now apparently the bill has come due for their fun. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Bears ownership coughed up plenty of money to hire coach Ben Johnson, triggering the turnaround to a 12-7 season and their first playoff victory since the 2010 season.

It was a season with more thrills than they've enjoyed since 2018.

Fans will be asked, apparently, to foot some of the bill for that high cost and the thrill show because they'll raise ticket prices for next season by about an average of 13.5%, according to a letter team president Kevin Warren addressed to season ticket holders Tuesday.

“Our goals have not changed,” Warren wrote in the letter. “We are working to build a sustainable winning culture, a team that competes for championships, and to construct a world-class stadium for the Chicagoland area and our fans.

"There is plenty of work ahead of us, and we all understand and embrace the opportunities and challenges that will arise.”

The increase of 13.5% means they've gone up almost 24% the last two years and almost 32% over three years. They had raised prices 6% for 2022, had no increase in 2023, then an 8% increase in 2024 and 10% increase last season.

Saying the team is working to build a sustainable winning culture is not necessarily something that should involve ticket prices.

Teams have a salary cap for spending and it has gone up every year since the pandecmic for each team to a reported level near $305 million for next season, and meanwhile the league’s revenues from television is reaching astronomical amounts.

The Bears hired Johnson for a reported $13 million per year for 2025 and coaches' pay is not part of the salary cap. That must come from somewhere.

It’s possible the new stadium expected in Arlington Heights or Hammond could result in even much higher prices in the future.  After the construction begins the Bears probably won't be able to play in the new facility for three years.

Warren said “detailed analysis and market research” led the raised praics.

The Bears averaged 58,127 fans in Soldier Field this season. They're limited in the number of fans they can put into the NFL's smallest stadium.

They’ll have nine home dates this regular season, although it’s still possible one of those would be in Spain.  Schedules come out in May.

It’s apparent Bears fans are going to need to get accustomed to the idea that with great achievement comes great cost, and that they’ll be the ones expected to bear the cost.

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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.