Bears to City: Good Luck with That

The Bears issued a statement regarding the city's 50-page document suggesting future uses of the lakefront, including a dome for Soldier Field.

"The only potential project the Chicago Bears are exploring for a new stadium development is Arlington Park," the statement said. "As part of our mutual agreement with the seller of that property, we are not pursuing alternative stadium deals or sites, including renovations to Soldier Field, while we are under contract."

The Bears did say they plan to honor the current Soldier Field lease, which expires in 2033. However, they can buy their way out of it in four years for a figure the Chicago Tribune has reported in the past at $84 million.

The Bears are still in the process of closing on the purchase of the Arlington International Racecourse site and team CEO Ted Phillips said earlier this year it could be early 2023 before this is finished. That purchase would cost the Bears $192 million.

The statement by the Bears probably wasn't necessary since no one had said they were talking to the city about the study looking at a dome.

The only reason the Soldier Field issue came up was Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's comments about a committee looking into possible future changes to the stadium, which re-opened in its current form in 2003.

Lightfoot earlier in the week said she didn't know what the committee had come up with, but on the very next day after her comments to Chicago Business about the topic the report was released and it included recommendations like a dome so the city could try to bring in events like the Super Bowl and NCAA Final Four.

They also recommended sponsorship naming rights for Soldier Field, something former Mayor Richard Daley rejected when the current Soldier Field was placed inside the outer wall of the original 1927 building 20 years ago.

The panel's recommendation pointed out the name of Soldier Field could stay in the new name, and said stadiums in California and New Jersey brought in $400 million with naming rights.

This wouldn't likely cover the cost of the project, as it has been estimated that construction of a dome over the stadium on the lakefront would cost as much as $1.5 billion.

A dome over the current configuration would require quite a few changes to the current structure first and that would push up the costs.

Another committee suggestion was putting artificial turf down in the dome. The Bears had artificial turf in the old Soldier Field when they won the Super Bowl in 1985 and replaced it with grass in 1987, then put a grass field down in the current stadium. Keeping grass growing and the sod in the stadium has always been a problem for the city and once it was so poorly maintained a Bears Family Night practice was canceled due to unsafe field conditions.

An article by longtime city hall reporter Fran Spielman probably summed up the situation best with a quote from sports consulting firm head Mark Ganis saying a dome would be like "putting lipstick on a pig."

It would be awfully expensive lipstick at that, and no doubt would come from tax payer funds.

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