No Public Cash for Bears Dome

The McCaskeys brought their plan for a privately funded dome to Arlington Heights Thursday but the project would need some public funds for infrastructure.

The Bears revealed a little more Thursday night at a public meeting in Arlington Heights about their potential stadium project for the Arlington Park site.

Again stressing they will not be seeking public money for funding the stadium itself, Bears board chairman George McCaskey and CEO Ted Phillips said they couldn't release much information on the stadium structure because the project hasn't progress far enough for such details but they did know it would be a permanent domed stadium and not a retractable one.

"It will be enclosed," Bears president and CEO Ted Phillips said. "We're anticipating the capacity will be greater than Soldier Field. How much more we don't know. And it will be enclused. We're not anticipating a retractable dome. Often times what we've seen is with a retractable domes is the costs are prohibitive, the return isn't there, there's mechanical issues. 

"There's a lot of great new stadiums with enclosures that make you feel like youre outside but you're not."

The dome is necessary for the multiple use facility in order to host Super Bowls, Final Fours, College Football Playoff games and other forms of entertainment. 

They can't yet be certain of the stadium's seating capacity but Phillips and McCaskey made it clear they will not pursue tax dollars to build the stadium itself. However, it is probably they would need some type of public funding to pay for the infrastructure such as roads and sewers.

"What we would be looking for—we don't have dollar amounts right now, we don't know what the infrastructure costs might be," Phillips said. "We just want to be able to say and show and prove that the economic benefits that we provided and the jobs are commensurate with the infrastructure costs that we're going to need to be funded in order to make this project a reality."

McCaskey added that without the publicly funded infrastructure, the stadium plan "...will not be able to move forward."

The other tax issue involved is the tax burden on residents, and Phillips said without needing studies that the project wouldn't be aimed at getting current property taxes to increase.

"There's nothing we're doing, theres not going to be any public funding that we're going to ask for that is going to be predicated on an increase in your property taxes," Phillips said.

In fact, Phillips pointed out the tax revenue generated for the community by the development would far exceed the revenue generated by the old Arlington International Racecourse.

The businesses, offices, hotels, and the stadium itself could take as long as 10 years to complete, but McCaskey said the Bears are serious about pursuing this because it's rare when opportunities like this arise. In fact, it's been over 100 years of franchise history and none like this have. 

"My family and I are not real estate developers," McCaskey said. "We are not financiers. We are privileged to own a beloved football team that is an important community asset. 

"We take that responsibility to heart. It is our life's passion. We do recognize what might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

The Bears did not take direct questions asked by fans but instead questions were submitted to them on forms by those attending and some were selected to be read aloud.

Two, in particular, generated a great reaction from a half-full and largely supportive Hersey gym.

One was whether they'll do something to honor the memory of Arlington Park at the site of the stadium.

"The answer to that is yes, hell yes," McCaskey said, adding that his family had tremendous respect and admiration for the Duchossois family that operated the track for years. 

"We are looking for ways to properly incorporate tips of the fedora, if you will, to Arlington Park's great tradition," McCaskey said.

The other cheering outburst came when Phillips said there are no plans to build a casino at the property. 

Most of the emphasis of the meeting was on development of the property other than the stadium itself, and on roads and the Metra train running to the area.

More specific details about the stadium will be revealed later on. 

The Bears have moved up their projected closing date on the property to late 2022 or early 2023. Before, they had said only early 2023.

They will continue working toward this property plan, and the Chicago alternatives being proposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot for Soldier Field are not part of their considerations.

"Right now, we don't have a Plan B," Phillips said. "Our singular focus is on this property."

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