Bear Digest

Report: Bears resume studies and other work for racetrack stadium

Arlington International Racecourse again has the Bears' interest after team president Kevin Warren had once said it was the lakefront where they wanted a stadium.
Gene Chamberlain|
The old Arlington International Racecourse grandstand and building are gone and now the Bears seem to have interest in taking up this stadium project once again.
The old Arlington International Racecourse grandstand and building are gone and now the Bears seem to have interest in taking up this stadium project once again. | Photo: Gene Chamberlain, Chicago Bears On SI

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Chicago Bears

If the shovel is going into the ground this year for a Bears stadium, as team president Kevin Warren said, then it's possible the original plan has new life.

According to a report by Christopher Placek of The Arlington Heights Daily Herald, the Bears have resumed work on plans for a possible $5 billion redevelopment of the Arlington International Racecourse property they already own. They are picking up and expanding on studies for economic impact and traffic, trying to refine what was done earlier.

The report doesn't say they are building the stadium in Arlington Heights for certain, but the mere fact they are resuming the earlier work done indicates interest.

This is meaningful after a long flirtation with sites in Chicago on the lake front or near it. The newspaper received confirmation from Warren that the work on the studies has resumed again.

Their tax dispute with three suburban school districts ended with a settlement but the team had either been holding out hope for a new lakefront stadium or had been using that as a bargaining chip in the tax dispute.

Now it would appear the stadium idea originally floated with a town meeting at Hersey High School 2 1/2 years ago will get a new look.

The Herald also reported former Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes confirmed the village staff is expecting to receiver those studies about traffic and financing from the Bears.

The Bears have said they would pay for about $2 billion of the stadium project but in Arlington Heights the land wouldn't be a problem. They also wouldn't receive opposition from groups like Friends of the Parks.

The stadium on the lakefront failed to gain economic support from Springfield, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker last year had called funds for it a "non-starter."

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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.