Bear Digest

Soldier Field maintenance inquiry viewed as Bears step toward burbs

A Crain's report says Bears president Kevin Warren requested maintenance schedules from the park district, possibly setting up grounds for breaking the Soldier Field lease.
Gene Chamberlain|
Soldier Field's turf issues appear in the past but the Bears' team president has stadium maintenance and upkeep on his mind.
Soldier Field's turf issues appear in the past but the Bears' team president has stadium maintenance and upkeep on his mind. | Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Legal essentials for the Bears to start building their stadium at the Arlington International Racecourse site have been put into place in recent weeks but the real groundwork being laid might be what team president Kevin Warren has been doing

According to Crain's Chicago Business, Warren seems to be laying down the tracks to leave Soldier Field, citing the possible lack of proper maintenance there by the Chicago Park District.

The city/park district owns the stadium, which was opened in 2003 after being constructed within the outer wall of the old Soldier Field.

Warren is said in the story to have sent a letter to park district superintendent Carlos Ramirez-Rosa asking for documents that "provide an overview of maintenance and capital spending."

Basically, the Bears could be ready to say the park district is not maintaining the stadium properly and it's a good reason not to stay at the lakefront stadium.

The lease there runs through 2033 and if the Bears leave before then they would need to pay a penalty. The Chicago Tribune had reported that if they left in 2026 they would pay $84 million, but a new stadium would definitely not be ready for them in 2026. Warren has said it will take three years after the digging begins for a stadium to be operational.

Warren probably should have just asked anyone who has been going to games for decades if he wanted evidence of park district's failures. They've specialized at this for years and years.

The most comical was how they put sod down and failed to water it properly, causing the edges of the pieces to curl up and give the field a horrible, dried-out look. The Bears arrived for a Family Night practice then and had to turn around and go right back to Bourbonnais to practice at a high school field that night because the turf looked too dangerous for players.

In recent years they seem to have corrected this annual issue of being unable to grow grass properly at Soldier Field. In 2022, they replaced the old sod with a strain of Bermuda grass that grows in colder climates. Everyone from linemen to kickers had taken shots at the turf there over the years, home team and visitors.

The actual relationship with the park district had been strained to the hilt during the Lori Lightfoot administration but warmed up when Brandon Johnson and Warren seemed to hit it off. But the city hasn't delivered on funds for the capital improvements needed near a new stadium on the lakefront and the Bears really have only one option for their new facility, even though they have insisted that site and the Arlington Heights location both remain in play.

Two weeks ago, the Daily Herald reported Arlington Heights approved paying a $200,000 fee for retention of a consultant to review the economic impact study the Bears did on the potential development of Arlington International Racecourse into a stadium.

It's considered an essential legal and logistical step before things get more serious.

The Bears and Arlington Heights area still would need to come up with how they'll pay for the infrastructure required for an indoor stadium at the location near Route 53, just north of Interstate 90. Or they would need to reveal how it will be done if they have it taken care of and haven't told anyone.

The Bears do own the Arlington Heights property, though, and it makes stadium construction much easier. Their plans submitted at community meetings earlier, before the idea of a lakefront stadium came to the forefront, calls for economic development near the stadium, with hotels, restaurants and parks.

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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.