CHICAGO | Da Bears | New Domed Lakefront Stadium Proposal

[Steely Dan]

A new thread for all discussion about the Bears' likely move out to the burbs and what now becomes of Soldier Field.



(my apologies, but in trying to move other posts from other threads to this one, the archaic forum software appears to have vaporized all of the older posts, so we'll have to start over, oh well).

[left of center]

Then let me be the first to once again reiterate my thoughts on the Bears leaving: Bye Felicia.

[Steely Dan]

The bears will be in good company whenever they do end up leaving Soldier Field.

12 of the NFL's 32 teams (38%) currently play in a suburban municipality of their metro area's central city:

New England Patriots
New York Giants
New York Jets
Buffalo Bills
Washington Commanders
Miami Dolphins
Dallas Cowboys
Arizona Cardinals
Las Vegas Raiders
San Francisco 49ers
Los Angeles Rams
Los Angeles Chargers

[Kngkyle]

I look forward to a downsized and modernized Soldier Field targeted towards its best use: soccer games and concerts. Screw the NFL.

[Tom In Chicago]

I will reiterate my points regarding the Bears as follows:

-They deliver a shit product for their fans and until the fan base stops buying tickets/merch the owners have no reason to deliver otherwise. . .

-Please leave the city and enjoy your new home in Arlington Heights, the handful of home games you play here in at Soldier Field every year won't be missed. . .

-Go Pack!

[/sorrynotsorry]. . .

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

I look forward to a downsized and modernized Soldier Field targeted towards its best use: soccer games and concerts. Screw the NFL.

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

I will reiterate my points regarding the Bears as follows:

-They deliver a shit product for their fans and until the fan base stops buying tickets/merch the owners have no reason to deliver otherwise. . .

-Please leave the city and enjoy your new home in Arlington Heights, the handful of home games you play here in at Soldier Field every year won't be missed. . .

-Go Pack!

[/sorrynotsorry]. . .

Completely agree. The Bears are a terrible organization. I stopped watching the NFL a few years ago altogether. American Football probably has a limited future. Almost no kids play it anymore.

I absolutely love going to Fire games at Soldier Field and I am not the only one as attendance has increased like 50% since they moved back to the City. Now if the Fire can get their act together, attendance will really skyrocket. They are on a nice win streak and have a shot at the playoffs.

[Steely Dan]

The juxtaposition of the Fire's recent move back into SF, and back into the center of the action of the city, against the bears' decision to punt themselves out into the relative obscurity of AH, is certainly interesting.

a changing of the guard?

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

I will reiterate my points regarding the Bears as follows:

-They deliver a shit product for their fans and until the fan base stops buying tickets/merch the owners have no reason to deliver otherwise. . .

-Please leave the city and enjoy your new home in Arlington Heights, the handful of home games you play here in at Soldier Field every year won't be missed. . .

-Go Pack!

[/sorrynotsorry]. . .

On the AH front - I am really curious to see how the Bears roll that out (if that's the path they end up taking). There will most likely need to be infrastructure improvements nearby. The 53 exit there is not adequate for gameday traffic, or at least that's how it appears to me. Also - I feel like there's a dormant St Helen's level of NIMBYism that will explode once the Bears make a formal announcement of their move. I just can't imagine folks in AH/Palatine just being ok with a massive multi-billion dollar stadium dropped nearby.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by twister244

Also - I feel like there's a dormant St Helen's level of NIMBYism that will explode once the Bears make a formal announcement of their move. I just can't imagine folks in AH/Palatine just being ok with a massive multi-billion dollar stadium dropped nearby.

there's been a massive race track facility there attracting tens of thousands or people every summer weekend for nearly a century (since 1927).

i think the folks out that way are somewhat used to it by now.

yeah, a bears gameday will be a much bigger deal, and some folks will certainly grumble about that (some folks will grumble about absolutely any and every thing), but i think the bears see the AH site as the path of least (suburban) resistance because the race track has already been there for so long (and it's freaking HUGE at 326 acres!)


as a fan of the former race track, i'm actually way more bitter about the loss of the track than i am about the bears leaving the city.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

The juxtaposition of the Fire's recent move back into SF, and back into the center of the action of the city, against the bears' decision to punt themselves out into the relative obscurity of AH, is certainly interesting.

a changing of the guard?

No way. The NFL is still the king of professional sports in America and soccer is still has a long way to go to even crack the top 4.

AH isn't exactly obscure--it's a pretty large suburb that most Chicagoans are at least aware of, plus it's a short Metra ride from the city to a basically dedicated metra stop near the future stadium. Bridgeview (where the Fire played)--now that's obscure.

Besides, the existence of an NFL team immediately elevates a place from obscure to familiar. Why do I know about the existence of Arlington, TX or East Rutherford, NJ or Green Bay, WI?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Handro

AH isn't exactly obscure.

relative to downtown chicago (one of the largest and mightiest urban centers on the continent), yes, AH is pretty damn obscure.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

there's been a massive race track facility there attracting tens of thousands or people every summer weekend for nearly a century (since 1927).

i think the folks out that way are somewhat used to it by now.

yeah, a bears gameday will be a much bigger deal, and some folks will certainly grumble about that (some folks will grumble about absolutely any and every thing), but i think the bears see the AH site as the path of least (suburban) resistance because the race track has already been there for so long (and it's freaking HUGE at 326 acres!)


as a fan of the former race track, i'm actually way more bitter about the loss of the track than i am about the bears leaving the city.

Right. . . for 9 whole days a year!!! Waste of F!@#$%ing money. . . the county and state shouldn't pay one lousy dime for this ridiculous move. . .

. . .

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

the county and state shouldn't pay one lousy dime for this ridiculous move. . .

. . .

1 million billion trillion percent agreed!

if AH wants to gift their tax dollars to the bears, fine.

but not one single cent from the state/county.

[left of center]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Completely agree. The Bears are a terrible organization. I stopped watching the NFL a few years ago altogether. American Football probably has a limited future. Almost no kids play it anymore.

I absolutely love going to Fire games at Soldier Field and I am not the only one as attendance has increased like 50% since they moved back to the City. Now if the Fire can get their act together, attendance will really skyrocket. They are on a nice win streak and have a shot at the playoffs.

It was so stupid of them to move to Bridgeview some 15 years ago. Glad they realized their mistake. Unfortunately, Bridgeview is screwed into paying for that white elephant of a stadium. The city portion of the property tax bills has quadrupled since the stadium was built, with the city flirting pretty close to insolvency. Thankfully it appears that publicly funded stadiums are in the rearview, with most cities and states taking a fairly tough stance on any handouts to pro sports teams.

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

1 million billion trillion percent agreed!

if AH wants to gift their tax dollars to the bears, fine.

but not one single cent from the state/county.

This. Exactly.

[left of center]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

I will reiterate my points regarding the Bears as follows:

-They deliver a shit product for their fans and until the fan base stops buying tickets/merch the owners have no reason to deliver otherwise. . .

-Please leave the city and enjoy your new home in Arlington Heights, the handful of home games you play here in at Soldier Field every year won't be missed. . .

-Go Pack!

[/sorrynotsorry]. . .

Damn Tom, you're a cheesehead? I am beyond disappointed

100% on your other statements however. If moving to AH actually gets them to field a winning team, then I'm all for it. If not, then I won't cry either. The only reason I watch football on Sundays anymore is for my 2 fantasy leagues and my pick 'em league. The Bears are otherwise background noise.

[BrandonJXN]

Seems like the Bears liked what the Rams did: moving out of a old, historic stadium downtown to a new stadium built on top of a racetrack out in the burbs.

Why exactly are the Bear looking to leave anyway? Soldier Field isn't terrible but seems to be a better football stadium (Fire) than a football stadium (Bears).

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

Why exactly are the Bear looking to leave anyway?

because Soldier Field sits on public land and belongs to the park district, the bears (nor any other private entity) will ever be able to own the stadium outright. no matter how much the city tries to sweeten the deal, the franchise itself will never be anything more than a tenant at SF, and the bears don't want to be mere tenants anymore.

the new model of NFL team valuation inflation is to own your stadium and the land/entertainment district around it so that you can collect 100% of everything all for yourself, much as the Rams have done with SoFI stadium.

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

because Soldier Field sits on public land and belongs to the park district, the bears (nor any other private entity) will ever be able to own the stadium outright. no matter how much the city tries to sweeten the deal, the franchise itself will never be anything more than a tenant at SF, and the bears don't want to be mere tenants anymore.

the new model of NFL team valuation inflation is to own your stadium and the land/entertainment district around it so that you can collect 100% of everything all for yourself, much as the Rams have done with SoFI stadium.

That's almost the exact same scenario that kept football out of LA for 25 years. The city owns the Coliseum (USC leases it for $1.5 million a year nearabout and most of that money goes to maintaining Exposition Park).

All the Bears need now is a billionaire who's willing to pay for everything (because Illinois sure won't) even though he'll only get richer in the long run. Ah sports.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

there's been a massive race track facility there attracting tens of thousands or people every summer weekend for nearly a century (since 1927).

i think the folks out that way are somewhat used to it by now.

yeah, a bears gameday will be a much bigger deal, and some folks will certainly grumble about that (some folks will grumble about absolutely any and every thing), but i think the bears see the AH site as the path of least (suburban) resistance because the race track has already been there for so long (and it's freaking HUGE at 326 acres!)


as a fan of the former race track, i'm actually way more bitter about the loss of the track than i am about the bears leaving the city.

A couple thousand people attending a casual racetrack is a lot less than 80/90k people for one game. As Tom pointed out, it's only a handful of days out of the year, so I personally wouldn't care if I lived there. I lived close to the Broncos stadium in Denver, and I would just avoid driving/Ubers on gamedays if I could. I barely noticed it personally. But we know how NIMBYs can be...... Doesn't matter anyways as it's going to be their problem

[woodrow]

Does this mean that after the Bears leave the city can look at giving Columbus a road diet?!? (please oh please).