The Chicago Bears are keen to build a new stadium, but so far plans haven’t gone smoothly.
Just a few days ago president Kevin Warren said that the team’s focus is split between a tract of land it owns in Arlington Heights and the Chicago lakefront.
“The focus now is both downtown and Arlington Heights,” Warren said at the NFL meetings. “These are not linear processes or projects. They take time. They take a lot of energy and effort. I am very, very pleased with where we are.”
Those comments mark a change for the Bears, as their previous focus was on building an enclosed stadium next to their longtime home, Soldier Field.
They were planning on transforming Chicago’s Museum Campus was endorsed by mayor Brando Johnson, but wasn’t as warmly received by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state legislators when it was unveiled last April.
Could there be a third solution?
With the Bears and their stadium plans unclear at the moment, ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio has offered another solution.
Given there are plenty of cities in the USA that have two teams play in one stadium, he wonders whether the Bears could partner with the Bengals in getting a new stadium built in Chicago.
“The market currently supports two teams in the sport that used to be America’s pastime,” Florio writes. “And with the Bears getting nowhere when it comes to finagling taxpayer funding for a new stadium, the solution could come from having a second team play there.
“Enter the Bengals. They’re less than three months away from the final countdown to the expiration of their lease at Paycor Stadium. During the league meetings this week, executive V.P. Katie Blackburn said the quiet thing out loud – after 2025, the Bengals can go wherever they want to go.”
It should be mentioned that Florio noted that the chances of the Bengals playing in Chicago are low, as it is more of a theory.
Read the full article here
