Bears Forgo State Funding for New Stadium

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00:00So this is something that it feels like the club has been threatening for a while.

00:04Yeah, these talks have been going on for a few years now. The Chicago Bears are trying to build

00:09a new stadium. There have been a variety of different proposals along the lakefront where

00:14Soldier Field currently is, as well as purchases of a large property in suburban Arlington Heights.

00:20Now, during Monday, just hours before the season opener for the Bears, Kevin Warren,

00:26and the CEO of the Bears, put out an open letter saying that they're moving forward in Arlington Heights.

00:32Okay. What is the response from Chicago's government, the mayor, Brandon Johnson? How is he responding?

00:39Well, he had actually supported the plan that had been put forth by the Bears franchise last year.

00:46But that included some state funding, some municipal debt, and that was something that, at the time,

00:52Governor Pritzker had said was a non-starter. Okay. So how are the Bears framing this?

00:59How are they explaining this to the city, to their fan base? Yeah. What Kevin Warren has said

01:05in his open letter is that this is an expansion for the Bears. They're not leaving Chicago,

01:10but that they're expanding because their fan base is in and around the Chicago area.

01:15And so moving to Arlington Heights, they're trying to really touch the variety of regional fans that they have

01:22around the Chicago area. And that's one of the things that they're trying to pivot to and say that

01:28this is something that's a growth opportunity for the Bears. Okay. That's one way to frame it.

01:32What happens to Soldier Field, Shruti? Well, Soldier Field is a venue that hosts a lot of other events

01:39beyond the Bears games. You've seen headliners, large concerts. And so that's a question mark in terms

01:47of what is going to happen in the future. But certainly around the year when there are no football

01:52games happening, there are many, many other events going on at the field.