Arlington Park Back In Play As Bears Brass Discuss Future Home of Team

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — Those dreaming of a new football stadium for the Chicago Bears in Arlington Heights might soon be seeing their visions become a reality. At this week's NFL owners meetings, Bears officials hinted that recent momentum to build a state-of-the-art stadium along Chicago's lakefront has shifted back to Arlington Park also being in serious consideration.

"[My predecessors] made a very forward-thinking decision right before I started. That was the piece of paper that was on my desk when I walked in my office in April 2023 [stating] they had purchased 326 acres in Arlington Heights," Bears President Kevin Warren said Tuesday during an interview with NFL On NBC. "This land is absolutely beautiful. I mean, it's a great piece of land. And so now the key thing in all these stadium projects is optionality."

During the interview, which occurred prior to Tuesday night's election results coming in, Warren said he is looking forward to working with the new mayor of Arlington Heights on the project at the former Arlington International Raceway site. Arlington Heights Village Board Trustee Jim Tinaglia is the projected winner of the race.

"Clearly, the greatest challenge that I believe we all will face during the next four years is the careful redevelopment of the Arlington International Racecourse property," Tinaglia said prior to the election in a Patch questionnaire. "If it can be done as a true win-win for the developer, and our residents and businesses, then I will look back on my term as Mayor as a success."

In February 2023, the Bears closed on a $197.2 million property agreement to buy the Arlington Park property that housed the former racetrack, which has since been demolished.

"I'm excited about the new mayor in Arlington Heights, and again, being the largest landowner, we've made a lot of progress there with all the tax certainly, that we've been able to get," Warren said.

Last November, the Bears agreed to pay $3.6 million in property taxes annually at the Arlington Park site.

In May last year, the Bears unveiled plans for a publicly-owned, domed stadium on the Museum Campus in Chicago. The entire stadium project, which would be built near the current site of Solider Field, is estimated to cost $4.6 billion, including $3.2 billion for the stadium itself.

"We continue our conversations with the city of Chicago," Warren said. "I've said it many, many times that that piece of land along the lakefront, oh, is absolutely beautiful it is. I understand all the dynamics, I understand the politics, I understand the cost of it."