Bears Hope To Break Ground On Chicago Stadium Next Year: President

CHICAGO — While the Chicago Bears prepare for this weekend's game versus the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, the team's president and CEO reiterated Wednesday the organization remains focused on building a new stadium along Chicago's lakefront. Kevin Warren has set a goal of breaking ground on the stadium in 2025.

"We're having regular meetings with key business leaders, key politicians, just staying focused," Warren said. "Of course, you know, this is a long journey. On any of these stadium projects, you try to make it as straight of a journey as you possibly can. But this takes time. It takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of energy."

In May, the Bears unveiled plans for a publicly-owned, domed stadium on the Museum Campus. 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.

In July, Gov. JB Pritzker called any kind of state funding for the project would be "near impossible" during this fall's legislative session.

"You couldn't actually get it done probably during the veto session and would have to wait until next spring, but in reality, there isn't a proposal on the table right now that would be acceptable to anyone that I know in the legislature," Pritzker said.

RELATED: Bears Stadium Funding In Chicago 'Near Impossible' This Year — Pritzker

On Wednesday, Warren pointed to his past success on a stadium project while serving as chief operating officer of the Minnesota Vikings (2015-2019). The team built the $1.13 billion U.S. Bank Stadium, and it opened for the 2016 NFL season.

"I've been there before, and so we're exactly where I thought we would be at this point in time," Warren said.

In February 2023, the Bears closed on a $197.2 million property agreement to buy the former Arlington Park racetrack in Arlington Heights and have since demolished a large portion of the site. While the team in recent months has said its priority is building a new stadium in Chicago, Arlington Heights officials have hinted that the Arlington Park property remains in play.

"I'm one of those individuals that looks at the benefits of every location, and you look at the museum campus, it has attributes that don't exist anywhere in the world," Warren said. "Arlington Heights has attributes that are really unique. You have 326 acres split by a river. There's things that you can do there from a mixed use development."

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