'Reimagined' $2.2B Soldier Field Project Includes Dome, Transit Hub

CHICAGO — The developer of a proposed Lakefront NFL stadium that is working with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on an effort to keep the Chicago Bears from leaving the city for Arlington Heights released a new video on Sunday, introducing a “reimagined Soldier Field” that officials hope will rival a new Bears home in the suburbs.

More importantly, officials are hoping the plan is enough to keep the Bears right where they are with the clock ticking on a move to Arlington Heights.

The video, released by Landmark Development and narrated by Bill Kurtis, provides fans with a virtual tour of what the Bears home would look like once Soldier Field received a reported $2.2 billion facelift that would include adding a dome, making the venue more attractive to year-round events including concerts, sporting events and other activities that would bring revenue to the city. Landmark Development officials have said previously that their proposal will cost at least $1 billion less than the project the Bears have proposed in the suburbs.

The plan calls for Solider Field’s capacity to expand from 61,500 to 70,000 and for under-utilized spaces to create new food halls, more luxury suites and improved access to a new multi-modal transportation center, which would serve CTA and Metra customers as well as introducing a new “CHI Line” — all of which would be available across the street from the domed stadium.

The new plans come at a time when Bears officials are expected to close on a $197.2 million purchase agreement in Arlington Heights for the former Arlington Park racetrack space. Bears officials have said they expect the deal to close in the first quarter of this year on a $5 billion project that would include an entertainment and business district in downtown Arlington Heights.

The Bears have said that they will not seek funding from the public to build a new domed stadium in Arlington Heights, but have said they would seek "help" in paying for the rest of the project, which is scheduled to include hotels, restaurants and other amenities to complete the business district. Bears Chairman George McCaskey has said the entire project could take 10 years to complete.

Chicago officials have not indicated how a new downtown stadium would be funded. However, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Sunday that $631.5 million is still owed to the Illinois Sports Facility Authority by 2023 which remains unpaid from the 2003 renovation project on Soldier Field.

Bears officials have said repeatedly that the Arlington Heights space is the only project they are focused on, which includes proposals by Lightfoot and other city leaders to keep the Bears in Chicago. That hasn’t kept Landmark Development from moving ahead with plans to try to keep the Bears on the Lakefront.

Lightfoot has said in the past that if she cannot convince the Bears from staying, the city would consider other options, including petitioning the NFL for a second franchise for the city. In a statement issued on Sunday, Lightfoot's office said that the city still feels like Soldier Field is the best home for the Bears and "continues to ....explore the future for the stadium."

“Soldier Field is uniquely situated to anchor a truly world-class sports, retail, culinary, and entertainment district,” Bob Dunn, president of Landmark Development, said in a news release on Sunday. “There is no comparable location to take advantage of all key trends of the future — at the heart of one of the world’s most exciting cities. Chicago deserves an extraordinary vision to take this iconic public asset into the next hundred years and beyond.”

Landmark officials said that one of the most challenging aspects of the current Soldier Field set up is transportation to and from the Bears' home. A new multi-modal transit hub is being proposed to be built across the street by Landmark and a team of local and national private investment partners, above Metra storage tracks and a rail yard.

The group said that fans will arrive and department from a pedestrian-oriented transit hub protected from the elements on CTA, Metra, Amtrak, and a new “CHI-Line” downtown circulator system for sporting and other events, and convenient queuing for ride-share drop-off and pick-up will offer another option to take traffic out of the existing neighborhood.

An expanded entertainment district outlined under the Landmark project is slated to include an immersive fan environment and improved tail-gating experience around the stadium and adjacent to McCormick Place. The redeveloped spaces inside Soldier Field increase seating capacity, but also add fan activation areas, club lounges, and themed restaurants offering a range of new offerings to suit every taste, officials said.

The stadium’s north concourse — or new “Skyline Club” — will offer food, beverage, and retail options open throughout the year with access to the Museum Campus, even when an event is happening in the stadium. Multi-story operable windows to the city skyline can be opened to view concerts on the lawn between the redesigned stadium and The Field Museum.

The plan also calls for

• Numerous fan activation areas and a youth play zone inside the stadium
• An expanded Veterans Memorial, bridging the past to the future and paying tribute to Illinois veterans and their families.
• Increasing the number of private suites from 133 to 140.
• Adding six new major club and experiential areas, none of which exist in Soldier Field today.
• Quadrupling the food and beverage amenities from 50,000 square feet to 200,000 square feet

The redevelopment of Soldier Field will create venues within the venue offering diversified programming to activate the space all year with sports, concerts, family entertainment and community events, officials said. The spaces include an adjacent live performance space, a ballroom suitable for corporate and community events, and multiple upscale lounge and gathering areas accessible to the vibrant Museum Campus and Chicago Cultural Mile attractions.

“A modernized Soldier Field, a reinvigorated Museum Campus, and a world-class multi-modal transit hub will serve as one of our city’s most important civic assets and support the entire Chicago economy,” Jack Lavin, president and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce said in a news release. “This new, exciting vision is an opportunity to invest in our civic infrastructure – driving vital revenue, creating job opportunities, and increasing accessibility for all our businesses and residents, which is something that business and civic leaders can get behind.”