Richton Park Mayor Wants Village To Be Bears' 'Lucky Winner'

RICHTON PARK, IL — Like anyone else who follows the comings and goings of National Football League franchises, Richton Park Mayor Rick Reinbold has noticed the trend of teams who call major cities home transitioning to the suburbs.

So, after the Chicago Bears announced this spring that they were considering options outside of Arlington Heights for a new stadium, Reinbold and other village officials figured, “Why not us?” Reinbold recently sent a letter to Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren pitching the team on considering Richton Park as the future home of a multi-billion-dollar stadium and entertainment district.

Although the Bears have already begun demolition of the 326-acre Arlington Park Racecourse, which they paid $197.2 million earlier this spring, the team announced that Arlington Heights is no longer its lone focus for its future stadium plans. Since then, officials from Naperville, Aurora, Waukegan and Chicago have contacted Warren with hopes of luring the Bears to their community.

“There’s going to be one lucky winner,” Reinbold told Patch on Tuesday. “And we want it to be us.”

He added: “We think we can make it happen here in Richton Park.”

Reinbold told Patch on Tuesday that he conferred with other Richton Park staff members before sending the letter to Warren last week. In the letter, Reinbold invites Warren to consider the village’s “greenfield opportunities” that specifically would involve nearly 1,000 acres of undeveloped farmland and green space that could easily be developed for a new stadium and business and entertainment district.

Reinbold pitched Warren on the community’s diversity and its relatively close proximity to Chicago. In addition, the village’s access to major expressways like I-57, I-80, I-294, I-94 and I-355 along with a Metra stop would provide Bears fans easy accessibility to the domed venue the Bears are looking to build.

Reinbold said that the village is always on the lookout for economic development opportunities and figured the Bears could be a good fit. After holding initial internal conversations, the village decided it could be a contender in the Bears stadium sweepstakes.

Many pundits expect Arlington Heights to still be the front-runner in the competition to land the Bears. But in a meeting last month with Arlington Park residents, Warren characterized discussions with the village as being in a stalemate. Warren, who started in his new role with the Bears in April, said that the team “has to” consider other options and said that he is looking for a legitimate partner with which to work as stadium plans move forward.

Reinbold said that the available land in Richton Park that sits just west of I-57 would be “perfect” for the kind of development project the Bears are seeking. Bears officials predict that once complete, the project would be the single-largest development project in Illinois state history. Once completed, Bears chairman George McCaskey estimates that the stadium and entertainment and district project could reach a price tag of nearly $10 billion.

Reinbold said bringing the Bears to the area would not only be a win for Richton Park but for the Southland region. In his letter to Warren, the mayor calls the region a middle-to-upper-class swath of land that includes neighboring communities such as Frankfort, Olympia Fields and Matteson. With a median household income of $98,000, the village — the mayor wrote — puts Richton Park at the center of a prosperous trade area as well. He cites 2022 retail figures for the region that totaled $1.8 billion in retail sales.

While Richton Park is the first south suburban community to make its pitch to the Bears, Reinbold is hoping Warren takes him up on his invitation to come visit a southland region that he says “is open for business” for himself.

Reinbold said that it is much too early to try to speculate what a new Bears stadium within the village would mean for local residents. The Bears have said they will not seek taxpayer assistance in building a new stadium but would “need help” in financing the remainder of the entertainment and business district.

In Arlington Heights, residents have been frustrated with the Bears’ lack of specifics on how building there would affect their tax bill. At the meeting last month, though, Warren said that while the team is willing to negotiate with local officials, the team is looking for tax assurances to ensure that the team has the right public-private partnership in place to move forward.

Reinbold said that a stadium that the Bears are hoping will not only host home football games, but bigger sporting events like Super Bowls, Final Fours, and major concerts would not create a major traffic burden on the area considering the number of expressways that are close by.

He said that should the Bears choose the village, regional businesses would flourish becomes of the influx of fans that would be flocking to the area for home games and other events. He said an incentive package would need to be negotiated but believes that if the team generates the kind of revenue it expects by building a new stadium, local residents would be part of a win-win proposition.

“Everything is positive about it,” Reinbold said. “Will it have an impact on the community? Of course, it will. But I think the overwhelming majority of the impact will be positive.”

The village has yet to hear back from the Bears, who opened training camp on Tuesday. The Bears have not laid out a timeline to move forward with the building project. But Warren anticipates that the Arlington Park property will likely sit vacant for a couple of years once it is completely demolished. So in the meantime, Reinbold said that he and others will wait on the Bears and will hope to be a strong contender to land the Bears when all is said and done.

For the time being, though, Reinbold realizes that the village is among a number of hopefuls looking for a chance to sell the franchise on remaining the Chicago Bears outside of Chicago.

“Is it a challenge? Yeah,” Reinbold told Patch. “But we’re not afraid of challenges."