Waukegan Offers 'Once In A Lifetime' Opportunity For Bears: Mayor

WAUKEGAN, IL — The Chicago Bears already have a training home in Lake Forest, but now another neighboring community is making a pitch to have the Bears call its city home on Game Day as well.

Waukegan Mayor Ann B. Taylor sent a letter to Bears President Kevin Warren on Monday, saying the city has “multiple large parcels” that would be suitable for a new Bears stadium should the team leave Chicago’s lakefront. The letter comes after the Bears recently announced that Arlington Heights and the former Arlington Park Racecourse are no longer the franchise’s singular focus for the site of a new stadium.

The Bears have recently met with officials from Naperville and the City of Chicago. The meeting with Naperville officials came after that city’s mayor wrote a letter to Warren, offering up the city as a possible home for a new covered stadium. Warren also held a video meeting last week with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who wants the city to have a seat at the table, although the Bears have indicated they plan to leave Soldier Field.

In her pitch to the team, Taylor wrote that it is “incumbent on me as Mayor to make you aware of the City of Waukegan’s opportunities, advantages and history with the Bears’ organization.”

Among the multiple parcels in Waukegan include land located along the Lake Michigan lakefront and within 20 minutes of Halas Hall, where the Bears have their front office and training facilities. Taylor wrote that the multiple parcels of land could easily be developed into both a state-of-the-art stadium and entertainment district that the team has proposed for the 326-acre Arlington Park property.

Taylor also said that the city offers excellent transportation options, including access to Interstate 94 and Route 41 as well as a major stop along the Metra Union Pacific North Line as well as a regional airport.

Taylor also wrote that the city has ties to the Bears as the team’s former winter training home in the early 1990s and that Bears players have lived in Lake County, while some members of the Bears organization live in the mayor’s neighborhood in Waukegan.

“Our working class and diverse community is as tough as the 1985 Super Bowl-winning Bears and our leadership team at Waukegan City Hall is as aggressive as Justin Fields running the ball downfield when it comes to creating economic opportunities for our City, our residents, and region at large,” Taylor wrote.

The letter included an invitation for Bears officials to travel to Waukegan to learn about the “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity that the city can provide. She said that the team deserves to keep playing along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, along with the market opportunity to host other big events on a year-round basis.

Bears officials have said that demolition at Arlington Park will continue as planned, and Arlington Heights officials have indicated that they still believe that the city remains the best option for the team moving forward.

A Bears spokesman said Tuesday that the team's previous position regarding discussions with other cities outside of Arlington Heights remains the same. On June 2, the Bears offered the following statement:

“The Chicago Bears' goal of building the largest single development project in Illinois history led by billions of dollars in private capital investment, and the jobs and economic benefits generated, is at risk in Arlington Heights," the statement reads. "The stadium-based project remains broadly popular in Arlington Heights, Chicagoland, and the state. However, the property’s original assessment at five times the 2021 tax value, and the recent settlement with Churchill Downs for 2022 being three times higher, fails to reflect the property is not operational and not commercially viable in its current state. We will continue the ongoing demolition activity and work toward a path forward in Arlington Heights, but it is no longer our singular focus. It is our responsibility to listen to other municipalities in Chicagoland about potential locations that can deliver on this transformational opportunity for our fans, our club, and the State of Illinois.”