Make Fun of the Bears' Stadium Woes in Here

[Sammy Sofa]

18 minutes ago, mul21 said:

Baltimore and DC are an hour max apart

*Laughs hysterically from I-495, which is now my home forever*

[Soul]

It’s Gary.  Kicked out of Chicago… for Gary…

What a legacy for Warren.

 

[Soul]

Gary’s a superfund site, right?

[BigSlick]

I really think there’s 0% chance the Bears move to Indiana 

[Soul]

52 minutes ago, Sammy Sofa said:

*Laughs hysterically from I-495, which is now my home forever*

Been there, although thankfully only when I visit.

[minnesotacubsfan]

1 hour ago, Soul said:

Gary’s a superfund site, right?

Not the entire city, but pretty much the entire industrial area yes

 

[minnesotacubsfan]

1 hour ago, Soul said:

It’s Gary.  Kicked out of Chicago… for Gary…

What a legacy for Warren.

 

I think it’s laughable. One of the things they mention as a positive for the AH location was moving NW put them in proximity to “a lot of their fans”. Now they are going to make every one drive to Gary?  Yea, no. 

[Banedon]

I bet the talk radio stations are super happy to have a Bears screwup to talk about.  Things had been too perfect all season.  Now they can really get that indignant rage fired up.

[Wilson A2000]

As much is this may sound legitimate, I just don’t think you want to be the team president to move the team to Indiana. 670 has had some industry experts on and they are laying the blame for the Indiana possibility at the hands of Illinois local and state government. 

Edited December 19, 2025 by Wilson A2000

[mul21]

46 minutes ago, Wilson A2000 said:

As much is this may sound legitimate, I just don’t think you want to be the team president to move the team to Indiana. 670 has had some industry experts on and they are laying the blame for the Indiana possibility at the hands of Illinois local and state government. 

Based on how this whole thing has gone, the Bears have no idea WTF they're doing to get the state and local governments engaged in this process.  The reporting all along has been about how ham fisted the communications have been between the two and the terrible timelines the Bears have had when they have initiated conversations (i.e. starting a dialogue the week before a legislative session ends and there's literally no time to do anything).  The Bears should be embarrassed about this whole thing and it's all their own fault.  

[WrigleyField 22]

20 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

I kinda think this is very possible.  If Indiana is going to offer a property tax free location and commits to pay for infrastructure improvements it has to be seriously considered.  The Bears would probably much rather build in Arlington Heights even if it requires them to pay property tax, but if Illinois doesn't budge on this threat I think they will very strongly consider it.

Define the "threat" from Illinois please. 

[mul21]

8 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

Define the "threat" from Illinois please. 

Threatening to make them use their own billions to fund their stadium.  It's very rude you know.

[WrigleyField 22]

8 minutes ago, mul21 said:

Based on how this whole thing has gone, the Bears have no idea WTF they're doing to get the state and local governments engaged in this process.  The reporting all along has been about how ham fisted the communications have been between the two and the terrible timelines the Bears have had when they have initiated conversations (i.e. starting a dialogue the week before a legislative session ends and there's literally no time to do anything).  The Bears should be embarrassed about this whole thing and it's all their own fault.  

Yea I'm on team "Warren bungled this".  The time he did spend working with politicians was with Johnson anyone, who took the bare minimum time could have quickly seen that Chicago alone was never gonna be in a spot to provide serious funding. It was always gonna take the state and they spent a bunch of wasted time on a salvage SF plan without the right stakeholders on place. 

 

There is no good option. They should have done the McDome in mid 90s and it would have been cheaper than SF reno. But Bear weather or whatever. Now they're pretty horsefeathered. Options for staying in the city suck.  AH isn't the worst site, but IL rightfully isn't that incentivized for a massive infrastructure project to make it work. 

 

It definitely won't be Gary if Indiana happens. Maybe Hammond. AH would be better overall for fan density (especially wealth), but it could be that Indiana is Bears best bet. And I won't really be upset if that's what it comes to. And certainly glad if IL doesn't buck up 1B or more to save it.  If they lost them it's been 40-50 years coming. Any save now is a hail mary. 

[Brian707]

I mean is just staying in Soldier Field completely off the table at this point? Yes, you would never get a SB, the walk and traffic around the place sucks but that might be the best option now.

[WrigleyField 22]

United Center : privately funded and owned. Privately funding multi billion mixed use development. 

Wrigley Field : privately funded and owned. Privately funded renovations. Privately funded massive mixed use developments. 

 

Two massive successes. Meanwhile the private-public partnerships of Soldier Field and GR Field are massive albatrosses. Each of those above examples bring in like 2x as many customers than SF does too. And if Bears left SF, by my estimation they can't be responsible for much more than about half of those annual visitors. 

 

It would suck, but let them leave. I may horsefeathers on the state of Indiana, but NWI is still chicagoland and Bears territory. If residents of Indianapolis and Southern Indiana wanna finance my teams playground it is what it is. The thought of 80/94 traffic is horrifying but if they do a good enough job with the stadium maybe I'd go to more games than I do now. 

 

[WrigleyField 22]

2 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

I mean is just staying in Soldier Field completely off the table at this point? Yes, you would never get a SB, the walk and traffic around the place sucks but that might be the best option now.

Oh it's for sure possible.  I mean it was like 55 years ago that Soldier Field was the 5 year plan lmao

[Banedon]

2 hours ago, Wilson A2000 said:

As much is this may sound legitimate, I just don’t think you want to be the team president to move the team to Indiana. 670 has had some industry experts on and they are laying the blame for the Indiana possibility at the hands of Illinois local and state government. 

"Industry experts" = greedy business types.  Of course they're gonna side with the rich sports owners rather than the government.

[Tryptamine]

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought the Bears were willing to fund the stadium, but they wanted something like 870 million from the state for infrastructure like train/buses/etc. It's still a stupid investment Illinois would never see a positive ROI on.

[WrigleyField 22]

34 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought the Bears were willing to fund the stadium, but they wanted something like 870 million from the state for infrastructure like train/buses/etc. It's still a stupid investment Illinois would never see a positive ROI on.

Thats supposedly the case. 

 

So 870M is probably secretly like 2.7B

[CubinNY]

I'm horrible with financial stuff, but why can't the state issue a bond that the team pays back in, like, 50 years or something? 

[BigSlick]

I believe the lease at Soldier Field is up in 2033. They could renew it of course, but that does give you some idea of an immediate deadline. 

I listened to that "expert" on 670 and he sounded like a complete Owner partisan, and was laying all the blame on the state. I... just don't buy it. I really don't. The situation can be extremely tough for the McCaskeys, I think it is, but that's not the state's fault. And the McCaskeys have handled it in a very boneheaded way, alternating between crying poor and making threats of leaving.

They aren't going to horsefeathers Gary. I don't think there's anyway they go to Indiana. They already have the land in Arlington Heights. It's not ideal, but it's pretty horsefeathers good location for a stadium, especially for the people who are actually shelling out big bucks for season tickets. They need to figure out a way to get more money to build the stadium. It's probably not gonna come from the state. It shouldn't come from the state. 

[Banedon]

Also apparently Illinois wants the Bears to still help pay off Soldier Field.  This is from back in September:
 

Quote

Pritzker said Wednesday he has not spoken with Bears officials recently and noted that he still would like them to remain in Chicago. He did not immediately reject the Bears' request but said in order for the state to provide any support, the debts on Soldier Field must first be paid off.   

“We need the Bears to pay off what's owed on the existing stadium,” he said. “So that's going to be a really important feature of whatever happens going forward. And if they want a pilot bill or some other help, we're going to make that a prerequisite for something like that happening.”   

The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority still owes more than $500 million for the 2002 renovations of Soldier Field.   

I think I read somewhere that the Bears have offered to pay $25mil toward that debt.

[Irrelevant Dude]

4 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

I believe the lease at Soldier Field is up in 2033. They could renew it of course, but that does give you some idea of an immediate deadline. 

Have there been any comments about how long the construction for a project of this magnitude is expected to take once Kevin Warren's shovel is in the ground?  Maybe 3 years for construction, assuming all the other planning has been done up front?  Possibly longer for something like the Arlington Heights site because of additional infrastructure being required?  I can't imagine they are in danger of running into 2033... yet.

[BigSlick]

I'm never going to get over the fact that the SF "renovations" reduced capacity and gave the Bears the smallest stadium in the league in the biggest single market in the country

How... how does something like that happen 

[Derwood]

Would there really be a long-term backlash if the Bears played in Indiana? Did it hurt New York to have the Giants/Jets play in New Jersey?