Bears Stadium news

[WrigleyField 22]

The most confusing directional part of Chicago is driving on 90/94 E-W

[gflore34]

18 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

The most confusing directional part of Chicago is driving on 90/94 E-W

I've more experience with the Ryan than the Kennedy, however, with O'Hare traffic added to the directional part, I can see your point.  Being several years removed from driving in Chicago, I'm certain I'd now be one the many who are going north on North and east on Ashland.  Got used to the "rush minute" here in Lansing, MI.

[Derwood]

North runs east-west, and Western runs north-south.

And in Soviet Russia, television watches YOU!

[javy knows my name]

1 hour ago, Rcal10 said:

Now I’m confused. I took south of Racine to mean south of the town of Racine.🤷😓

I assume he meant Roosevelt but there was fun to be poked

[minnesotacubsfan]

5 hours ago, javy knows my name said:

I thought it worked great on a non-chicago guy who seems perpetually confused and made a minor directional faux-pas

actually, as disappointing as this might sound, I was referring to Racine WI. Basically poking fun on both the Bears jumping from stadium site to stadium site (including out of state sites) and the relatively tiny venue they seem to want to build. But hey, if it works for you're joke as well, so be it!

[gflore34]

2 minutes ago, minnesotacubsfan said:

actually, as disappointing as this might sound, I was referring to Racine WI. Basically poking fun on both the Bears jumping from stadium site to stadium site (including out of state sites) and the relatively tiny venue they seem to want to build. But hey, if it works for you're joke as well, so be it!

I assumed Racine street as well but, given Racine runs north-south, Roosevelt road made more sense.

[BigSlick]

Ok, so it looks like they're going to stay in Illinois and be in Arlington Heights, which is what we all thought was going to be the case.

At the end of the day the biggest blunder the Bears made was buying up Arlington Track before making any sort of deal with the state and municipality. A completely unforced error because I don't think there was any bidding war for the property. But they're where they need to be. So I guess... maybe sometime in like 2031 we'll have a new stadium. 

[WrigleyField 22]

14 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

Ok, so it looks like they're going to stay in Illinois and be in Arlington Heights, which is what we all thought was going to be the case.

At the end of the day the biggest blunder the Bears made was buying up Arlington Track before making any sort of deal with the state and municipality. A completely unforced error because I don't think there was any bidding war for the property. But they're where they need to be. So I guess... maybe sometime in like 2031 we'll have a new stadium. 

There were definitely bids on the property. I think they may have lost out if they had to get a public deal first. 

 

But they literally wasted like 2.5 years on Chicago. I don't know if that was supposed to be leverage or sincere, but it was a dead on arrival plan. I don't think they were actually ready for a plan. Soldier Field lease was still on for 12 years when Arlington Park got on market. So they scrambled to make it happen and then did... Whatever the heck that last 3 years was. 

[Outshined_One]

23 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

There were definitely bids on the property. I think they may have lost out if they had to get a public deal first. 

But they literally wasted like 2.5 years on Chicago. I don't know if that was supposed to be leverage or sincere, but it was a dead on arrival plan. I don't think they were actually ready for a plan. Soldier Field lease was still on for 12 years when Arlington Park got on market. So they scrambled to make it happen and then did... Whatever the heck that last 3 years was. 

That's the way I've read it since the team had its eye on the Arlington site for years and was dying for the opportunity to purchase it.  A private developer with deep pockets could have turned it into another suburban hellscape ala The Glen Town Center, so there unquestionably was outside interest in the site.

As you alluded to, though, the Bears clearly did zero political groundwork prior to the purchase and seemed to think that the state, county, and municipality would all roll out the red carpet for them...only it never happened.  Once they got pushback from every level of government, they got desperate and made some abjectly stupid political plays for Chicago and NW Indiana.

The fact that Pritzker is meeting with Goodell at least tells me there's effort being made by the state and the NFL to keep the Bears from doing something ludicrous like move to Hammond, but time will tell.

[WrigleyField 22]

54 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

That's the way I've read it since the team had its eye on the Arlington site for years and was dying for the opportunity to purchase it.  A private developer with deep pockets could have turned it into another suburban hellscape ala The Glen Town Center, so there unquestionably was outside interest in the site.

As you alluded to, though, the Bears clearly did zero political groundwork prior to the purchase and seemed to think that the state, county, and municipality would all roll out the red carpet for them...only it never happened.  Once they got pushback from every level of government, they got desperate and made some abjectly stupid political plays for Chicago and NW Indiana.

The fact that Pritzker is meeting with Goodell at least tells me there's effort being made by the state and the NFL to keep the Bears from doing something ludicrous like move to Hammond, but time will tell.

It's not clear to me that he even did much to ask state early on. As I recall when he was rolling out the Chicago plan and parading around support of Mayor Johnson the word from downstate was that they weren't part of that planning.  Lmao. It's like Warren had heard about the Chicago political machine and didn't understand the mayor hasn't held that type of sway since it was a Daley in the role. 

 

They kind of backed off Chicago in spring of last year, but didn't really focus solely on Arlington until September.  I totally get downstate not treatimg them seriously and prioritizing their plans with that type of role out. The Bears appeared wholly disorganized IMO. 

 

I'm sure the Indiana pitch has helped accelerate the timeline. Time will tell if it actually creates pressure on the economics.

[Rex Buckingham]

The biggest lesson in this may be that Kevin Warren is an absolute dope. 

[NorthsideAvenger]

I'm pretty confident in saying the Bears will not move to Iowa. 

[minnesotacubsfan]

18 hours ago, Outshined_One said:

.. A private developer with deep pockets could have turned it into another suburban hellscape ala The Glen Town Center, so there unquestionably was outside interest in the site.

.....

that larger development strategy has been fading recently due to interest rates, but it was why I never thought the Bears were throwing away $200 mil, they could easily get their money back

[Outshined_One]

5 minutes ago, minnesotacubsfan said:

that larger development strategy has been fading recently due to interest rates, but it was why I never thought the Bears were throwing away $200 mil, they could easily get their money back

The demolition and carrying costs on that sucker, not to mention the market shifts, probably killed any profit they could have realized from a sale of the property if they were to sell now. It's possible we see a more favorable market down the road, but if they opt to move elsewhere, that probably will not result in a profitable outcome for this team.

[minnesotacubsfan]

nah, demo is like $10 sf, its very low in the overall cost of construction. whatever they put into it, they should be able to get out of it

5 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

The demolition and carrying costs on that sucker, not to mention the market shifts, probably killed any profit they could have realized from a sale of the property if they were to sell now. It's possible we see a more favorable market down the road, but if they opt to move elsewhere, that probably will not result in a profitable outcome for this team.

 

Edited February 11 by minnesotacubsfan

[CubinNY]

What will happen to Soldiers Field?

[jersey cubs fan]

24 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

What will happen to Soldiers Field?

Chicagoans will learn to pronounce and spell it correctly and it will continue to host concerts and other events, like college football and soccer. 

[Outshined_One]

The Chicago Fire are going to be building a soccer-specific stadium down the street, the new Ryan Field is opening later this year in Evanston, and if the Bears keep AH, that's three major competitors for events at Soldier Field, all of which will have newer and (presumably) better amenities than Soldier Field.  Keeping and maintaining Soldier Field without a sports team tenant like the Bears is going to be a huge drag on the city.

I'd rather the stadium be demolished and replaced with park land.  The colonnade can be turned into a museum or the like, but Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park both demonstrated the benefits of green space in and near downtown, and there's a lot that can be done with that space along the lakefront.

[jersey cubs fan]

1 minute ago, Outshined_One said:

The Chicago Fire are going to be building a soccer-specific stadium down the street, the new Ryan Field is opening later this year in Evanston, and if the Bears keep AH, that's three major competitors for events at Soldier Field, all of which will have newer and (presumably) better amenities than Soldier Field.  Keeping and maintaining Soldier Field without a sports team tenant like the Bears is going to be a huge drag on the city.

I'd rather the stadium be demolished and replaced with park land.  The colonnade can be turned into a museum or the like, but Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park both demonstrated the benefits of green space in and near downtown, and there's a lot that can be done with that space along the lakefront.

The bears rent accounts for a smaller portion of revenue than people think. There’s 8 dates you’d have to fill and now no conflicts with bears insisting it stays unused in the fall. It’s also an incredibly unique venue from a national perspective that people want to see. 
 

I would also like to see it turned into public parkland, but they are going to try and bleed revenue from it. 

[Derwood]

Iowa? Why stop there? Nebraska! Wyoming! IDAHOOOOOO!

[Outshined_One]

13 minutes ago, jersey cubs fan said:

The bears rent accounts for a smaller portion of revenue than people think. There’s 8 dates you’d have to fill and now no conflicts with bears insisting it stays unused in the fall. It’s also an incredibly unique venue from a national perspective that people want to see. 
 

I would also like to see it turned into public parkland, but they are going to try and bleed revenue from it. 

Realistically, I agree the city will do everything it can to continue using the stadium.  My suspicion is that Chicago will do something like add a roof to Soldier Field in an effort to court NFL teams looking to make a move or stump for an expansion team, but time will tell.

It's worth pointing out, though, that those three stadiums will be open by the time the Bears move, with modern amenities and also better suited to specific events, be it soccer games or college bowl games.  Soldier Field is a neat venue, but we also know it's not without issues.

[WrigleyField 22]

2 hours ago, Outshined_One said:

Realistically, I agree the city will do everything it can to continue using the stadium.  My suspicion is that Chicago will do something like add a roof to Soldier Field in an effort to court NFL teams looking to make a move or stump for an expansion team, but time will tell.

It's worth pointing out, though, that those three stadiums will be open by the time the Bears move, with modern amenities and also better suited to specific events, be it soccer games or college bowl games.  Soldier Field is a neat venue, but we also know it's not without issues.

Bears are gonna be able to block any move to Chicago media market, I'm pretty sure. Don't think they'd have much luck luring a NFL expansion because of that. 

But it already is a top 10 (in revenue) concert venue for large venues. Obviously they'd have to compete against the new Bears stadium in Hammond or Arlington too. But it would probably do okay. And it could aggressively court itself for international soccer matches, and have no scheduling conflicts without Bears and Fire. 

But Bears and Fire both leaving will undoubtedly be a big hit. I'd imagine it can still clear enough revenue to pay it's upkeep costs for a while at least. At some point in the far future that probably stops being the case, and then it's teardown and parkland, which really is what the site would be best for.

[UMFan83]

Sounds like they're moving to Indiana...

 

[Old Style]

horsefeathers the McCaskey family. I hate this horsefeathers. 

[Old Style]

You’re the pride & joy of Indiana, Hammond Bears, Bear down!