Bears stadium quest took twists and turns in 2024, but Arlington Heights still in play

From an organizational shift in focus to the Chicago lakefront to the end of a long-running tax battle in Arlington Heights, the Chicago Bears stadium saga continued its progression downfield in 2024.

Here’s a year in review of the big plays and major players involved in the charter NFL franchise’s quest for a new play place, from Halas Hall in Lake Forest to Springfield – with stops at Arlington Heights village hall and Chicago City Hall in between.

Jan. 10: Bears President/CEO Kevin Warren starts the year with a news conference in which he speaks of his affinity for downtown and the lakefront, but adds that he’s keeping his options open about the location of a new stadium.

Jan. 18: Warren meets at Halas Hall with superintendents of Northwest Suburban High School District 214, Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 and Palatine Township Elementary District 15 to discuss the monthslong property tax dispute over the team’s 326-acre Arlington Park property in Arlington Heights. The school leaders question whether the team’s soon-to-be-announced shift back to the Chicago lakefront is really about taxes in the suburbs.

“He said what he learned in his stadium-building days in Minneapolis was that he has to have a backup plan, and he is going to keep both cities in play until the least-hairy option emerges for the direction to go with the stadium,” District 214 Superintendent Scott Rowe told the Daily Herald in April. “ … We actually think Arlington Heights is very much still in play. He’s currently testing out Chicago.”

Late January: Lawyers for the Bears and three Arlington Heights-area school districts trade property tax settlement offers but ultimately are $100 million apart on what they think the NFL franchise’s Arlington Heights property is worth.

Feb. 22: The Cook County Board of Review sets the value of the sprawling Arlington Park site at $124.7 million, which translates into a tax bill of $8.9 million. The value is less than the $192 million amount set by Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi but more than the $60 million determined by the Bears’ appraiser.

Feb. 27: Arlington Heights Village Manager Randy Recklaus proposes a settlement to the Bears and school districts, calling for the football club to pay $6.3 million in taxes in 2023 and $3.6 million in 2024, with negotiated annual increases of 3% to 10% the following three years based upon market conditions.

March 11: A little more than a year after the Bears purchased the former race track in Arlington Heights, news surfaces that the team is eyeing the south parking lot of Soldier Field for a new publicly owned domed stadium. The announcement catches officials at village hall off guard.

March 18: In front of TV news cameras at a village board meeting, Recklaus publicly reveals terms of the village’s proposed property tax settlement, calling it “fair and sensible.” Neither side commits to the deal.

March 29: The Bears file an appeal with the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board, asking for a property value of $60 million and a tax bill of $1.7 million.

April 24: Backed by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson at a VIP event inside Soldier Field, Warren formally unveils plans for a new lakefront stadium as part of a three-phased, $4.7 billion Museum Campus redevelopment. The proposal would put an enclosed stadium on the south parking lot, while the current Soldier Field seating bowl is removed to make way for public athletic fields and green space. The Bears pledge $2.3 billion in private funds to the project but want taxpayer help for the rest.

Meanwhile, across town, two top state leaders who hold the purse strings to public subsides threw cold water on the proposal.

“I believe strongly that this is not a high priority for legislators and certainly not for me” in comparison with other needs in the state, Gov. JB Pritzker said. The next day, he called certain aspects of the Bears plan – such as the team collecting revenue from other events at the stadium – “nonstarters.”

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said he told Warren that any vote on Bears subsidy legislation “would fail, and it would fail miserably.”

Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes touts a Bears stadium at Arlington Park as a plan B. Warren leaves open the door but reiterates that his “focus” is on the lakefront.

May 29: The General Assembly’s spring session concludes without a vote – or even a formal bill making it to the floor – on the Bears’ ask for stadium subsidies.

June 11: Warren says at a Lincoln Forum/Union League Club of Chicago luncheon that the McCaskey family isn’t considering selling a minority stake in the team to free up cash to get a Bears stadium deal done in Chicago. He also says the club isn’t ready to put the Arlington Heights property up for sale. Attendees of the event included Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, who renewed his pitch to bring the Bears to his town.

June 18: The Arlington Heights Village Board grants the team’s request to keep up a digital billboard on the vacant Arlington Park property. Even though the initial approval in 2017 came with the caveat that the sign come down were the race track to cease operations, village officials have granted extensions three times.

June 26: Hayes, on the village board since 1991 and mayor since 2013, announces that he won’t seek reelection but believes the Bears will decide whether or not to build a stadium in town before his term expires in spring 2025. He adds the team has received and responded to the latest version of a proposed settlement over property taxes and other issues.

“I feel very hopeful about where things are at,” Hayes said. “And I’ve always said that, ultimately, I think the Bears will find that Arlington Heights is the best site for them.”

July 29: Pritzker declares it would be “near impossible” for legislation providing public money for a new lakefront stadium to pass the legislature in the fall.

Aug. 13 and 14: A third-party research group hired by the Bears hosts invite-only focus groups of season ticket holders in Schaumburg and downtown Chicago to solicit feedback about potential features and amenities in a new stadium in Chicago.

Sept. 5: Warren opens the door ever so slightly to a return to Arlington Heights – so long as the tax issues are resolved – during a dinner hosted by The Economic Club of Chicago. But he continues to bear down on what he thinks a new stadium would mean for Chicago.

Oct. 7: Officials from the Bears, Arlington Heights and school districts hold a private meeting at District 214 headquarters to conduct final negotiations on a memorandum of understanding to resolve the tax dispute and other issues.

Nov. 12: The Bears renew interest in the former Michael Reese Hospital property in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, which was favored by the Friends of the Parks lakefront advocacy group. The team previously rejected the 48.6-acre location – among about a dozen others – for being too narrow, and since a stadium would have to be developed over train lines.

Nov. 25: The Bears announce they’ve reached a tentative agreement with the village and schools over taxes. The 12-page document, released later in the week by the village, calls for the team to pay $3.6 million in property taxes a year from 2024 at least through 2027. It could remain the same amount in the following years if the Bears submit formal plans seeking zoning approval and then apply for building permits to begin construction.

The deal also requires the Bears to resume economic, traffic and other studies related to the proposed $5 billion Arlington Park stadium and mixed-use redevelopment unveiled in September 2022.

The pact, among other items, also contains a formula to cover schools’ per-pupil annual operating costs for any new student residents.

Week of Dec. 9: The elected boards for Arlington Heights and three school districts vote to approve the agreement. Only one member of the four boards, Kim Cavill of District 211, voted against the deal, since it could lay the groundwork for a long-term property tax break for the Bears.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20241229/news/bears-stadium-quest-took-twists-and-turns-in-2024-but-arlington-heights-still-in-play/