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What to know about possible move from Soldier Field

What to know about possible move from Soldier Field
February 14, 2026

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What to know about possible move from Soldier Field

The Chicago Bears embarked on a new era in February 2023 with the purchase of a site in Arlington Heights where the team hopes to build a new enclosed stadium with a massive entertainment and residential development.

In April 2024, the team laid out elaborate plans for a new publicly owned domed stadium, but now, the storied NFL franchise’s sights are focused on the northwest suburbs — or is it northwest Indiana?

Here’s what to know about the long road to a new stadium.

So, Indiana? Really?

The Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge, a common path for Chicagoans to travel to Indiana, shown from South Ewing Avenue in South Chicago on Dec. 17, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and state legislators have scoffed at the possibility of the Bears playing their home games across state lines. But Pritzker also recently hired outside counsel to advise his administration on the Bears’ demands of state lawmakers, while Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia has urged the legislature to make a deal.

The state of Indiana, for its part, has appeared happy to oblige. A proposed bill with widespread support in the Indiana state legislature would create the “northwest Indiana stadium authority” to acquire land and “construct, equip, own, lease, and finance” a stadium for the Bears, who could then purchase it for $1 after a 35-year lease.

A spot in Hammond, just across the state line, immediately became a leading contender for a stadium site and Indiana Gov. Mike Braun made no secret of his desire to lure the Bears out of Chicago. And in Gary, where City Hall is surrounded by crumbling buildings and the abandoned Genesis Convention Center, elected officials and the city staff went to work.

A City of Gary rendering shows how a proposed Chicago Bears stadium and entertainment district would fit on 400 acres next to the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana. (City of Gary)

On Dec. 18, the day after the Bears’ northwest Indiana announcement, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton promised “a comprehensive proposal” to bring the team to the city. Four weeks later, Gary released renderings for three proposed stadium sites: one near the Hard Rock casino, another close to the construction of a FedEx distribution center near Buffington Harbor and the one in Miller Beach.

Gary has gone all in on the Bears. But are the Bears serious about Gary?

And not to be outdone, Portage officials made their pitch with a $5 billion stadium.

“We’re prepared to give them everything they want with no taxpayer dollars,” Portage Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Andy Maletta said. Financier Lou Weisbach, who has stadium-building experience, is in Portage’s playbook. “We offered it in a way that has never been done before,” he said.

Win or lose, the play could pay off for Portage.

Is Arlington Heights still a possibility?

While Indiana officials play up their efforts to lure the Bears across the border for a new stadium, Gov. JB Pritzker said he and his staff have made “progress” to incentivize the football team to stay in Illinois.

The key sticking points in Illinois have been over how the state would legislatively or financially aid the team in its desire to build a stadium in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. In particular, topics have evolved around assistance for infrastructure around a proposed Arlington Heights stadium, property tax certainty for the team and payment of debt for the Soldier Field renovations done more than 20 years ago at the team’s behest.

Rolling Meadows Mayor Lara Sanoica, who supports bringing the Bears to neighboring Arlington Heights, issued a statement that the proposed Indiana law would be a bad deal for workers.

“Indiana’s sales pitch is that you can build a world-class stadium by shortchanging the workers who build it,” Sanoica said. “Illinois doesn’t work that way. We know our families deserve better than a race to the bottom.”

What’s the history of the team in Chicago?

While the Bears have called Soldier Field home since 1971, the team has discussed or proposed playing its games elsewhere throughout much of the last 50 years.

Wrigley Field served as the original home venue for the team when it moved to Chicago in 1921 and remained there through 1970. The team won nearly 70% of its home games during that span. But the Bears were forced to find a new home after the American Football League merged with the National Football League and required stadiums to seat at least 50,000 fans. The team played its last game at Wrigley Field on Dec. 13, 1970, beating the Packers 35-17.

What would an Arlington Heights stadium look like?

The Bears released an economic impact report that included architectural renderings of the proposed stadium in Arlington Heights on Sept. 30, 2025. (MANICA Architecture)

Construction of a new Bears stadium in Arlington Heights would generate thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity, but would also require substantial taxpayer support for infrastructure, according to team projections released on Sept. 30.

Infrastructure such as entrance and exit ramps from near Route 53 and changes to the adjacent Metra train line would cost $855 million in public funds, the team’s consultant estimated in its report. The report attempts to assuage concerns about the price tag by pointing to gross state tax revenues of almost $1.3 billion over 40 years, according to projections from HR&A Advisors, Inc.

Arlington Park’s rebirth

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The former Arlington International Racecourse is seen at sunrise on May 23, 2025, in Arlington Heights. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

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One week before his inauguration as the new mayor of Arlington Heights, Jim Tinaglia walked through the downtown streets he’s called home for more than 50 years. What was once a “sleepy little town,” as he described it, has become a bustling community, a place Tinaglia has had a hand in building, himself, through his work as an architect.

He’d built “at least a dozen” places here over the past 35 years.

If there’d been a constant amid all the growth in one of Chicago’s largest suburbs it was probably the horse racing track a little ways northwest of downtown, the one now locked away and waiting for new life. For decades, Arlington Park had been a deeply-ingrained part of the culture here, and a source of pride.

Incoming mayor Jim Tinaglia in downtown Arlington Heights on April 28, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

“Our identity,” Tinaglia said of the track. “For 100 years.”

Now it will be his mission to lead Arlington Park’s rebirth — to complete the long, winding journey of bringing the Bears to Arlington Heights. It’s a large part of why he ran for mayor, and also why he believes he was elected: to finish a deal that has proven elusive since a rush of early momentum, and to help convince Bears leadership, once and for all, that they should move from Chicago to the northwest suburbs.

What about a domed stadium on the Chicago lakefront?

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An artist’s rendering of a new state-of-the-art enclosed stadium with open space access to the lakefront was released by the Chicago Bears on April 24, 2024. (Manica)

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Warren envisions a stadium just south of the Bears’ current home at Soldier Field, on the site of what is now a parking lot. The facility would seat about 65,000 for football, with standing room up to 70,000, and a capacity of 77,000 for basketball.

Unlike Soldier Field, it could hold events year-round, including concerts, soccer, college basketball playoffs, or, once in a great while, the Super Bowl.

The Bears say they would pay $2 billion, a huge private investment, plus $300 million requested from the NFL. The rest of the $3.2 billion cost of the stadium alone would be paid with $900 million from the state. The team said another $325 million would be needed for infrastructure, including improved road access and utilities as part of up to $1.5 billion for full build-out with extras like a hotel.

The public money would be borrowed through bonds issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, or ISFA, which previously financed construction of Guaranteed Rate Field, where the White Sox play, and the 2003 renovation of Soldier Field. The bonds are to be repaid over 40 years by the city’s 2% hotel tax.

“I remain skeptical about this proposal, and I wonder whether it’s a good deal for the taxpayers,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “There are a lot of priorities that the state has, and I’m not sure that this is among the highest priorities for taxpayers.”

Could Indiana be an option?

The Indiana legislature moved a bill aimed at attracting the Bears to Northwest Indiana just yards from the end zone, with final approval by the Senate on April 9.

House Bill 1292, authored by Rep. Earl Harris, D-East Chicago, would establish a Northwest Indiana professional development commission and a professional sports development fund. Harris said the commission would be tasked with exploring and implementing strategies to attract one or more sports franchises to Northwest Indiana.

“The Bears are the big boy, so that has received the most attention,” Harris said. The bill passed the Senate 46-2.

Or what about another site in Chicago?

Other cities and municipalities around Illinois have previously expressed interest in talking to the Bears about a future stadium.

What would happen to Soldier Field without the Bears?

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Soldier Field on the lakefront on March 11, 2024. where the Bears have proposed building a new domed stadium. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

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The divorce is far from a foregone conclusion — the Bears have simply taken the next step. If the team leaves Soldier Field, Friends of the Parks Executive Director Juanita Irizarry said she hopes the stadium can host many more concerts each year, easing the increasingly controversial burden on neighborhood parks for big musical events such as Riot Fest in Douglass Park and the recently announced Re:SET festival in Riis Park.

Why Arlington Heights?

Arlington Park International Racecourse on Oct. 6, 2021, in Arlington Heights. The Chicago Bears have signed a purchase agreement for Arlington International Racecourse, the near-century-old facility that likely hosted its final horse race.

If the Bears dare to dream big about a new stadium in Arlington Heights, they can find inspiration in SoFi Stadium, the new star attraction of the NFL.

The league’s largest and most expensive arena and the site of the Super Bowl, SoFi, just outside Los Angeles, is overwhelming fans with its sweeping curves and epic scale. The stadium and its development highlight certain parallels to the Bears’ proposal to buy and redevelop Arlington International Racecourse. Both reflect desires to leave century-old stadiums and home cities for vast sites that allow for planned enclaves of surrounding restaurants, hotels, offices, stores and homes.

What are fans saying?

Fans settle into their seats prior to the start of a game between the Bears and Lions at Soldier Field on Oct. 3, 2021.

Some fans expressed a draft day-like optimism that better days are ahead. They dreamed openly of shorter concessions, easier parking, better tailgating opportunities and a domed stadium that protected them from biting winter winds.

“I’ve been to multiple stadiums in the NFL and Soldier Field does not compete with any of them,” Bears season ticket holder Neal Shah of Wheaton said. “On game days, the television crews show an aerial view of the stadium, which is beautiful, but the logistics are terrible.”

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