New details have been revealed about the potential Chicago Bears stadium at 2200 Euclid Avenue in Arlington Heights. The plans mark the latest chapter in the team’s multi-year struggle to secure a new home while seeking tax funds from the city, county, and state. The effort is being led by the team in partnership with design firm Manica Architecture.
Site context view of the Bears conceptual masterplan via Google Maps
Over two years ago, the team announced plans to leave their current home at Soldier Field in favor of a new domed stadium. Since then, we’ve seen various proposals, including a potential redevelopment of Soldier Field, a new lakefront stadium, and the current mixed-use campus replacing the former Arlington International Racecourse.
Rendering of Bears stadium by Manica Architecture
At its core, the team is looking to fully own its stadium—and all the revenue generated within it—as well as benefit from a surrounding mixed-use campus. Currently, the city owns Soldier Field and thus receives a large portion of game-day revenue, along with all revenue from non-Bears-related events.
In an era where stadium districts are major revenue generators, it’s no surprise the Bears want a bigger piece of the pie. The Bears are the seventh most valuable team in the NFL, worth $8.2 billion with an annual revenue of $629 million, according to Forbes, while playing roughly 8–10 home games a year. Meanwhile, the city still owes over $500 million from the team’s 2002 reconstruction of Soldier Field.
After failing to secure sufficient public support or funding to demolish most of Soldier Field and replace it with a new lakefront stadium, the team is now returning to Arlington Heights with a design similar to Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium—also designed by Manica. To make this happen, they are requesting $855 million in public infrastructure funding, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Bears stadium rendering (top) – Allegiant stadium (bottom)
Bears stadium rendering (top) – Allegiant stadium (bottom)
Anchoring the northern edge of the property, the proposed stadium would contain 60,000 seats, slightly fewer than Soldier Field’s 61,000, but would be expandable to around 70,000 which is the minimum required to host a Super Bowl. The team sees hosting the event, which tends to favor warm-weather cities, as a key opportunity driving the push for a new facility.
The stadium would feature a large window offering views of Arlington Heights, as well as increased suite and standing-room capacity. The team plans to host 10 home games annually, along with college football showcases, high school games, eight concerts per year, private events, and tours, totaling an estimated 370 events annually.
Rendering of Bears stadium by Manica Architecture
The surrounding mixed-use complex has been partially scaled back from the original vision, including the removal of several lagoons in favor of additional parking. The development will include 1,150 residential units, 400 hotel rooms, 300,000 square feet of retail space, and 200,000 square feet of office space across 326 acres.
PREVIOUS site plan of Arlington Heights proposal by Hart Howerton Architects
The stadium alone is projected to cost around $2 billion, with the entire complex estimated at $5 billion. The state has also asked the Bears to pay off the remaining Soldier Field debt before negotiating any new public funding. Additionally, the team will seek tax breaks from the city of Arlington Heights. As of now, no official timeline has been announced.
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The large windows to the view of Arlington Heights is just laughable. Cant see how this gets off the ground if they keep asking for tax breaks the state is very unwilling to give.
The window is probably oriented towards the Chicago skyline, which will be more than 20 miles away.
The overall development proposal keeps getting worse. At this point less than 72 of the 326 acres will be for uses other than detention, parking, & stadium. Which, with the 1,150 homes, is less dense than a typical Chicago single family home neighborhood. If you include the entire 326 acres it is fewer homes than the site would generate if it was entirely rezoned with 1/4 acre lots.
Yeah, the window is facing SE over the property towards AH, but the town is two story homes and trees, would not see any of them. However, if google maps 3D view is correct they could see downtown Chicago on clear day. LOL
I may be mistaken but I seem to remember reading the city put off paying back the bonds or increased them for a related or different project.
What a boring unimaginative thing to call a stadium. I guess most of the effort is going to this district with dozens of eager fans who can’t wait to live next to their underperforming franchise. Designs oddly get watered down when billionaires aren’t getting tax payer money to fuel their hobbies. Curious.
Good luck Arlington on their new behemoth for only 10? home games a year. At least they can’t use height ever as a restriction for new development, if that ever was an issue.
Can they commit to revise that design? First we are infested with cheap copy and paste apartment buildings all over the city, now we’re getting a worse clone of the Raiders stadium!
I’d gladly pay $15,000 for a season ticket to get those views of Arlington Heights.
If they want to “fully own the building“, I’m assuming that means you’re not gonna ask for any public money. Right?
Replacing lagoons with parking lots, what a shock. The only building that they’ve promised to build a stadium, so it’s going to look like Woodfield mall if Woodfield Mall retired to Vegas.
Ian, fourth paragraph
“Meanwhile, the city still owes over $500 million from the team’s 2002 reconstruction of Soldier Field.”
should that be ‘team’ instead of ‘city’ ?
Hey Steve, the city is indeed on the line for $500 million by the mid 2030’s for the stadium.
Soldier Field is already the smallest NFL stadium and they want even less seats in the new stadium? Give me a break.
I thought one of their biggest complaints about Soldier Field was that its capacity is too small.
This is a joke. Going small in the 3rd largest market in the country, and asking for public funding? GTFOH. The Bills going small in Buffalo at least makes some sense with it being such a small market. Any new Bears facility should seat no less than 75,000 so that there would likely be at least some reasonably priced tickets. Tickets are already expensive at Soldier Field; these prices will be insane. We already have Northwestern shutting people out by going small.
Also, with the NFL increasing games played overseas, how often will there really be 10 home games, particularly 9 regular season home games? With more domes than before, how often would this stadium get a Super Bowl, Wrestlemania, or Final Four? With Nashville building a dome now, too, there’s even more competition. Even with a roof, people don’t want to come north for the Super Bowl in February. That’s why Detroit, Minneapolis and Indy have all only hosted 1 each. Would the new stadium wrestle the Big Ten football championship away from Indy? TBD, but Indy hosts NCAA headquarters which gives them a leg up in getting marquee college events.
TLDR – This doesn’t deserve a dime of public money, and the argument for it is weaker than ever.
I agree that the public funding request is BS
Also, why not more seats?
So the billionaire owners of the Chicago Bears want nearly a billion $$ in taxpayer money to move their personal property outside of the city for which the team is named? And the move is necessary because these billionaires are not rich enough and need to make even more money? Of course let’s not forget just few short years ago, in an earlier shakedown of the city and its taxpayers, they saddled the people of Chicago with $500 millions dollars of debt which is still hanging out there.. GTFOH…
So all revenue will go straight to the state first to pay off their debt, right? Right??
They would never pocket our hard work while letting us foot the bill of interest for decades… Or are college kids the only ones subjected to malicious debt?
If they are reducing scope and amenities now, the final project will be the stadium surrounded by a huge parking lot. Suburban Arlington Heights is not the city, you can’t build a hotel and entertainment mecca with the lack of density there. It’s not going to be supported by the number of games and some surrounding new housing. This all or nothing attitude will give them nothing. Arlington Heights isn’t the lakefront, there’s better opportunities in Chicago.
Wow…suburban mediocrity at its most stereotypical. Haven’t Bears fans suffered enough?
Did a five-year-old put this together? The seventh picture shows Las Vegas written in the end zone of the outside field. The glass window showcasing the view of Arlington Heights is crazy. I used to live near there, and it is a boring place to be. AH will likely need over $1 billion in infrastructure to accommodate the crowds. The $800 million estimate is a joke. The state should allocate the infrastructure funding to support Metra and the CTA, ensuring these services continue to operate for students and workers who rely on public transportation.
I’m a huge Bears fan but it’s time to allow a 2nd team into this market. Chicago can support one!
Everything about this plan is a joke. We’re going to have a knockoff of a stadium built for a totally different context. With no retractable roof, no grass field, With less seats than our current “too small” stadium. And surrounded by parking lots and a generic “town centre” that approximates the blandest “new urbanism” trends of the 2000-2005 era.