Chicago Bears stay focused on city’s lakefront for new stadium, team president says

WARE, England (AP) — The Chicago Bears remain focused on the city’s lakefront as the location for a nearly $5 billion stadium development project, team president Kevin Warren said Wednesday.

Warren held a news conference at the team's hotel outside London ahead of Chicago's game on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

A proposal unveiled earlier this year calls for an enclosed stadium next door to their current home at Soldier Field as part of a major project that would transform the lakefront. The Bears are asking for public funding to help make it happen.

The Bears also own property in Arlington Heights, but Warren maintained that the preference is Chicago.

“That Museum Campus is fantastic, and especially with the backdrop of Chicago and the architecture of that city,” he said. “That remains our focus at this point in time.”

The plan calls for $3.2 billion for the new stadium plus $1.5 billion in infrastructure, potentially including a publicly owned hotel.

“The status is we’re continuing to make progress. We stay focused still to be able to be in the ground, start construction sometime in 2025,” Warren said. “We’re having regular meetings with key business leaders, key politicians, just staying focused and on course.

“This is a long journey. This takes time,” he added. “I've been there before. We're exactly where I thought we would be at this point in time.”

Warren, the team's president and CEO, was asked if the Chicago site is “imminent or inevitable” and he responded: “I don’t know (about) saying imminent or inevitable. I think it’s the best site as of now.”

The proposal calls for just over $2 billion from the Bears, $300 million from an NFL loan and $900 million in bonds from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.

The next step, Warren said, is to “get approval from a political standpoint.”

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson had endorsed the project when it was announced in April. But Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state legislators are hesitant to commit public funds to help a privately owned team build a new stadium.

Warren noted that the plans for a new building will be generic enough to fit more than one site.

“You want to build a stadium where it really becomes agnostic from a location standpoint, because it takes so much time from a planning standpoint,” he said.

One way to raise funds would be to seek the type of private equity investment that the league recently approved when it relaxed some rules around team ownership, but Warren said the team is not pursuing it.

“At this point in time it's not something that we’re focused on and exploring in Chicago,” he said.

In his previous leadership role with the Minnesota Vikings, Warren oversaw plans and development of U.S. Bank Stadium.

“Anything that's great in life, anything that lasts 50 years, takes a lot of energy and effort,” he said Wednesday.

“I’m confident in the political leadership, the business leadership, our fan base, that we'll be able to figure this out,” he added. “It will become a crown jewel for the National Football League.”

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Ken Maguire, The Associated Press