Bears $4.7B Dome Plan Takes Hit After Deal With Chicago Suburb

As the Bears prepare for a Thanksgiving Day matchup in Detroit against the NFC North rival Lions, the team’s quest for a new stadium in Chicago continues to take twists and turns.

On Monday, the Bears and the village of Arlington Heights reached a tentative agreement to settle a longstanding property tax dispute that prevented the team from moving forward with plans to build a new stadium on the 326 acres it owns on the site of an old horse racing track.

In April, the Bears unveiled a plan to build a $4.7 billion dome adjacent to their current home, Soldier Field, in downtown Chicago. They are seeking more than $2 billion in public funding, which would need to come from the state of Illinois, and is far from being approved.

After Monday’s news, the Bears in a statement said they “remain focused” on efforts to build said dome in Chicago, but they left the door open for other options.

“That being said, we remain significant landowners in Arlington Heights and establishing a framework for potential future development planning, financing and property tax certainty has been a priority since the land was purchased,” the statement read in part. “We continue to have productive conversations with the village and school districts and are aligned on a framework should we choose to explore a potential development.”

Arlington Heights officials in their statement said they “continue to believe Arlington Heights remains an incredible opportunity for the Chicago Bears” and that they “look forward to future conversations.”

The earliest any state funding for a new Bears stadium could even start to move toward being approved would be the spring of 2025. 

A potential move to Arlington Heights would see the Bears follow in the footsteps of the Browns, who are focusing their efforts on building a $2.4 billion dome in a Cleveland suburb, as opposed to renovating their downtown stadium or building a new one nearby.