NEWSLETTER
A Chicago Bears move to suburban Arlington Heights has come with a sense of growing inevitability after the Bears put in a bid to buy Arlington International Racecourse property. Since then, the Bears have signed a purchase agreement, brought on the folks who designed the Raiders’ new stadium as consultants, and made additional steps in a potential move to the suburbs.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot might have been hoping the Bears would focus more on winning than moving, but the franchise has kept chugging along, pushing toward a departure from Soldier Field.
But, as one might expect, Chicago’s mayor isn’t going down without at least making a public plea to stay. And they don’t get more public (or “creative”!) than tossing out to the masses the idea of putting a dome on Soldier Field.
Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business has the scoop:
Hinz reports a mayoral committee is gearing up to recommend the city “explore the feasibility” of placing a dome on Soldier Field. A dome, if completing properly, would theoretically make the stadium property more attractive to future tenants. And mayyyyyybe coax the Bears away from moving to Arlington Heights. It’s a long shot – like me pulling up for a 3-pointer from Curry range. Or in football terms, think of it as Cairo Santos lining up from 65 yards out.
This isn’t the first time the idea of putting a dome atop Soldier Field has been publicly discussed. WGN News explored the possibility in 2019, but noted that cost (among other issues) as reasons it would be unlikely. Two years later, the dome topic resurfaced as part of a pitch to renovate and modernize Soldier Field began to come into focus. But, again, costs and other hurdles came up in bunches. But getting a mayoral committee involved could take things to another level.
Part of me appreciates the effort of putting it out there that the city would consider putting a dome on Soldier Field. Refurbishing the lakefront property would be a nice touch, and long-time Soldier Field attendees know modernization is long overdue.
But the other part of me has seen the city roll out the carpet in this manner before, and it oftentimes comes in too-little, too-late. This feels like one of those situations. After all, no one wants to be the mayor who let the Bears leave city limits without a fight. Making a public ploy to add a roof as a last-ditch effort isn’t the worst idea in an attempt to save face, but it really feels like this ship has sailed.
Even still … I wanna see how far this goes. Sometimes the drama is interesting, if nothing else.
