While the future of the planned new stadium for the Chicago Bears remains in limbo, a new report has determined the team was not telling truth about its eagerness to move out of his hometown.
According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the team misrepresented the number of times it met with Chicago officials about the potential for a new stadium in the city. Records showed the team held confidential discussions with city officials by phone and virtual meetings at least six times while publicly lobbying state officials to pass legislation enabling the construction of a new venue in suburban Arlington Heights.
However, the team told Illinois lawmakers they only had a single meeting with city leaders and that supposedly focused on their lease at Soldier Field. But the Chicago Park District, the entity that owns Soldier Field, was never part of the meetings between the Bears and the city.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has repeatedly insisted that the team could stay in the city, despite its public protestations that it needed to leave.
“The Bears would pay 72-75% of a stadium that the people of Chicago would own,” Johnson said on Monday, after the state legislature adjourned without resolving the funding issues that blocked the Arlington Heights plans from going through. “So, it’s good to know that, unfortunately, it took two years for the conversation in Springfield to get behind our proposal and plan for a publicly owned stadium.”
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