Another suburban player has joined the blitz to land a new stadium for the Chicago Bears.
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin sent a “letter of interest” this week inviting team president Kevin Warren to consider Illinois’ second-largest city as a destination for the multibillion-dollar dome of their dreams, as the Bears field alternate options during a property tax stalemate over their freshly purchased land in Arlington Heights.
“The opportunity to partner with the historic Chicago Bears as you search for the perfect new home is one we are eager to take on,” Irvin wrote in the two-page letter, portions of which were released by Aurora officials late Tuesday. “Welcoming a historic organization such as the Chicago Bears would enhance our bold vision for Aurora and will provide the Chicago Bears with a new home to begin the next phase of your storied history.”
Irvin — who last year was considered a serious contender against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reelection bid but finished a distant third in the Republican primary — noted his city’s easy access off Interstate 88 and Metra’s BNSF line as part of “the exciting opportunity Aurora can bring to the world-famous Chicago Bears.”
A spokesman for the suburb said team representatives “responded quickly and positively” to Aurora’s entreaty.
Bears officials declined to comment, as they have for the two other suburban invitations they’ve received this month, other than saying that it’s their “responsibility to listen” to all pitches for “this transformational opportunity for our fans, our club and the state of Illinois.”
Aurora makes it a five-man front showing interest in hosting the team long term, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has opened talks with Warren about keeping the team within city limits — but hasn’t offered specifics on how he’d entice them to stay. Team brass have emphasized they want to own a domed stadium much larger than the NFL-smallest Soldier Field, which they’ve rented from the Chicago Park District for five decades.
Arlington Heights still figures as the favorite for the team’s future home since the organization spent $197 million for the shuttered Arlington International Racecourse and has laid out grand visions for a mixed-use mega-development on its 326 acres.
But the team announced earlier this month that the northwest suburb was no longer its “singular focus,” complaining of a high property tax assessment from Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office. Several northwest suburban school districts have pushed back against the team’s efforts to lower the bill.
That opened the door to the other suburban stadium solicitations, first from Naperville, then Waukegan and now Aurora.
It’s not the first time any of them has been floated as a new home for the Bears, who have repeatedly threatened to move since first switching from Wrigley Field to Soldier Field in 1971.
The late former team chairman Michael McCaskey even suggested the Bears could leave Illinois altogether in 1995, the last time Aurora was considered a potential landing spot. Back then, the team secured an option on land along I-88 near Eola Road, while also dangling Hoffman Estates and Warrenville as viable sites.
“If it’s not looking like it’s going to happen in Illinois, or if we get a very attractive offer, then we’ll consider something else,” Michael McCaskey said during that ’95 campaign to land about $185 million in taxpayer dollars for a new open-air stadium.
Current chairman George McCaskey has made no such threats but insisted his family’s team needs “property tax certainty” to make any new development happen.
The Bears’ latest lakefront lease runs through 2033, but they can break it at a cost that would be small relative to the $5 billion vision they’ve estimated for an Arlington Heights development.
