For the first time since 2010, the Chicago Bears made it past the first round of the NFL playoffs, ushering in a new era of Chicago football. With this age of winning football, the Bears are now asking for a new stadium to meet their needs. 

The only catch: They are asking the State of Illinois to help cover the costs of construction. 

But despite the heavy perceived costs, Illinois should absolutely work with the Bears organization to create a new stadium and keep them in Chicago. 

The Bears have been a staple of Illinois sports since they started as the Decatur Staleys in 1919 before quickly moving to Chicago in 1921 to become the Chicago Bears we know and hate to love today.  

The Chicago Bears have a storied history of winning. In the 1920’s they were a powerhouse in the NFL, but with no playoff system, they are not credited with many accolades from this period.  

In 1932, they tied the Portsmouth Spartans for first place and played an unofficial game to break the tie, which the Bears won 9-0. This unofficial game forced the NFL executives to create a championship game, which the Bears won the next year in 1933.  

Before the AFL-NFL Merger in 1966, the Chicago Bears won a total of nine NFL Championships. After the merger, they have been far less successful with a grand total of one Super Bowl win in the past 60 years.   

Many fans have been living in a constant state of sports fan pain and torture. 

Though with picks in the 2024 draft, quarterback Caleb Williams and standout wide receiver Rome Odunze, and the signing of offensive mastermind Ben Johnson as head coach, many now see this as the brightest future the Bears have had in decades. 

As it stands right now, Soldier Field has a seating capacity of 61,500, according to the Illinois State Facilities Authority.  

This puts them in the absolute bottom of the NFL when it comes to seats available at home games. The field also does not have a roof or dome to regulate the climate inside the stadium.  

During the Bears’ most recent playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams, the feels-like temperature on the field was 1 degree Fahrenheit.  

The temperature was not only a problem for the players but the fans as well. The Bears had to release special alerts to fans to ensure that they wore extra layers, alter their security policies to allow for fans to wear battery powered heated clothes and bring in extra heaters to the stadium to allow fans a place of reprieve from the harsh cold and falling snow. 

With the Bears claiming a desperate need for a new stadium and their openness to move locations, it’s imperative that Illinois work to keep them here and does not let them flee to another state.  

Just two weeks ago, the Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill to create a stadium authority. Indiana, already having the Indianapolis Colts, are attempting to lure the Bears just across state lines into northwestern Indiana. 

Several Bears executives have looked over the proposed location of Wolf Lake, in an area of Hammond, Indiana, just a 30-minute drive from where Soldier Field currently sits.  

Iowa, another state bordering Illinois, also introduced a bill to lure the team out of the state. So, Illinois is on a time crunch to either work to keep the Bears in Illinois or let the team ‘walk’ to go to a new state. 

There are a lot of conversations going on between the Bears’ ownership and Illinois state leaders trying to create a compromise to keep the Bears in their home state of Illinois. 

Currently, there is a mega-projects bill waiting to be voted on in the Illinois General Assembly that would allow any project with a minimum cost of $500,000,000 to negotiate with local and state municipalities to freeze property and local taxes on the land of the project for a negotiated amount of time. 

If the bill passes, along with some help building required infrastructure such as roads and access paths covered by the state, the Bears seem willing to stay in the state of Illinois, as they have their entire history.  

It’s important to point out that this deal would not be a one-sided affair benefit wise.  

While the Bears would get the brunt of the benefits in the short term, Illinois would see lasting benefits: increased tourism during football season, ticket sales for Bears’ games, an extra location for events and concerts leading to more ticket sales in the state and therefore economic stimulation, taxes from merchandise sales, the hotel rooms that would be booked for fans wanting to go to the games and of course the morale of the citizens of Illinois, not to mention income tax on the players and the executives. 

The Chicago Bears are finally good again, so the state will see an increase in all these benefits if the Bears were to stay. 

The Bears have been in the state of Illinois for over a century. They have ties to people all across the state, and they have fans in every nook and cranny between the Mississippi and the Wabash River.  

Letting them leave the state would be a failure on the state of Illinois as well as the Bears ownership.  

 John Slater can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].