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Chicago

Chicago has “compelling financial case” to keep Bears caged

Lightfoot will offer plan to keep team at Soldier Field

Mayor Lori Lightfoot with Soldier Field (Getty, Google Maps, iStock)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot with Soldier Field (Getty, Google Maps, iStock)

Mayor Lightfoot isn’t ready for a Hail Mary just yet.

Lightfoot says she’ll do “everything we can” to persuade the Bears to stay at Soldier Field instead of moving to the suburbs, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“We’re working on some plans to present to them that I think will make a very, very compelling financial case as to why it makes an abundance of sense for them to stay in Chicago,”Lightfoot said on WSCR-AM 670.

While Lightfoot didn’t reveal what she plans to offer the team, her statement may be a first step from city officials toward a reconciliation. The relationship between city and team has been strained since the Bears announced a possible move to a 326-acre former racetrack site in Arlington Heights.

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The team signed a purchase agreement for the site last year, although it will take a year to complete the deal. She’s also hedging her bets: Earlier this week, Lightfoot said a 23-member working group will reimagine the Museum Campus site, which includes Soldier Field, in a signal the city was ready for the team to move. Leaving before their lease is up in 2033 could cost the Bears $84 million.

It’s unclear whether anything short of a new stadium can keep the team in Chicago, according to the Tribune. Soldier Field, with a capacity of 61,500, is the second-smallest stadium in the National Football League.

Options besides a new stadium include putting a dome on the existing one, widely considered to be a major architectural and financial challenge.

“I’m not for a 100 percent municipally funded stadium,” Lightfoot said in an interview with ESPN 1000, according to the Tribune. “That model has failed all over again across the country, but we’ve got to have a premier stadium to match our premier team.”

[Chicago Tribune] — Harrison Connery

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