Chicago Bears bought Arlington Heights track only to build next to Soldier Field?

Yes. The Bears is the McCaskey family business. They are not like Steve Bisciotti who was a billionaire before buying the Ravens. The McCaskey family is like the Bidwills and Browns in the sense that the team is the only business they have and the team has to support the entire family. My FIL follows the Bears closely and has said repeatedly that as long as the Bears make money the McCaskey family is happy. Winning is nice but it isn't that important.

Ok, that’s what I thought.

Also, with Virginia getting older and a looming huge inheritance tax coming, they will probably need to increase their income in order to pay that bill, probably more than the income they currently get.
 
There's no appetite from the wealthy people in the northern suburbs for an El. Same reason a bunch of neighborhoods in Chicago are impossible to drive busses through.
Absolutely, extending the L will just bring the poors into their little enclaves. I wouldn't be surprised of the Metra station gets an upgrade, but probably very little else in the way of public transit for this development.

That said, I'm guessing it would be an 1hr+ on the L from the Loop to Arlington Heights, and I'd be shocked if any studies indicated it would get much use outside of gameday. The Metra's already in place and likely a far better solution.
 
The McCaskeys have done a lot of dumb **** over the years but I don’t think blowing this deal is going to be one of them. Hopefully they don’t prove me wrong.
 
We have decided the most on brand bears thing ever would be closing on the land and not developing it.

That letter screams we need funding, and we don’t care if it is public or private just need cash to make this happen.

For the I can’t believe they would move to the burbs crowd, there are 8m+ people in the Chicagoland area and around 2m of them are in Chicago. Soldier field is a nightmare for more than 5m of those people to get to the stadium on game days. This plan probably cuts that 5m in half. So it would be easier to get too, have a dedicated Metra from the city when on express is at worst 30 minute ride from the loop. Has access to a major interchange to for south, east and west easy access.

The family is dumb if they don’t do this. I feel they will, but who knows. Under the table deals are how things get down out here. Maybe the city gifts them soldier field, and they decide those 7 acres are better and more valuable than 326 acres in the burbs.

Also the city isn’t growing. The burbs are the pandemic accelerated the exodus of the city. Maybe that changes soon, but hasn’t in over two years.
 
If the NFL & St Louis has taught us anything, the move has been a done deal well before 2021. City of Chicago could never come up with money to prevent it
 
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Looks cool, but I doubt it goes anywhere. Bears are going to want complete control. City should just sell Soldier Field and as much of the surrounding area as possible. Seems impossible though
 
"Chicago. The model of a world class city"

.....turns off video.

But actually this would've been hella cool in 2000. Chicago seems to be a city of "used-to- bes".

Well Chicago used to be the permanent home of the Bears.
Chicago gets a lot of bad publicity, almost all of it warranted, but there is a lot of development going on downtown, great restaurants, great city living (in the right neighborhoods) and it is very affordable compared to California, New York, Dc, etc… The weather really sucks tho (reason I didn’t move back)
 
Chicago gets a lot of bad publicity, almost all of it warranted, but there is a lot of development going on downtown, great restaurants, great city living (in the right neighborhoods) and it is very affordable compared to California, New York, Dc, etc… The weather really sucks tho (reason I didn’t move back)

I've always enjoyed visits to Chicago. It has a lot of... character.

I think Chicago honestly has the best museums in the country -- even over DC and New York.
 

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