The Chicago Park District (CPkD) has a $630 million plan in the works to renovate the Bears’ current stadium should the team leave for a new home.
While the Bears haven’t officially announced their move to a new stadium, Chicago is already prepared to make the best use of Soldier Field to boost economic growth and maintain the site as a cultural hub. The CPkD has pitched a potential conversion for the stadium, upgrading it and the surrounding area into a year-round concert and event space.
In the CPkD’s proposal for reinventing the stadium, the city would allocate approximately $500 million to build surrounding infrastructure and another $130 million to upgrade the stadium itself. While no details have been concretely decided upon, the district included a list of priority projects that will likely be featured as part of the renovation project.
These projects include:
- Installing traffic ingress and egress throughout Museum Campus.
- Improving public transit.
- Enhancing infrastructure to streamline congestion in high foot traffic zones.
- Improving the backstage area, locker rooms, seating configuration, loading dock, convertible spaces and nearby practice areas.
- Incorporating recommendations from the Northerly Island Framework Plan and the Museum Campus Working Group Report – A Vision for a Reimagined Museum Campus.
The existing stadium has already proven that it is a year-round asset, hosting up to 10 annual large stadium concerts and hundreds of miscellaneous events. Its prominence as a major tourism driver and revenue producer makes it essential to maintain and continue operations even after it has served its purpose as the home to one of the nation’s most notable sports teams.
Soldier Field already makes 80% of its earnings through events other than Bears games, bringing millions to the local tourism economy. Should the Bears leave, however, the CPkD would be granted more authority over the stadium’s operations and programming. The team is reportedly in talks with Indiana officials about a new stadium in the city of Hammond. However, under the current lease, the team would have to shell out around $90 million to Chicago if they leave before 2033.
Photo by John Picken, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, from Wikimedia Commons
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