Bear Down and Out, Chapter 5: The Suburb | NBC Sports Chicago

In the annals of Chicago

sports

history, this letter here could one day go to a display case in a museum. Teams play in

suburb

s across the country. In fact, the New York Giants and Jets play in New Jersey, so this is very common for many places and you see the San Francisco 49ers playing against Santa Clara, a

suburb

, the Dallas Cowboys playing in Arlington, a suburb, you know, the Miami Dolphins, they don't play in my city of Miami, there is absolutely nothing that is This is unusual and part of the reason is that there is usually more land readily available at a good cost in a suburban location.

I was a little boy. I remember Gary Indiana is going to build a stadium for the Bears and then Mayor Daley said okay. so you're not going to be the Chicago Bears, you could be the Gary Bears, you can do whatever you want, you're not using our city's name and it was a big controversy, that's just political language, it's to show toughness. It has no meaning. The name Chicago Bears has to do with the region and is a registered trademark. The city has nothing to say in this matter. When you operate a stadium of this size, you need a great relationship with your partners in the city.

You must be aligned. with your city about what the vision is for The Fan Experience, everything is a public-private partnership, no matter how your stadium is paid for or where it is located, let me teach you that the relationship is everything. people, we have the best relationship on a business and personal level because we realize that we are all in this together, you just can't, you can't make these deals if people don't legitimately like each other overseas, as we've shown you since The emails we obtained indicate how caustic the relationship was between the city of Chicago and the Chicago Bears.

In contrast to this invitation from the Village of Arlington Heights, this is a March 2021 letter to the president of George McCaskey the Bear from Thomas Hayes, the mayor of Arlington. Heights Dear Mr. McCaskey, I wanted to contact you to ask about the Chicago Bears' possible interest in Arlington International Racecourse. The property is the site of a future stadium. I know that the McCaskey family has strong ties to Arlington Heights and the surrounding area, as you know that Arlington Racetrack is not only a unique property, but an important part of our region's history. The town is working with Churchill Downs International to find a use that is worthy of the track's legacy in Chicago.

I would love to speak with you to discuss it. Your organization's interest in the site and how we could work together to build something special there. Thank you. Arlington Heights is getting closer to this. We want to do this. Let's find out how not. Why should we say no? It's a very different approach than the Bears have used. Besides working with the city of Chicago and Soldier Field and the Park District, what would be better, what would be more exciting and unique to the town and the northwest suburbs than the Chicago Bears and the NFL football stadium?

We've had a relationship with the Bears through a number of different things in uh for several years now Walter Payton used to live here and on the north side of Arlington Heights and we've had Bears players and coaches living in Arlington Heights on Connie's recommendation Payton and others because it's a great place to live and raise a family, so, you know, we're very excited about this opportunity to have the Bears here and on Score.com and at a car station. Hey Jeff, you're on the scoreboard with Phil Rogers. I used to watch Walter Payton. exercise on your hill yeah I love the fact that they can have their own stadium and they're not hindered by politics and nonsense and park districts sorry if I used the wrong word um nonsense okay , we get the point.

Jeff and yeah, that's something they won't necessarily have to deal with in Chicago. I would say don't discount the policy of building a stadium, no matter where it is, foreign concerns about the impact of a

sports

book in a stadium on the residential sector. Arlington Heights DNA: This is a roadmap to mistreat taxpayers if the billionaire Bears can find $5 billion to build a stadium they can lose in, since they can lose here as easily as they can lose in the city that they can find. the funds for the rest of your project don't need our piggy bank no matter where you go in Arlington Heights this is one of the only topics people want to talk about if this is the design you're going to end up with I'm voting no, this is going to be a long journey and it's not going to be easy because all those people out there are bosses, it's not our job to answer those questions and provide a level of comfort for our residents to make sure that there will be no adverse impacts on our community if the Bears come and they build a stadium here the biggest question, of course, is what are they willing to offer the Chicago Bears?

We're talking about roads and sewer infrastructure and the Bears have made it very clear that it's actually part of our pre-development agreement that the Bears will not seek any public assistance for the construction of the stadium itself and that's very clear that this was not a case where we were going to make the deal at any cost to the city in other words, he said we were prepared to walk away, you have the same opinion, yes, absolutely, and we have made it clear to the Bears, you know the conditions of our participation, it has to be a network. fiscal positive for the village and the Bears have told us it may take up to 10 years before the full 326 acres are developed, so you know we'll be looking for benchmarks along the way just to make sure we stay on track. of our projections and expectations and work together with the Bears to make sure this all goes well.

What could this development be like? Well, of course there would be a stadium, but much more would be shared with you today. uh, the master plan for the site there is a diagonal commercial street with entertainment uses, potentially

bear

-friendly sports betting restaurants, hotel offices and employment uses are envisioned along the rail corridor, residential buildings and walking opportunities, trails to get to the water, all within this. imagined frame of open space other parks may be more active places to play places to gather this is an imagined image on a game day there are special activities of course on a game day and you're looking at the pedestrian bridges and the on the left , the team's tent hotel in the distance and then, of course, the stadium itself, which hosts a variety of tailgating experiences that haven't been seen before.

I think they'll do it where you leave your house and it's really cold and it's snowing leave your coat in the car because you're parked inside you walk to one of 20 different cool restaurants hey dad let's run in and get a t-shirt okay let's go shopping the shirt right there hey, wait a minute, I want to bet on the game, let's go to the betting house down there, they will have everything you could want. Bears fans generally don't know what they don't have at Soldier Field, they'll find out very quickly. first, the first time they walk into the new building, the sound, the scoreboards, the lighting, the bathrooms, the concession stands, the programmed areas, they will see something that exists in other places but hasn't existed here in Chicago and they will be captivated. and the Bears will make a tremendous trade move that should take their franchise to the next level.

Now, will they win football games because of that? We'll see.