CHICAGO | The Bears are maybe moving somewhere (who the fuck knows)

[Steely Dan]

A new thread for all discussion about the Bears' likely move out to the burbs and what now becomes of Soldier Field.



(my apologies, but in trying to move other posts from other threads to this one, the archaic forum software appears to have vaporized all of the older posts, so we'll have to start over, oh well).

[left of center]

Then let me be the first to once again reiterate my thoughts on the Bears leaving: Bye Felicia.

[Steely Dan]

The bears will be in good company whenever they do end up leaving Soldier Field.

12 of the NFL's 32 teams (38%) currently play in a suburban municipality of their metro area's central city:

New England Patriots
New York Giants
New York Jets
Buffalo Bills
Washington Commanders
Miami Dolphins
Dallas Cowboys
Arizona Cardinals
Las Vegas Raiders
San Francisco 49ers
Los Angeles Rams
Los Angeles Chargers

[jbermingham123]

silly me

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by jbermingham123

13.. Forgot about Kansas City

Nope.

Arrowhead might be located in a very suburban-style environment, but thanks to some heavy post-war land annexation, it is within the municipal limits of Kansas City.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Can't wait for the Jags to move here and become the Chicago Jagoffs. I will root for them just to spite Bears fans.

[Kngkyle]

I look forward to a downsized and modernized Soldier Field targeted towards its best use: soccer games and concerts. Screw the NFL.

[Tom In Chicago]

I will reiterate my points regarding the Bears as follows:

-They deliver a shit product for their fans and until the fan base stops buying tickets/merch the owners have no reason to deliver otherwise. . .

-Please leave the city and enjoy your new home in Arlington Heights, the handful of home games you play here in at Soldier Field every year won't be missed. . .

-Go Pack!

[/sorrynotsorry]. . .

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

I look forward to a downsized and modernized Soldier Field targeted towards its best use: soccer games and concerts. Screw the NFL.

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

I will reiterate my points regarding the Bears as follows:

-They deliver a shit product for their fans and until the fan base stops buying tickets/merch the owners have no reason to deliver otherwise. . .

-Please leave the city and enjoy your new home in Arlington Heights, the handful of home games you play here in at Soldier Field every year won't be missed. . .

-Go Pack!

[/sorrynotsorry]. . .

Completely agree. The Bears are a terrible organization. I stopped watching the NFL a few years ago altogether. American Football probably has a limited future. Almost no kids play it anymore.

I absolutely love going to Fire games at Soldier Field and I am not the only one as attendance has increased like 50% since they moved back to the City. Now if the Fire can get their act together, attendance will really skyrocket. They are on a nice win streak and have a shot at the playoffs.

[Steely Dan]

The juxtaposition of the Fire's recent move back into SF, and back into the center of the action of the city, against the bears' decision to punt themselves out into the relative obscurity of AH, is certainly interesting.

a changing of the guard?

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

The juxtaposition of the Fire's recent move back into SF, and back into the center of the action of the city, against the bears' decision to punt themselves out into the relative obscurity of AH, is certainly interesting.

a changing of the guard?

No way. The NFL is still the king of professional sports in America and soccer is still has a long way to go to even crack the top 4.

AH isn't exactly obscure--it's a pretty large suburb that most Chicagoans are at least aware of, plus it's a short Metra ride from the city to a basically dedicated metra stop near the future stadium. Bridgeview (where the Fire played)--now that's obscure.

Besides, the existence of an NFL team immediately elevates a place from obscure to familiar. Why do I know about the existence of Arlington, TX or East Rutherford, NJ or Green Bay, WI?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Handro

AH isn't exactly obscure.

relative to downtown chicago (one of the largest and mightiest urban centers on the continent), yes, AH is pretty damn obscure.

[left of center]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Completely agree. The Bears are a terrible organization. I stopped watching the NFL a few years ago altogether. American Football probably has a limited future. Almost no kids play it anymore.

I absolutely love going to Fire games at Soldier Field and I am not the only one as attendance has increased like 50% since they moved back to the City. Now if the Fire can get their act together, attendance will really skyrocket. They are on a nice win streak and have a shot at the playoffs.

It was so stupid of them to move to Bridgeview some 15 years ago. Glad they realized their mistake. Unfortunately, Bridgeview is screwed into paying for that white elephant of a stadium. The city portion of the property tax bills has quadrupled since the stadium was built, with the city flirting pretty close to insolvency. Thankfully it appears that publicly funded stadiums are in the rearview, with most cities and states taking a fairly tough stance on any handouts to pro sports teams.

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

1 million billion trillion percent agreed!

if AH wants to gift their tax dollars to the bears, fine.

but not one single cent from the state/county.

This. Exactly.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

I will reiterate my points regarding the Bears as follows:

-They deliver a shit product for their fans and until the fan base stops buying tickets/merch the owners have no reason to deliver otherwise. . .

-Please leave the city and enjoy your new home in Arlington Heights, the handful of home games you play here in at Soldier Field every year won't be missed. . .

-Go Pack!

[/sorrynotsorry]. . .

On the AH front - I am really curious to see how the Bears roll that out (if that's the path they end up taking). There will most likely need to be infrastructure improvements nearby. The 53 exit there is not adequate for gameday traffic, or at least that's how it appears to me. Also - I feel like there's a dormant St Helen's level of NIMBYism that will explode once the Bears make a formal announcement of their move. I just can't imagine folks in AH/Palatine just being ok with a massive multi-billion dollar stadium dropped nearby.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by twister244

Also - I feel like there's a dormant St Helen's level of NIMBYism that will explode once the Bears make a formal announcement of their move. I just can't imagine folks in AH/Palatine just being ok with a massive multi-billion dollar stadium dropped nearby.

there's been a massive race track facility there attracting tens of thousands or people every summer weekend for nearly a century (since 1927).

i think the folks out that way are somewhat used to it by now.

yeah, a bears gameday will be a much bigger deal, and some folks will certainly grumble about that (some folks will grumble about absolutely any and every thing), but i think the bears see the AH site as the path of least (suburban) resistance because the race track has already been there for so long (and it's freaking HUGE at 326 acres!)


as a fan of the former race track, i'm actually way more bitter about the loss of the track than i am about the bears leaving the city.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

there's been a massive race track facility there attracting tens of thousands or people every summer weekend for nearly a century (since 1927).

i think the folks out that way are somewhat used to it by now.

yeah, a bears gameday will be a much bigger deal, and some folks will certainly grumble about that (some folks will grumble about absolutely any and every thing), but i think the bears see the AH site as the path of least (suburban) resistance because the race track has already been there for so long (and it's freaking HUGE at 326 acres!)


as a fan of the former race track, i'm actually way more bitter about the loss of the track than i am about the bears leaving the city.

Right. . . for 9 whole days a year!!! Waste of F!@#$%ing money. . . the county and state shouldn't pay one lousy dime for this ridiculous move. . .

. . .

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

the county and state shouldn't pay one lousy dime for this ridiculous move. . .

. . .

1 million billion trillion percent agreed!

if AH wants to gift their tax dollars to the bears, fine.

but not one single cent from the state/county.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

there's been a massive race track facility there attracting tens of thousands or people every summer weekend for nearly a century (since 1927).

i think the folks out that way are somewhat used to it by now.

yeah, a bears gameday will be a much bigger deal, and some folks will certainly grumble about that (some folks will grumble about absolutely any and every thing), but i think the bears see the AH site as the path of least (suburban) resistance because the race track has already been there for so long (and it's freaking HUGE at 326 acres!)


as a fan of the former race track, i'm actually way more bitter about the loss of the track than i am about the bears leaving the city.

A couple thousand people attending a casual racetrack is a lot less than 80/90k people for one game. As Tom pointed out, it's only a handful of days out of the year, so I personally wouldn't care if I lived there. I lived close to the Broncos stadium in Denver, and I would just avoid driving/Ubers on gamedays if I could. I barely noticed it personally. But we know how NIMBYs can be...... Doesn't matter anyways as it's going to be their problem

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by twister244

A couple thousand people attending a casual racetrack

the track had a total spectator capacity of 35,000.

now, it only ever came close to that number on the very biggest race days of the calendar, but still, back in its prime, crowds of 20,000+ on a saturday afternoon were not unheard of.

yes, that's obviously quite different from an 80K+ seat NFL stadium, but AH isn't in completely uncharted waters for getting a large number of people to and from the site.


that said, my guess is that trying to ride a metra train out to the new stadium from the city on a football sunday will likely be a train-wreck (pun intended). how many passengers can the longest fully-loaded metra trainset carry at max capacity? 2,500 people maybe?

metra's gonna need to find a way to run A LOT of trains out before kick-off and then A LOT of trains back after the game or it's gonna be a real shitshow. can metra find the manpower to level up for that kind of crushing single event/single site passenger load on a sunday morning?

some of my past experiences with trying to take metra back to the city after concerts at ravinia don't leave me with much optimism (and ravinia's max capacity is only ~18,000).

[left of center]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

I will reiterate my points regarding the Bears as follows:

-They deliver a shit product for their fans and until the fan base stops buying tickets/merch the owners have no reason to deliver otherwise. . .

-Please leave the city and enjoy your new home in Arlington Heights, the handful of home games you play here in at Soldier Field every year won't be missed. . .

-Go Pack!

[/sorrynotsorry]. . .

Damn Tom, you're a cheesehead? I am beyond disappointed

100% on your other statements however. If moving to AH actually gets them to field a winning team, then I'm all for it. If not, then I won't cry either. The only reason I watch football on Sundays anymore is for my 2 fantasy leagues and my pick 'em league. The Bears are otherwise background noise.