Chicago Bears: Mayor Brandon Johnson claims ‘best idea’ to keep stadium

The league had a special meeting of owners on Wednesday. While a lot of business was discussed and there was fanfare around certain owners, the status of the new stadium for the Chicago Bears did not make headlines.

The NFL stadium committee is eagerly awaiting the Bears to make a decision on the only two viable options deemed permissible, the site at Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana.

Earlier this month, the Bears said they were putting their sole focus on a move to Northwest Indiana, doing due diligence on a second location. Amid the team’s talks with Indiana, the Bears hired new lobbyists to help put together votes for a megaprojects bill.

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson has been adamant throughout the year that the Bears need to stay in the city. The Bears reportedly kept backchannel conversations open with officials in Chicago this year (at the same time they wanted a megaprojects bill to pass the Illinois General Assembly).

On Wednesday, Johnson said the “best idea” would be for the Bears to stay in the city. He doesn’t believe Hammond or Arlington Heights have a real plan for the team.

The best idea for the people of Chicago is for the Bears to remain in Chicago,” Johnson said, via NBC Chicago. “No one has produced a plan except for me. Everything else is just speculation.”

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While the NFL has made it clear that only Hammond and Arlington Heights are viable options at this point, Governor JB Pritzker recently made comments suggesting Chicago would still be in play to keep the Bears.

Johnson wants to build a new stadium to the south of Soldier Field. He wants to make infrastructure changes in the location for traffic purposes, noting Lollapalooza caused logistics issues for the city.

“The ingress-egress is a problem over there,” Johnson said. “400,000 people came to Chicago for Lollapalooza, and the Museum Campus doesn’t benefit because the people are cut off from being able to wander off, even if they just accidentally stumble upon the museum.”

Johnson may have a plan, but it’s not in the cards for the NFL at this point.

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