The Bears can’t get their effort to muster political support — and taxpayer money — for a new stadium off the ground. In an effort to kickstart the stadium construction quest, the Bears are now considering a Chicago location they’d previously written off.
Via Crain’s Chicago Business, the Bears have taken a new look at the site of the former Michael Reese hospital site, south of McCormick Place. Previously, the Bears had called the location “unsuitable for a new venue.”
The Bears had been trying to get a stadium built on the city’s lakefront. Before that, the Bears had been focused on Arlington Heights. They’ve flirted with other locations, all in an effort to get something going.
Nothing has worked. It’s unclear whether anything will work. The Bears need true leverage. What leverage do they have?
They won’t leave Chicago. And they can’t establish a serious foothold in any of the suburbs to get Chicago sufficiently anxious about losing the team.
The best approach, frankly, might be to say the hell with free money, pay for their own stadium, lure another team to Chicago, and potentially make a ton of money with 20 NFL games per year and events throughout the calendar year in the fixed-roof venue.
Absent a bold move like that, they’ll be stuck at Soldier Field. Because they’ve got nowhere else to go.
