Bears could pull a double reverse on new home

Article posted by Coliseum, November 28^th, 2024

Image: Soldier Field, Flickr Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0

With plans for a new lakefront stadium going nowhere fast, there is now word that the National Football League (NFL) team Chicago Bears (US) could pull a double reverse.

‘CBS NEWS’ stated that multiple published reports say the team is now considering the former Michael Reese Hospital site in Bronzeville (Chicago, Illinois, US) for a new stadium location.

The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago (US). The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference North Division.

The 62,500-capacity Soldier Field is a multipurpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) since 1971.

The now-demolished Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center was an American hospital located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois (US). Founded in 1881, the Michael Reese Hospital was a major research and teaching hospital and one of the oldest and largest hospitals in Chicago.

Stated Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago, “My goal is to keep them in Chicago and as long as we’re clear about not just keeping them in Chicago but creating new opportunities for real economic development, that is important.”

The Mayor claimed that the stadium would create 43,000 jobs.

‘CBS NEWS’ further stated that back in April, the Bears announced a $4.7 billion plan for a new domed lakefront stadium complex, including added green space and other amenities on the Museum Campus and their current home at Soldier Field – shifting the team’s focus from a proposal to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights that had been the focus of attention for nearly three years.

Before the plan was announced, but after the Bears said they would spend $2 billion to stay in the City, the group Friends of the Parks suggested that the Bears should build their new home at the Michael Reese site. The group is the same one that helped stop Director George Lucas from building a museum along the lake back in 2016.

In 2021, the City Council signed off on a $3.8 billion plan to redevelop the Michael Reese site with 6,800 new homes as well as a mix of offices, shops and research facilities.

The City purchased the site for $91 million in 2009 with aims of using it as part of an Olympic village as it bid for the 2016 Olympics. But Chicago lost that bid to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and the old Michael Reese site has sat unused ever since.

The Michael Reese Hospital was founded in 1881 and closed in the year 2008. Its former site is bounded by 26th Street to the North, 31st Street to the South, Vernon Avenue to the West, and the Lake Park Avenue to the East.

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