The Chicago Bears are a beloved football team, with a rich history and a strong fan base. They have been playing at Soldier Field for over a century, but now they are looking to build a new stadium on the city’s lakefront. However, their plans are facing opposition from various sources, making it a challenging task for the team.
The Bears’ proposal for a domed stadium just south of their current home has been met with skepticism from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office, who have called it a “non-starter.” But for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, finding a solution to the aging Soldier Field is a top priority.
During a media availability in Springfield, Mayor Johnson stated, “You have a 100-year-old building that has millions of dollars in debt. So you have this asset that is not getting the full benefit for the people of the state of Illinois. As the Bears continue to have these conversations with leadership, as well as the rank-and-file members, that’s the case that they will have to make, but understanding that we have a structurally-damaged situation that really needs a solution. That’s what this is about. Providing solutions to a problem like everything else I’ve inherited.”
However, the Bears’ plans are facing opposition from multiple angles, including the request for public financing. Community activist Father Michael Pfleger took to Facebook to criticize this aspect of the proposal. He also targeted Friends of the Parks, a Chicago group that has previously opposed new construction on the city’s lakefront.
“I am against funding the Bears’ stadium with tax dollars, but am also sick of the Friends of the Parks deciding what can be done in this city,” Father Pfleger said. “We already lost the Lucas Museum.”
Friends of the Parks had previously filed a lawsuit against filmmaker George Lucas’ proposed museum project on the lakefront, which ultimately led to the museum relocating to California. However, the group has dismissed Father Pfleger’s criticism, stating that they are not a monolith and did not single-handedly end Lucas’ plans in the city.
“We joke that in this situation we’re both the David and the Goliath,” Friends of the Parks responded to Father Pfleger’s comments. “No, we don’t control the city. Even with Lucas, we didn’t kick Lucas out of Chicago. He decided he did not want to work through the litigation process. He decided not to pursue other alternatives.”
The group also clarified that they are “not the one shining voice for Chicago,” and are open to continued negotiations in the stadium planning process.
George Lucas himself had criticized Friends of the Parks’ actions during the negotiations for his proposed museum. “No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot,” he said in a statement in 2016. “The actions initiated by Friends of Parks and their recent attempts to extract concessions from the city have effectively overridden approvals received from numerous democratically elected bodies of government.”
Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel also expressed his disappointment with the organization’s opposition to the museum. “We tried to find common ground to resolve the lawsuit – the sole barrier preventing the start of the museum’s construction,” he said. “But despite our best efforts to negotiate a common solution that would keep this tremendous cultural and economic asset in Chicago, Friends of the Parks chose to instead negotiate with themselves while Lucas negotiated with cities on the West Coast.”
However, Friends of the Parks defended their actions, stating that the land belongs to the residents of Illinois and they were adhering to the public trust doctrine. This doctrine holds that new private construction should not be permitted on the shores of Lake Michigan.
“There’s more than a 100-year history here in Chicago of protecting our lakefront from development, based on this public trust doctrine, which actually goes back to British law and beyond,” former Executive Director Juanita Irizarry said in 2016. “The land belongs to the residents of Illinois, not the government. There has to be a very serious inquiry into the balance between the public interest and the private benefit if there is to be development on that land.”
The group also made it clear that Lucas’ decision to end negotiations was his own, not theirs. “The decision to leave Chicago was that of Mr. Lucas, not of Friends of the Parks,” Irizarry stated.
As for the current project, the Bears’ plan includes preserving the historic columns from Soldier Field, but also calls