Chicago officials should study the feasibility of putting a dome over Soldier Field and selling naming rights to the longtime home of the NFL’s Chicago Bears as part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the city’s Museum Campus along Lake Michigan, a city-appointed panel recommends.
Other major changes that should be on the table include moving a concert venue from nearby Northerly Island to alongside Soldier Field, adding a trolley line and other new transit, creating art installations and activating outdoor areas such as Solidarity Drive alongside the stadium.
The recommendations, made public Thursday by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office, come as the Chicago Bears appear likely to leave their centurylong home in the city for suburban Arlington Heights, Illinois, where the team — one of the NFL’s original franchises — has a contract to buy a 326-acre former horse racing track.
Chicago is one of the few remaining markets where NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL games all are played in the city. But the Bears have a $197.2 million deal to purchase Arlington International Racecourse, the team and track owner Churchill Downs announced in September.
Unlike city-owned Soldier Field, where the Bears are a tenant, the Bears could own their stadium and surround it with a major real estate development with new buildings and amenities, similar to projects such as SoFi Stadium, the new home of the NFL’s Rams and Chargers near Los Angeles.
New Soldier Field recommendations are part of a last-ditch effort to keep the Bears in the city, while also preparing the stadium and surrounding museums and public spaces for a future without the NFL team. Soldier Field also is home to a Major League Soccer team, the Chicago Fire.
It remains to be seen whether any of the proposed changes will change the Bears’ thinking, or how the fiscally challenged city might pay for the upgrades. Bears officials have maintained that they are focused solely on the move to Arlington Heights.
Commercial Property Values
If implemented, the group’s findings could have a major effect on tourism and real estate values in and around the South Loop, depending on how many of the proposals are implemented.
The panel studied a 307-acre area south of the Loop business district, bounded by the lake, DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Roosevelt Road and the Stevenson Expressway. Within that area is a 57-acre museum complex home to attractions including the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium, on land owned by the Chicago Park District. That campus is neighbored by the massive McCormick Place convention center and Northerly Island, formerly home to the Meigs Field airport.
Proposed changes also could make the campus more accessible to tourists and residents throughout the city, according to the report.
Soldier Field changes, most notably, could include adding a dome covering so the venue can be better utilized year-round. That also would allow Chicago to pursue major sporting events such as the Super Bowl or the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four.
“Although enclosing Soldier Field would incur significant investment, further analysis is required to fully understand the specific costs, the potential direct and indirect economic impacts, and the full range of potential funding sources available to determine options that are respectful to Chicago taxpayers,” the report said.
A dome wouldn’t address one of the biggest shortcomings: Soldier Field’s seating capacity, 61,500, is the NFL’s smallest.
Another recommendation is to pursue a naming-rights deal for Soldier Field, while preserving the name as a war memorial, such as the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. Several NFL naming-rights deals have exceeded $400 million in total value, the report said.
Other proposed changes include reconfiguring the stadium’s seating, expanding the concourse and replacing natural grass with artificial turf.
Potential Changes
A Chicago naming-rights deal could help offset the cost of renovations to the stadium.
Near Soldier Field, proposed changes include formulating a long-discussed plan to repurpose the outdated Lakeside Center portion of McCormick Place, as well as finding ways to reuse other structures nearby.
Solidarity Drive, now mostly used as a dropoff and turnaround spot, could become a year-round public plaza with events such as markets and festivals.
Changes to Northerly Island could include moving the Huntington Bank Pavilion concert venue alongside Soldier Field to make it more accessible to concertgoers, while making improvements to the island to reduce erosion and connecting it to Soldier Field with a new pedestrian bridge over Burnham Harbor.
Transportation improvements could include creating a free or low-cost trolley accessible from several downtown stations, improving existing public transportation, adding water taxi access points and creating a new busway along train tracks below street level. There also could be an on-campus trolley to move visitors between attractions.
Some of those transportation options have been proposed by Wisconsin-based developer Bob Dunn, who wants to build a row of skyscrapers and a new transportation hub on a platform over train tracks near Soldier Field, in a project called One Central.
The 23-person working group that studied potential changes to the Museum Campus was made up of local business, tourism and civic leaders, led by Mesirow Executive Chairman Richard Price. Lightfoot appointed the group in February.
With its report in hand, the city now must create an organization to see through the proposed plans, while determining how to fund the improvements. The panel recommends assigning a leader to coordinate with the mayor, Park District and other government agencies and groups.