A new stadium rendering has put Bridgeport back into the Bears’ location debate, but it does not establish that the team has chosen the site or that public agencies have approved a redevelopment. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill’s proposal would replace Guaranteed Rate Field, the White Sox home for decades, with a domed stadium and mixed-use campus.
The renderings, posted to Instagram on Wednesday, show housing, entertainment, hospitality, parks and public recreation alongside the stadium, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The architects cited existing access to the CTA, Metra and the Dan Ryan Expressway. Materials distributed to stakeholders identify the stadium and campus as presented by development firm Sterling Bay.
The proposal arrives as the Bears’ stated focus is Hammond, Indiana, rather than Chicago, according to Axios. The team’s board voted on June 5 to proceed with plans for a new stadium there, the Chicago Tribune reported. Gov. JB Pritzker has said he hopes state lawmakers will approve a tax incentive plan that could keep the Bears in Illinois, in Arlington Heights or Chicago, Axios reported.
Who Owns the Land, and Who's Been Asked
The land question is central to any Bridgeport plan. Rate Field and its surrounding parking lots are owned and operated by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, according to earlier reporting by Block Club Chicago. The Bears declined comment, the White Sox did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Sterling Bay CEO Andy Gloor did not immediately return the Sun-Times’ call. Those responses leave the proposal without public confirmation from the team.
A local official has expressed interest, while emphasizing that discussions are only preliminary. Nicole Lee, the 11th Ward alderperson, told the Sun-Times she was intrigued by the possibility of the Bears replacing the Sox at Rate Field, but said extensive discussions remain necessary. She said the Sox had not discussed what it would take for them to stay, and that she had not spoken directly with the Bears about a move to Bridgeport.
Leases, Bonds and a Looming Deadline
Existing lease and debt timelines add practical constraints. The White Sox lease at Rate Field expires in 2029, with a one-year extension option for 2030, according to Block Club Chicago. The Sun-Times reported that $50 million in stadium authority bonds used to fund a Sox stadium renovation will not be retired until 2029. Lee noted that the Sox lease ends before the Bears’ Soldier Field lease, which runs until 2033. She also said the state must be involved in development discussions because it owns the property, and that a Bridgeport project would have to meet the city’s planned development requirements.
Public financing is another part of the site’s history: Rate Field was built by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and funded through an increase in the hotel tax, which the Illinois Department of Revenue describes as a tax on gross receipts from Chicago hotel operators, excluding receipts from guests staying 30 days or longer. The Sun-Times reported that the Bears concept could require relocating nearby Wentworth Gardens and demolishing some existing structures. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has said publicly owned land around the site could accommodate affordable and market-rate housing, civic amenities and improved pedestrian bridges.
A Crowded Field of Rival Stadium Plans
Other South Side stadium concepts underscore that the Bridgeport images are one of several proposals, not a settled choice. In September, Canal Edge LLC, owned by White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia, released plans for the Railyards, a mixed-use development with a new riverfront Sox stadium in the South Loop. The proposed site runs from Roosevelt Road north to 18th Street, between the Chicago River and Canal Street, according to ABC7 Chicago. Canal Edge said it has the riverfront property near Roosevelt and Canal streets under contract. The site is across the river from the Chicago Fire’s new McDonald’s Park. Block Club Chicago reported that Sterling Bay is also working with Canal Edge on the Railyards, placing the firm on both South Side concepts.
A separate proposal involves land associated with Amtrak. Ishbia’s companies helped finance Amtrak’s move while purchasing its existing rail facility, with plans to develop that site as another possible stadium location, according to Block Club Chicago. Amtrak’s planned $900 million, 24-hour maintenance facility immediately west of Rate Field has received more than $600 million in federal funds and a categorical exclusion that would allow it to proceed without a full environmental review. After community pushback, however, the Federal Railroad Administration said the project would undergo federal environmental review, the Sun-Times reported. Lee and Cook County Commissioner John Daley have opposed moving the White Sox from Rate Field to the South Loop, according to the same report.
The Graveyard of Stadium Proposals
Chicago has seen other stadium concepts fail to advance. Bears plans once included a stadium at the former Michael Reese Hospital site in Bronzeville, across the railroad tracks from Soldier Field, Axios reported. White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf also championed a stadium at the South Loop parcel known as the 78. That site is now the location of a different project: a $750 million Chicago Fire soccer stadium financed by Joe Mansueto, with $425 million in taxpayer-funded infrastructure improvements. The Sun-Times reported that both earlier stadium proposals went nowhere.
The Bears’ own plans have shifted among locations and designs. The team bought a site in Arlington Heights in February 2023 for a proposed enclosed stadium and entertainment district, the Chicago Tribune reported. In 2024, it proposed a publicly owned, fixed-roof lakefront stadium and pledged more than $2 billion of what it projected as $4.2 billion in direct capital investment, according to the team’s release. That plan called for construction to begin in summer 2025 and a 2028 opening, a timeline that has not materialized. Illinois lawmakers did not advance property-tax incentives for an Arlington Heights move last spring, the Tribune reported, despite the Illinois House passing a megaprojects bill 78-32 in April that would have allowed the Bears to make special payments to local governments instead of higher property taxes.
The public-finance record also frames debate over any new stadium proposal. More than $589 million remains owed on the 2002 Soldier Field renovation, with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority owing $375 million in principal and $214 million in interest on those bonds, according to an NBC Chicago investigation. The outlet reported that Guaranteed Rate Field debt is scheduled to be paid off in 2029, while Soldier Field debt is not scheduled to clear until 2032. Those obligations are part of the backdrop for proposals that could seek public support.
What the stadium bonds show
A 2023 Bond Buyer report said the authority’s bonds are not dependent on stadium activity for repayment. That public-finance context does not establish that a Bridgeport stadium would receive public funding.
Soldier Field offers a separate financing precedent: the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 2021 that bonds for its $660 million renovation were paid off in part with city hotel-tax revenue.
