This letter just arrived:
Mayoral Candidate Warren wrote:
I hope this letter finds you well and primed for an exciting Chicago Bears 2024 season. We have made tremendous progress this offseason building momentum across our football and business operations. We are prepared to capitalize on the draft this week and look forward to adding talented, young players to our roster. There are many reasons to be excited about your Chicago Bears. One reason, and the primary purpose for today’s letter, is the progress we have made on our stadium project.
Earlier this afternoon we publicly unveiled our plans to build a replacement stadium just south of where Soldier Field sits today on Chicago’s historic lakefront. We have committed over $2 billion dollars to the project, among the largest private contributions to a publicly owned facility in U.S. history. The stadium will have a fixed roof making it usable year-round and will feature state-of-the-art amenities to deliver the premium experience you deserve. This also will open the door for Chicago to host the world’s largest sports and entertainment events.
Improving access to the campus and adding recreational space for residents and visitors is a key component of our plan. Improved ramps, interchanges and road configurations will increase traffic flow allowing for better site ingress and egress on event and non-event days. The plan includes a similar number of parking spaces to what exists today including some traditional tailgating locations along with reimagined ways for fans to gather across the campus to enjoy food and drinks with friends and family. Our proposal includes expanded open and green space for fans to enjoy before games and residents and visitors to use throughout the year. Athletic fields will replace the current Soldier Field with its historic colonnades restored and retained to honor those who have served our country. Chicago’s families and visitors will have a safe place to play and enjoy the beautiful lakefront.
This transformative project will create 43,000 construction jobs and 4,200 new annual jobs for the Chicagoland region with over $8 billion in regional economic impact. We will have equity and inclusion goals and practices around procurement, partnerships and accountability throughout each phase of construction. We have a great opportunity to put people to work and tap into the incredible sports event and tourism industry that is generating billions of dollars nationally each year.
We have spent the last year listening to leaders – community, elected, business, among others – to ensure we are building a project that serves all of Chicago. Our opportunity is now. We appreciate your support as we continue to pursue the additional funding to make this project a reality. You can learn more about the project and see the presentation we gave today at stadium.chicagobears.com. It includes a video, renderings of the site and additional information regarding the proposed plan.
I will continue to provide updates as we make progress. Thank you for your continued passion for the Chicago Bears.
Sincerely,
Kevin Warren
Chicago Bears President and CEO
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