Bears Move To Arlington Heights Is A Private Decision: Pritzker

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — Last year, a new NFL stadium opened in Los Angeles at an estimated cost of $5 billion. While the potential cost of a new stadium in Arlington Heights for the Chicago Bears might not be that high, it could be more than a billion dollars and Gov. J.B. Pritzker said his administration and Illinois taxpayers aren't about to pony up the cost at the current horse racing track.

"That's not something [state funding for a new stadium] we're looking at right now," Pritzker said during a press conference Monday in North Lawndale reports Daily Herald. "I think obviously there are private business decisions that are being made."

Pritzker's comments on the Bears and a new stadium are the first made publically since the NFL team announced its bid to purchase Arlington International Racecourse on June 17. The Bears currently play at Solider Field, located in the Near South Side neighborhood of Chicago. Solider Field opened in 1924 and is the NFL's oldest stadium. The Bears began playing there in 1971 after leaving Wrigley Field. It has a football capacity of 61,500 fans.

"I've enjoyed many years of seeing the Bears at Soldier Field, and so you know, the determination about what will happen to that property is a matter of private concern by the sellers," Pritzker said. "But for me anyway, I have spent my adult life going to Soldier Field to watch the Bears and have enjoyed that, and I hope that I'll be able to continue to do that."

Arlington, the flagship racetrack for horse racing in Illinois, was put up for sale in February. A deadline to submit proposals to Churchill Downs Inc., the Kentucky-based group that currently owns the 326-acre property, passed June 15.

As of Tuesday, the Bears and a horse racing group fronted by the former CEO and president of Arlington were the only two bidders that have announced publically their intentions to buy the 326-acre property.

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