Chicago Bears

According to several news reports, the Chicago Bears are now planning to build a new stadium within the city limits of Chicago. The Bears purchased Arlington Park and the surrounding property from Churchill Downs Incorporated in 2021 for $197.2 million and announced plans to build a stadium there. Since the purchase, the Arlington grandstand has been torn down, but the Bears did not start the process of developing the property. Citing a source, ESPN.com is reporting that the Bears are ready to invest $2 billion in private money into a...

The Chicago Bears' plans to build a stadium in Arlington Heights, Illinois on the site of the former Arlington Park has reached a "stalemate," Bears president Kevin Warren told local residents at a public forum, according to a report from Front Office Sports. Warren told the crowd that an ongoing tax dispute has halted stadium development efforts there, even while demolition continues on the former racetrack, the outlet reported. At issue is a tax assessment on the racetrack land that would raise the annual property tax from $2.8 million to...

The developer advising Chicago's mayor is proposing a $2.2-billion renovation proposal that includes a glass stadium dome to keep the city's National Football League team, the Bears, at its longtime downtown location, Soldier Field. The website Front Office Sports published details Jan. 8. The news is of peripheral interest to horse racing enthusiasts, because the Bears have otherwise entered into a purchase agreement to instead build a $5-billion stadium on the site of the former Arlington International Racecourse. Although the specifics of the proposal are new, city officials have been...

As the only member out of 10 on the Illinois Racing Board (IRB) to directly address the pending closure of Arlington International Racecourse and the devastating effect it will have on the state's racing circuit, commissioner Alan Henry said at Thursday's monthly meeting that a losing bidder in the track's sale is still working behind the scenes to fashion a deal to keep racing alive alongside a new football stadium on the 326-acre parcel. Back on Sept. 29, Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the gaming corporation that owns Arlington, announced the...

It takes a lot for a European trainer to become the biggest story in North American racing, but that's exactly what Charlie Appleby has accomplished, among many other things, this year. Capturing three of the four Grade I races at Woodbine plus the Jockey Club Derby at Belmont last weekend to follow up several other successful raids of top-level events in the U.S. this summer, Appleby has quite simply taken the racing world by storm at just 46 years old. Wednesday, during a short break from shopping the Goffs Orby...

The gaming corporation that owns Arlington International Racecourse in suburban Chicago announced the signing of a $197.2-million purchase and sales agreement Wednesday that would sell the 326-acre crown jewel of Illinois racing to the Chicago Bears football team for the planned construction of a new stadium and mixed-use development. According to a Sept. 29 Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm anticipates a late 2022 or early 2023 closing of the deal. The announcement came four days after Arlington staged what were possibly the...

After four months of no public action by the Illinois Racing Board (IRB) since Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), announced its polarizing intention to sell Arlington International Racecourse for "non-horse racing" purposes, IRB chairman Daniel Beiser disclosed just before the end of Tuesday's meeting that the IRB will only now begin the process of reaching out to the gaming corporation to try and get a clearer understanding of what is likely to happen to suburban Chicago's landmark Thoroughbred track, which faces potential permanent closure at the end of this season. But...

The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton We're not even at the midpoint of 2021, and one North American Thoroughbred is already taking aim at a ninth win on the season. For perspective, the eight wins racked up so far this year by Arizona-based Six Ninety One (Congrats) are equal to the number of victories achieved by the four horses who co-led the continent during the entirety of 2020. Such a fast start through the first 5 1/2 months puts Six Ninety One on a trajectory to blast past what...