Chicago Bears Looking for a New Home
It’s a tad click-baity, but true. The Chicago Bears are looking for some shiny new downtown Loop digs soon. Per Crains Chicago Business, the team wants to find a downtown space in the 10,000 to 15,000 square feet range in hopes of moving most of its Soldier Field based staff to start the 2018 season.
The staff that would be relocating are mostly events and the team’s corporate sponsorship teams. This would put these teams in a closer proximity with their corporate partners, but also provide more revenue generating streams at Soldier Field. With these teams relocating, the team will convert the Soldier Field offices into meeting rooms for gameday and corporate events.
“Right now in terms of meeting rooms and game day event space (at Soldier Field), we have one small boardroom we’re able to use,” said Bears Vice President of Communications Brandon Faber. “We would just like to upgrade that for our partners and clients, and also for the team.”
I have attended a couple of corporate events at Soldier Field, and when you pack in 200 plus people it becomes confined. Part of the inability to renovate the Chicago Park District owned Soldier Field. By relocating staff, this opens up the space which would otherwise be used.
So no, the Bears will not be moving Halas Hall, or finding another city anytime soon. Their lease with the park district runs through 2033, so it will be a very long time before you could even imagine the Bears playing in another stadium.
