Bears’ first Arlington Park plans highlight ‘The Afternoon Lineup’

CHICAGO – It’s very possible that one of the biggest stories in Chicago sports during 2022 will not concern anything that is going on with the Bears on the field.

Instead, it’s their future home that gains a lot of the headlines as the National Football League franchise continues to rebuild under a new general manager and head coach. Tuesday was another example on how the possible site of a new stadium for the Bears is often top of mind for fans.

That’s because the team revealed the initial plans for the Arlington Park site which they’ve had a purchase agreement on since last September. Now these plans are still tentative, since they’ve yet to officially close on the former horse racing track site yet, but the did unveil what they might like to do.

Included in that is a “world class’ enclosed stadium that would have the team play out of the elements for home games for the first time in team history while opening up the site to host events like the Super Bowl and Final Four.

A robust commercial, retail, and residential development is also proposed, but again, nothing’s official yet since the Bears still don’t officially own the property yet. Even if they do, they could elect not to proceed with the development, but the prospect of a move certainly has a lot of fans talking.

That’s why the Bears’ initial plans to develop Arlington Park highlighted “The Afternoon Lineup” for Tuesday, September 6, 2022 on WGN News Now.

As the team looked towards a potential future in the suburbs, the current Bears set their first regular season depth chart for their season, which begins at their current home of Soldier Field this Sunday against the 49ers.

Meanwhile the Sky look to closeout another opponent in the WNBA Playoffs as they face the Sun in Game 4 of the semifinals in hopes of punching their ticket to the league’s championship series. The Cubs return home to face the Reds and begin a six-game homestand while the White Sox look to continue their recent momentum against the Mariners in Seattle.

Larry Hawley has all of those stories in this edition of “The Afternoon Lineup,” which you can watch in the video above.