Mayor Lori Lightfoot is determined to improve Soldier Field to convince the Bears to remain in Chicago, but her hands may be tied by the constraints of a lakefront seating bowl already towering over historic colonnades at a stadium that’s also a war memorial.
The team has put in a bid for the Arlington International Racecourse property in Arlington Heights, where a new stadium could be built. In Chicago, meanwhile, two architects who worked on Soldier Field’s $660 million renovation — bankrolled by bonds that won’t be fully repaid until 2032 — said only modest expansion is possible at the 61,500-seat stadium, the NFL’s smallest.