Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday sounded almost resigned to moving on at Soldier Field without the Bears, at least if convincing the team to stay requires building a new stadium to accommodate the financial reality of the modern-day NFL.
Lightfoot was forced to face the possibility that the Bears will leave Chicago one day after the team upped the ante in the high-stakes negotiations by signing an agreement to purchase the Arlington International Racecourse property.
Churchill Downs pegged the sale price at $197.2 million and said it anticipated closing the sale in 2022 or early 2023.