Warren ‘adamant’ Bears will break ground on stadium this year

During an ESPN1000 interview, the Bears president gave a short update on the stadium project

Following yesterday’s introductory press conference for new head coach Ben Johnson, Chicago Bears president Kevin Warren spoke to a few outlets, too.

Appearing on the Waddle & SIlvy Show on the team’s flagship radio station ESPN1000, Warren gave a small update on the progress he’s making on a new home for the team.

I remain adamant and confident that we will that we will be in the ground, we will break ground, here in 2025.

Strong words considering the public has seen next-to-nothing since a few vague renderings and no public progress in discussions with the city for the lakefront plans the team laid out previously.

Warren went on to say that he believes the “most beautiful” piece of property for the stadium is on the museum campus downtown.

He acknowledged that the team owns 326 acres in Arlington Heights and progress has been made with the suburb on the tax deal.

Warren then doubled down that they need to break ground in 2025 for “a lot of reasons” and spoke about both the complexity of such deals and speaking about “momentum” like in a football game.

The president and CEO went on a long talk about how construction means there’s a strong future for Illinois and the jobs it will create and all that usual stuff suits love to talk about when they’re asking for taxpayer money.

Host Marc Silverman pressed Warren on why they’re shying away from the property they own in Arlington Heights. This is where it got a bit more interesting.

Warren: We will be in the ground in 2025.

Silvy: So it could be there?

Warren: Always. We own the land there. But we have a whole bunch of tax stuff that we needed to work on. We could not build a stadium in Arlington Heights until we have tax certainty. You just can’t do it. Those are some of the issues we continually work on.

Below is the edited for social clip with a link to the full YouTube interview. The stadium talk starts around the 22 minute mark.

Will the Bears actually break ground in 2025? And do you think it will be in Arlington Heights or downtown?