It's no secret the Bears are looking to move out of Soldier Field.
The Bears are one of two teams in the NFL (Packers) who don't own the stadium they play at. The Chicago Park District owns Soldier Field, meaning the Bears pay rent and share revenue from the output of their home games at the Lakefront location.
Owning a stadium, specifically with a dome, provides several avenues for financial success. Naming rights, full ownership of parking, concessions, merchandise, etc., and hosting other events, as Bears President Kevin Warren explained to NBC's Peter King on his podcast.
"When you look at the overall evolution of what a stadium means to a city, a county, to a state, having a dome stadium in the climate that we live in from a business, from a fan standpoint, from a player standpoint, from a gameday experience standpoint, makes the most sense," Warren said.
"What it will allow us to do is to host other events. The Super Bowl, the Final Four, the college football playoff, championships ... I feel we would have a great opportunity to host some of these events. Never a guarantee. But that's always in the back of my mind."
The Bears, despite recently being ranked the No. 8 most valuable franchise, have no outstanding paths of revenue generation. A stadium to call theirs would change that. Entirely.
Think about the Taylor Swift concert she hosted in Chicago at Soldier Field. The Bears didn't see a penny of that because they don't own Soldier Field. If they owned their own stadium, and hosted events like Swift's, they would reap the monetary benefits.
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To do that, the stadium needs a dome.
Yes, Chicago is notorious for "Bear weather," forcing fans to dress up in their entire closets to watch the Bears. But a dome makes more sense for the Bears and their financial endeavors. A dome makes the stadium accessible year-round. Soldier Field isn't used during the harsh Chicago winters.
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Financial perspective aside, Warren's trying to look at the whole thing from a fan standpoint.
"We have the best fans in the NFL. I'm focused on building that environment from a fan standpoint," Warren said. "For them to be able to really enjoy it, a domed stadium would make the most sense."
