The Bears’ drive for a downtown domed stadium could include a "new sports museum, a pedestrian bridge to Northerly Island and a lakefront hotel" -- along with a public infrastructure price tag of at least $1B to “help bring more people to the Museum Campus,” according to Mitchell Armentrout of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Bears President Kevin Warren “floated some of those big ideas” during an introductory meeting Thursday with leaders of Friends of the Parks. The price tag "doesn't include the financial help the team would need from lawmakers to issue or extend state bonds to build the stadium," but the team has promised to pump at least $2B of its own money into the project if officials “move the chains on their ambitious vision -- and if parks advocates don’t block it.” Sources said that the Bears’ still-forming plan would "remove the oft-ridiculed 'spaceship' renovation" and turn Soldier Field into a “public athletic facility with parking underneath.” A source said that the team “would like a hotel built near the stadium” -- but that is “not a make-or-break” part of their vision. Sources said that during Thursday’s meeting, Friends of the Parks leaders “again pushed the Bears to consider the site of the former Michael Reese Hospital near Bronzeville,” but Warren said that parcel is “too narrow for a stadium.” A Friends of the Parks spokesperson said that the group "shared 'our values' with the team but had no immediate reaction to the team’s proposals” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/22).
