tour of chicago bears stadium

 Chicago's Lakefront Legacy

Experience the vision,  a place to   gather.

The transformative project will increase public open and green space, providing Chicago’s families a safe place to gather and play.

The recreational and cultural campus anchored by a new replacement stadium will add to the vitality of downtown. It will attract residents and visitors alike to a more vibrant campus that can be enjoyed throughout the year.

Soldier Field will be restored to its original scale with open athletic fields, and the historic colonnade, honoring the military men and women who have served our country, will be preserved and publicly accessible.

 The Vision

The Chicago Bears are committed to contributing over $2 billion to a new, best-in-class enclosed stadium and multi-purpose recreational and cultural campus. The proposal represents a remarkable opportunity to put Chicago in position to compete for the world’s biggest sports and entertainment events—driving tourism and unlocking billions of dollars in economic impact to the region. Net financial gains from the public-private partnership will create increased revenue streams that can be used for underfunded city and state programs—an exclusive chance for Chicagoland and Illinois to capitalize on private investment.

 Project Benefits

A new replacement stadium and associated campus improvements will be one of the largest construction projects in Illinois history, representing $4.7 billion of direct capital investment and creating thousands of jobs for a regional workforce. It will add open space, improve accessibility, and provide Chicago families and tourists a safe place to gather year-round.

 Ways To Be Involved

 frequently asked questions.

The Chicago Bears will continue to play in Soldier Field until the replacement stadium is complete.

The Chicago Bears honor and appreciate our Season Ticket Holders' and PSL holders’ ongoing support. We are in the process of designing a stadium that will deliver the premier experience they deserve. When a plan for the new stadium is finalized, we will communicate directly with our current season ticket holders, PSL owners, and suite partners.

Yes. The number of parking spaces on campus will be roughly the same as what currently exists. We will provide both general parking and tailgating spaces, including a variety of food and beverage options for fans using public transportation or ride share options.

We will have a parking transition plan during each phase of the construction process, preserving some areas for tailgating.

Capacity for the new stadium will depend on the type of event. The number of seats for a Chicago Bears game will be similar to Soldier Field, but we will pick up extra capacity with standing-room options. We expect to be above 65,000 for Chicago Bears games. We want the stadium to be intimate. This is becoming the trend instead of larger capacity venues with bad seats far removed from the playing surface. We also are catering to the younger fans who are gravitating to ticket options like ‘Standing Room Only’ that give them the flexibility to move around and be in communal spaces.

We would like to begin the project in the summer of 2025. Once we get a shovel in the ground, we plan to open it 36 months later. We are urgent about starting the project because every year that passes adds roughly $150 to $200 million to the cost.

We believe this is the best site for the City of Chicago, State, and the Chicago Bears. It provides the most benefits for all parties. We will work together on an operating agreement that works for the Chicago Bears and the city to maximize its use and revenue generation.

Our plan replaces an existing stadium and includes more open and green space than is currently on the site, with all-season free and accessible plazas, paths, landscaped and planted areas, and improved access to the lakefront. The new stadium will remain publicly owned and add approximately 14 acres of athletic fields, only removing a parking lot. The development is for the public good, so we’re confident it will meet the standards of the Lakefront Protection Ordinance.

Yes. The Chicago Bears will sell naming rights to the new stadium.

The Chicago Bears will continue to work closely with government leaders and surrounding communities to create equitable opportunities for involvement in the development, including bringing in relevant local partners and deepening existing relationships.

The City of Chicago can welcome visitors from all over the world to the new year-round development, where they can bring their families, support local businesses, and enjoy time outdoors alongside residents who will live, work, and play here. The stadium can be used for everything from concerts to high-profile sports games to community events. It has the opportunity to unlock new revenue streams for the city and state.

We will create a traffic and parking transition plan to handle the different construction phases. The goal will be to provide the least disruption to the Museum Campus possible.

While the Chicago Bears would play their home games at the replacement stadium, that leaves the majority of the year where the site can be enjoyed by all sorts of groups that want to host large events. From concerts to major sporting events, like the Super Bowl, to CPS graduations, we project that the stadium will be used for many purposes beyond football. Aside from the stadium itself, the surrounding area will be developed into even more open space than the old site, allowing Chicagoans and visitors from all walks of life—sports fans or not—to enjoy better access to the lakefront.

Our plan includes improved ramps and interchanges, a new parking deck, improved access to DuSable Lake Shore Drive, and a new level for McFetridge Drive. If completed, these improvements would remove an average of 1,200 vehicle hours of congestion at the DuSable Lake Shore Drive and McFetridge Drive intersection and increase campus access capacity for events by 50%.

Yes, the new stadium development will add more open and green space to the area, allowing more Chicagoans and visitors to enjoy Burnham Park and the lakefront.

Building this megadevelopment will put Illinois to work. An economic impact study showed it would provide 24,000 new job years for Chicagoans and 43,000 in the greater region, bringing in $2.4 billion in labor income to the City of Chicago and $3.5 billion to the area. Once the stadium comes to life, we project it will support 2,300 permanent jobs annually in Chicago and 4,200 in the region, producing $92 million in labor income in the city and $170 million regionally per year. All told, the stadium development is projected to have over $8B in economic impact.

The new stadium is estimated to cost $3.225 billion, with over 72% of the project funded by a $2.3 billion investment by the Chicago Bears and NFL. To fill the $900 million funding gap, the Chicago Bears are working with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA) to extend bonds for 40 years. The bonds are funded through a hotel tax and won’t require any tax increases. ISFA was created to assist in building sports venues, so we are appropriately tapping into a resource designated for a project like ours. We are working with lawmakers to ensure it’s a good deal for the taxpayers and the team.

The NFL is very supportive of the project. The Chicago Bears plan to participate in the NFL’s stadium loan program, which requires approval from the league. The proposal accounts for $300 million from the NFL loan to help fund the new stadium. The rest of the private funding will come from the club.

The taxpayer is specifically those who stay at Chicago hotels. No other taxpayer dollars are designated for the stadium construction other than the current 2% Chicago hotel tax. This is driven by visitors to Chicago, not residents of Chicago. The public money for the stadium would come from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which the General Assembly created specifically to help build stadiums for professional sports teams. We are tapping into a resource for the very purpose it was intended. We are not diverting funds from other projects. The Chicago Bears will fund over 70% of the stadium. The public-private partnership will provide many tangible and intangible benefits to the entire Chicagoland region and state. We need more of these types of projects to create new revenue streams and provide additional resources for underfunded programs. Nothing will change without investing in new opportunities.

The funding will come from equity and new debt.

No, the public funding would come from an extension of the existing ISFA bonds, which are based on the already existing hotel tax. Visitors staying at Chicago hotels provide public funding.

Infrastructure funding to bring the project to life is divided into three phases. Phase 1 includes the necessary infrastructure funding to make the project operational, which is roughly $325M. Phase Two is $510M to maximize the stadium and surrounding campus, and Phase 3 is $665M for enhancements to the campus. The three phases will extend over five years and all three phases are not required for the project to move forward.

Bonds to help fund the stadium would be issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA), a state entity responsible for supporting sports infrastructure in Chicago. The repayment of these bonds would rely on the existing hotel tax, which funds ISFA, without requiring new taxes. The Chicago Bears have proposed refinancing the ISFA bonds, creating an immediate "rainy day" liquidity reserve to protect taxpayers from potential hotel tax shortfalls. This reserve would act as a backstop, reducing risk for Chicago taxpayers and removing the City of Chicago as the initial guarantor. By doing so, the refinancing proposal not only safeguards against revenue fluctuations but also spares the city from an upcoming balloon payment due to current bond arrangements. The proposed refinancing involves extending the current ISFA bonds for 40 years, allowing for greater bond capacity in 2024 to fund the stadium, without introducing new taxes. Besides the ISFA bonds and existing hotel tax, our proposal doesn't currently rely on other funding sources.

The stadium's development will spur year-round economic growth, create jobs, and serve as a destination for neighbors and visitors alike. The new site will feature more open and green space for Chicagoans and tourists alike to visit. The publicly owned stadium can be used for everything from concerts to high-profile sports games to community events.

We vetted sites across the city, and the Burnham Park location is the only one that fits our needs. Unfortunately, the Michael Reese site is too narrow to accommodate the development. In addition to being the correct dimensions for our proposed project, the Burnham Park location has neighbors who are used to having a stadium nearby.

We own the property in Arlington and continue to communicate openly with their officials. We also have appealed the Board of Review’s decision on the property tax issue and continue to work toward a short-term tax resolution. However, our current focus is on the City of Chicago and the Burnham Park Project.

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Soldier Field

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Itinerant Fan

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Soldier Field

By Edward de la Fuente

Our guide to Soldier Field in Chicago includes information on events, tickets, parking, public transportation, nearby hotels and restaurants, seating and more. Read on to find out how to get the most out of your gameday experience.

As far as stadium architecture goes, Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, might be the most interesting venue in the NFL.

Most fans know about the  renovation it underwent  in the early 2000s that transformed it from a  stately-but-outdated stadium  into a strange cross between past and future, with sleek steel decks hanging over ancient-looking gothic columns.

Inside you’ll find plenty of remnants of the old structure, and undoubtedly you’ll notice the weird twists and turns inside the concourses necessitated by the new stadium being built basically on top of the old facade.

Once you get over all of that, Soldier Field is a fine place to watch football or any other event that happens to be going on inside. And it has seen a lot over its history, from international soccer (including the World Cup) to NHL outdoor games and major concerts. Starting in 2020, Chicago Fire FC of Major League Soccer began calling Soldier Field home.

However, Soldier Field is also one of the smallest stadiums capacity-wise  in the NFL, so obtaining tickets to see the Bears can be a difficult and expensive proposition.

Nowadays, the question is: How long will the Bears be playing along the lake? The wheels are in motion for the team to build a new stadium out in the suburbs, specifically on the site of the former Arlington Park racetrack. They’d be following in the footsteps of several other NFL teams who have found room to spread out and build new palaces outside the city center.

So Soldier Field’s days as an NFL venue might be numbered, but until then you can still enjoy it for all the windswept quirkiness that it offers.

Looking for Soldier Field event tickets? Search events on Ticketmaster .

Getting to the stadium

The area in which Soldier Field sits is staid and stately — the  Museum Campus , home of the famed  Field Museum ,  Shedd Aquarium  and  Adler Planetarium . The also-famed Chicago Loop is very close by, as is Lake Shore Drive and, for that matter, Lake Michigan itself. So there’s lots around it, and yet the stadium seems a little hard to get to because of all the parkland around it.

If you don’t have a car as we did, there are a few public transportation options. Our approach was to take the  CTA subway  (aka “The L”) to the closest stop,  Roosevelt on the Red, Green or Orange lines.

But the Roosevelt station is still several blocks away — almost a mile, really. So you’ll still be hoofing it quite a ways down Roosevelt Road and then through the Museum Campus even once you get off the train, though at least you’ll be doing it with a few thousand other football fans.

If you’re coming from the suburbs, Chicago’s  Metra service operates trains that stop a little closer, at the 18th Street station. (If it feels Soldier Field is strangely separated from the city despite its proximity, it’s because Lake Shore Drive and a wide swath of train tracks create that distance.)

And the CTA also operates a  “Soldier Field Express” bus between the stadium and Union Station, just west of the Loop.

Parking at Soldier Field

Parking is largely available in garages and lots north and south of the stadium, and if you don’t arrive at least four hours before game time (a tough task considering the common noon start times), you’ll have to look away from the Museum Campus and toward the surrounding blocks.

You can purchase parking for official Soldier Field lots in advance via Ticketmaster or through Soldier Field’s own parking website .

Looking for parking near Soldier Field?  Buy parking on SpotHero .

Chicago hotels near Soldier Field

• Best Western Grant Park Hotel – 0.6 miles away • Marriott Marquis Chicago – 0.7 miles away • Hyatt Regency McCormick Place – 0.7 miles away Search for more Chicago hotels near Soldier Field on Booking.com .

Map of the surrounding area

Things to do around the stadium.

It’s a good tailgate scene at Soldier Field, but if you’re taking one of the public transportation options outlined above, you’re largely missing the lots where hard-core tailgating takes place. The walking paths from the north meander around the museums and through the parkland in between, where no tailgating is allowed.

The museums typically remain open during Sunday afternoon Bears games (and apparently do their best to capitalize on the influx of people by advertising admission specials), so if you’re into educating yourself, visiting the museums pre- or postgame is certainly a viable option.

The size of the parkland around Soldier Field means that most of the options that its urban location would offer — hotels, restaurants, bars and the like — are a good half-mile away at least.

So if it’s eating or drinking you’d like to do, you’re better off hanging out in the Loop or Near North areas and choosing an establishment there before taking off for the game. There’ll be plenty of fans around doing the same thing.

This might be a good option if you’re visiting in Chicago and staying in a hotel near Soldier Field, as many of them have restaurants and bars inside or nearby that cater to sports fans before events.

For more on visiting Chicago, check out our Chicago sports travel guide .

Chicago restaurants near Soldier Field

• Giordano’s – pizza, 0.4 miles away • Kim and Carlo’s – hot dog stand, 0.5 miles away • Burger Bar Chicago South Loop – American, 0.5 miles away Search for more Chicago restaurants on Tripadvisor .

Watching a game at Soldier Field

Your first indication of Soldier Field’s strange configuration should become apparent when you try to get in. While there are entrance gates all around the stadium’s perimeter, some appear to lead into strange places, have tiny passageways and/or are placed in awkward spots. That can lead to long, cramped queues to enter, especially in the last half-hour or so before kickoff approaches

At the gate we chose on our visit, right after the turnstiles, fans climbed a set of stairs into Soldier Field’s famous columns, where the upper seating levels could be accessed.

Walking the concourses, you can see what’s left of the old structure in many spots. The space around the columns make for a sort of lobby where fans can hang out before going into the seating bowl.

At the south end of Soldier Field, part of the old seating area remains (it’s apparent that it extended twice as far back but rose only half as far up as the current configuration). Mazes of catwalks and ramps are an indication of what it took to essentially plop the new stadium down onto the old façade and still allow visitors to navigate from level to level.

The limited space does have its advantages, though, in the fact you feel a little closer to the action. That, at least, was our take from our seats in the south end zone. There’s really only one seating area of Soldier Field that appears high and far away — the 400-level seats that make up the upper deck on the west side (there is no comparable level on the stadium’s east side).

As long as you’re not scrambling to get to your seating area before the start of your event, do check out the history around the stadium — after all, it is named Soldier Field for a reason. It was originally meant as a tribute to World War I veterans , so statues and monuments can be found throughout the stadium grounds, and many of them are quite moving.

Interested in a suite at Soldier Field? Buy suite tickets on SuiteHop .

Food and drink at Soldier Field

Despite the long lines to get in, we made it to our seats about two minutes into the game, and that was even after stopping at the nearest concession stand for Italian beef sandwiches from Buona’s.

As far as food, you can also find other Chicago staples such as Polish sausages, local eateries in  DMK Burger Bar  and  Robinson’s No. 1 Ribs , as well as Philly cheesesteaks (go figure). For the sweet tooth, you can get gourmet donuts and churros.

Soldier Field’s beer selection can be pricey even compared to its stadium peers, and while Miller Lite seems to be most prevalent, craft beer choices are available. Head to the Heartland Hops stands for good beer selection in the 300 and 400 levels.

Also, check out the Monster Mary, Soldier Field’s version of the Bloody Mary, anywhere cocktails are sold.

Original publish date:  February 4, 2016 Most recent update: August 24, 2023

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Home Teams Chicago Bears Chicago Fire FC

Address 1410 Museum Campus Drive Chicago, IL 60605

Year Opened 1924

Capacity 63,000

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Can the Chicago Bears land both Caleb Williams and a new stadium? Seems like a Hail Mary

It’s a good thing Wednesday’s news conference started with a prayer.

The Chicago Bears are probably going to need some divine intervention to pull off their latest plan for a new stadium.

“We thank you for all the people who will benefit by the Bears staying in Chicago,” the Rev. Charlie E. Dates of the Progressive Baptist Church said. “I don’t know that you played football, but I am asking you to help us, help us to win some games, help us to get a Super Bowl here, help us to play in a Super Bowl and bring back the 1985 roaring, cheering fans we had, for your glory and for our good.”

Let us pray. pic.twitter.com/LWEEecWOHE — ✶ Ⓜ️𝕒𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕤 ▶️ ✶ (@_MarcusD3_) April 24, 2024

Now, Dates, who surely knows how to work a congregation, admitted he was joking with the part about God playing football. But it does raise the question: If the Almighty is a Bears fan, why has he been testing Chicago for so long?

Dates, whose church is located a home run away from Guaranteed Rate Field, kicked off Wednesday’s news conference in which the Bears unveiled renderings and lofty promises for a new stadium and public-friendly development on the lakefront.

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According to the team, the stadium’s projected cost is around $3.2 billion, of which the team promises to pay $2 billion, along with $300 million in loans from the NFL . That would put the public on the hook for $900 million for the stadium and anywhere from $325 million to well over a billion dollars for infrastructure improvements. The stadium would be a public-private deal and would have a roof.

Bears project funding breakdown: Stadium alone: $3.2B (with $900M in public money) Required public infrastructure improvements: $325M Optional public infrastructure improvements: $1.175B Total, if team/city pursue all infrastructure upgrades: $4.7B ($2.4B public; $2.3B private) pic.twitter.com/WQRJR13aP7 — Mariah Woelfel (@MariahWoelfel) April 24, 2024

The Bears will need the state’s support for the plan, which is centered around extending a hotel tax, preferably before the end of this legislative session, which is coming soon.

Gov. JB Pritzker has had reservations about giving money to the team for years, and the days of an Illinois governor and speaker of the house stopping the clock in Springfield to get money for a stadium are pretty much over. You can also factor in the “Friends of the Park” group, which helped scuttle a George Lucas museum on the museum campus. They aren’t enthused about this proposal, either .

. @GovPritzker , responding to @JeremyGorner ’s question about the Bears’ plans to ask for about $2.3B in public financing for a new lakefront stadium: “I remain skeptical about this proposal… I'm not sure that this is among the highest priorities for taxpayers.” #twill pic.twitter.com/ubrZQnnrvC — Brenden Moore (@brendenmoore13) April 24, 2024

Who really wants to give the Bears taxpayer help? Public money for stadiums has been proved, over and over again, to be wasteful spending, but no matter where they build a new home, the Bears are going to need help paying for it. Like all sports teams, they’d prefer to get that help from the public. So why not ask? That’s fair, but beyond the money, there are a lot of questions left unanswered like: Why build a domed stadium in a location where the views are part of the allure? Is this stadium really going to hold only 65,000 (give or take) fans, when the low seating capacity is a main argument to leave Soldier Field?

We can also ask: Why did the Bears choose to hold this news conference, which they had to have known would get negative press coverage, a day before drafting Caleb Williams with the first pick? Why usurp that positive moment? They could’ve held it in a week or two. What’s the rush?

Bears chairman George McCaskey hired Kevin Warren to be the team’s president to get this deal done, by hook or crook. On Wednesday, he was spinning faster than a Williams spiral.

Warren promised that this plan, which involves adding green space where Soldier Field stands now and erecting a new stadium just south of it, could fix everything from Chicago’s reputation as a big-event city to its crime rate.

According to Warren, Chicago will have a Super Bowl, a Final Four and peace in the streets.

“This will have 14 acres of athletic fields and a recreational park to allow, as I mentioned earlier, for our youth to be able to come together and do things in a productive manner,” Warren said. “We have a crisis in this world with our young people. And there’s a race to who gets to our young people first, the streets or us.”

Bears unveil plans for new stadium near Soldier Field

And if this deal helps Warren’s reputation, makes the McCaskeys wealthier and entertains the Grabowskis, even better. To his credit, Warren also made some more, uh, grounded promises.

“We’ll build restrooms,” Warren said. “We’ll make this a place that people want to come and spend time.”

(If you’re like me, you read that and imagined James Earl Jones saying, “We’ll build restrooms, Ray.”)

All of these stadium plans (and Olympic bids) include some kind of public good that could conceivably happen without the billions spent for an actual stadium. Warren isn’t talking about building parks in the pockets of the city where kids really need them, and it’s not as if the museum campus is easily accessible for kids in the West and South sides. But the whole “we’re doing it for the kids” rigmarole sounds better than just admitting, “Give us money for a new stadium.” We all know that’s the truth.

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is trying to pull off a similar trick just west of Soldier Field. That’s going over even worse because he’s not promising much money to help, he already did this in the late 1980s and everyone (most notably White Sox fans) already blames him for the team’s state of disarray.

Like the Sox, the Bears got state help to redo their stadium and it was just two decades ago. How did that work out? We still have an astounding amount of public debt for the Spaceship on the Lake and the team wants to move. (The fans don’t like it, either, but if the Bears were any good, they wouldn’t care as much.)

The Bears have been looking around for a new home for years, and it was just last year they closed on the Arlington Park racetrack in the northwest suburbs. It seemed certain they would build a new stadium with a mixed-use business development on the 326 acres. I mean, they actually own the land. They would own the stadium. It would make sense, right?

Not for the Bears, who aren’t exactly known for their management success.

Their grand plans were halted by a disagreement with suburban school boards about real estate taxes, and now the Bears, led by Warren, who lives downtown and has made friends with Mayor Brandon Johnson, have pivoted back to the city and a stadium they wouldn’t fully own.

Some people thought this was all just posturing. But the village of Arlington Heights and the school districts are willing to negotiate , and Warren still seems focused on staying in Chicago.

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Years ago, the Bears fought with former mayor (and Bears season ticket holder) Lori Lightfoot, who sarcastically told them to worry about beating the Green Bay Packers . Though the Bears haven’t done that since 2018, before Lightfoot was even elected, they have found more success dealing with Johnson. Now they just have to charm Pritzker and the state legislature.

In the news conference, Johnson predictably mentioned Daniel Burnham, the father of the Plan of Chicago and the hero of the city’s protected lakefront. It’s the politician’s version of invoking Papa Bear Halas or Mike Ditka.

“Daniel Burnham’s vision for the lakefront was to center it around people, the people of Chicago,” Johnson said. “He envisioned an active lakefront with space and amusement for everyone to enjoy. The plan revitalizes that vision.”

Burnham died in 1912, nine years before the Decatur Staleys moved to Chicago, so we’ll never know what his feelings are on domed stadiums versus “Bear Weather.”

But he’d agree that Warren and the Bears aren’t making small plans here. Will these plans be realized? I don’t know about you, but until a shovel hits the ground, I’m going to remain skeptical that this Hail Mary gets completed.

(Top rendering of a proposed Bears stadium courtesy of the Chicago Bears)

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Jon Greenberg is a columnist for The Athletic based in Chicago. He was also the founding editor of The Athletic. Before that, he was a columnist for ESPN and the executive editor of Team Marketing Report. Follow Jon on Twitter @ jon_greenberg

Chicago Bears | Chicago Bears 2024 schedule: 3 prime-time…

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Chicago bears | chicago bears 2024 schedule: 3 prime-time games, a london meeting — and all 6 nfc north matchups in last 8 weeks of season.

In Week 2 of his rookie year, Williams will be featured in prime time against the Houston Texans and quarterback C.J. Stroud, the 2023 offensive rookie of the year. That game at NRG Stadium in Houston will be played on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” The Bears will follow with a trip to face coach Matt Eberflus’ former team, the Indianapolis Colts.

The Texans meeting is one of three prime-time games for the revamped Bears in 2024, along with a “Monday Night Football” matchup against the Vikings in Minnesota on Dec. 16 and a “Thursday Night Football” game against the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 26 at Soldier Field.

Along with the prime-time games, the Bears will play two other featured games — Oct. 13 against the Jacksonville Jaguars at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Nov. 28 against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving at Ford Field.

The NFL announced Wednesday morning that the London game is slated for Week 6, which will be followed by a Week 7 bye for the Bears. It will be the first of back-to-back London games for the Jaguars, who will play the New England Patriots the following week at Wembley Stadium.

The Bears haven’t played an international game since a group led by Khalil Mack and Chase Daniel lost 24-21 to the then-Oakland Raiders on Oct. 6, 2019, also at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The Bears also played a regular-season game in London in 2011 and a preseason game there in 1986.

The Bears will be the host for this year’s London game, meaning they’ll have only eight home dates at Soldier Field.

That will include three straight home games in Weeks 10-12 against the Patriots, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings. The Bears will host the defending NFC North champion Lions in Week 16.

The Bears and Lions will meet on Thanksgiving in Detroit for the first time since 2021. That game was part of a stretch of three Thanksgiving meetings with the Lions in four years.

The Bears’ six NFC North games fall within the last eight weeks of the season.

Other notable road games include back-to-back trips to play the Washington Commanders and Arizona Cardinals in Weeks 8-9, a Dec. 8 visit to play the San Francisco 49ers and the season finale against the Packers at Lambeau Field.

2024 Bears schedule

• Week 1: vs. Titans, Sunday, Sept. 8 (noon, Fox-32)
• Week 2: at Texans, Sunday, Sept. 15 (7:20 p.m., NBC-5)
• Week 3: at Colts, Sunday, Sept. 22 (noon, CBS-2)
• Week 4: vs. Rams, Sunday, Sept. 29 (noon, Fox-32)
• Week 5: vs. Panthers, Sunday, Oct. 6 (noon, Fox-32)
• Week 6: vs. Jaguars in London, Sunday, Oct. 13 (8:30 a.m., NFL Network)
• Week 7: Bye week
• Week 8: at Commanders, Sunday, Oct. 27 (noon, CBS-2)
• Week 9: at Cardinals, Sunday, Nov. 3 (3:05 p.m., CBS-2)
• Week 10:  vs. Patriots, Sunday, Nov. 10 (noon, Fox-32)
• Week 11: vs. Packers, Sunday, Nov. 17 (noon, Fox-32)
• Week 12: vs. Vikings, Sunday, Nov. 24 (noon, Fox-32)
• Week 13: at Lions, Thursday, Nov. 28 (11:30 a.m., CBS-2)
• Week 14: at 49ers, Sunday, Dec. 8 (3:25 p.m., Fox-32)
• Week 15: at Vikings, Monday, Dec. 16 (7:15 p.m., ABC-7)
• Week 16: vs. Lions, Sunday, Dec. 22 (noon, Fox-32)
• Week 17: vs. Seahawks, Thursday, Dec. 26 (7:15 p.m., Prime Video)

2024 Bears preseason schedule

• Game 1: vs. Texans at Canton, Ohio, 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1
• Game 2: at Bills, Saturday, noon Aug. 10
• Game 3: vs. Bengals, Saturday, noon Aug. 17
• Game 4: at Chiefs, Thursday, 7 p.m. Aug. 22

All times Central

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What we know about Bears 2024 schedule as full release video approaches

From the london game to major matchups, here's what we've got on the bears schedule so far, by alex shapiro • published may 15, 2024 • updated on may 15, 2024 at 11:01 am.

Tonight’s the night. At 7 p.m. on Wednesday the Bears – and every other NFL team– will release its highly anticipated schedule release video. What used to be a footnote of the offseason has turned into a social media sensation, a sort of Super Bowl for content teams. And fans love it.

Even though we don’t know all the details about the Bears schedule, like how many times they’ll play in primetime or exactly when they’ll play the Packers, we do know a lot about the schedule already.

Here’s what we got.

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BEARS TO PLAY IN EUROPE

The league announced on Wednesday morning that the Bears will travel to London to play the Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Week 6. It will be the first time the Bears have played in London since their game against the Raiders in 2019.

LIST OF BEARS 2024 OPPONENTS

We know the full list of teams that the Bears will play, including which games will be on the road and which will be at home. Here’s the breakdown:

Full Monday Night Football schedule for the 2024 NFL season

Full Sunday Night Football schedule for the 2024 NFL season

Home opponents

Carolina Panthers Detroit Lions Green Bay Packers Jacksonville Jaguars Los Angeles Rams Minnesota Vikings New England Patriots Seattle Seahawks Tennessee Titans

Fans headed to Soldier Field this season will have the opportunity to see some interesting matchups. With Vikings rookie J.J. McCarthy or Patriots rookie Drake Maye be at the helm of their respective offenses by the time they head to Chicago? Or will Sam Darnold and Jacoby Brissett still have a hold on the reins? What will the Seahawks offense look like when the come to town, now that their former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is calling plays for the Bears? Will Rams first-round draft pick Jared Verse make the Bears regret passing up on a pass rusher when Los Angeles comes to town?

Storylines abound! One note: the Jags will not come to Chicago. That’s the game the Bears are hosting in London.

Road opponents

Arizona Cardinals Detroit Lions Green Bay Packers Houston Texans Indianapolis Colts Minnesota Vikings San Francisco 49ers Washington Commanders

There are just as many interesting road matchups for Bears fans hoping to travel to catch a game this year. Williams will not only have the opportunity to return home when the Bears take on the Commanders, but he’ll have his first chance to go head-to-head with No. 2 overall pick Jayden Daniels. The Bears will also take on last year’s rookie QB phenom, C.J. Stroud, for the first time when they visit the Texans. At certain points in the pre-draft process, there was talk that Marvin Harrison Jr. might be the most talented player in the class. Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson and the rest of the defense will try to stop him when they head to Arizona. Finally, the Bears will take on last year’s NFC Champion, the 49ers, at some point. Last time the Bears played the Niners we got this:

This is awesome. 🐻⬇️🌧️🏈 pic.twitter.com/EqgQo1N5Bc — Matt Clapp (@DaBearNecess) September 11, 2022

What will we get this time?

BEARS TICKETS

Bears single game tickets and suites will go on sale at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, one hour after the schedule release. However season ticket holders and fans on the season ticket priority list will have access to a presale from 7 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

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A radical idea for the Bears’ stadium plans

Instead of using it for a new stadium complex, how about we give that lakefront land to citizens to enjoy.

Renderings of the proposed new Bears stadium

Chicago Bears

It was fascinating to hear Bears President/CEO Kevin Warren and Mayor Brandon Johnson announce recently that they had plans for a new Bears stadium on the lakefront.

It was weird because, well, weren’t the Bears going to build their new stadium in Arlington Heights, where they had purchased the land on which the now-demolished Arlington International Racecourse stood?

‘‘We are the largest landowner in Arlington Heights right now,’’ Warren said.

But taxes are too high there, the Bears said. Can’t build.

So other suburbs got interested. Naperville , Waukegan , Aurora and Country Club Hills joined the welcoming conga line. Did we hear Rockford — 90 miles from Soldier Field — floated as a stadium possibility? Yes, we did.

Then, almost out of nowhere, came this multibillion dollar plan for a sprawling domed stadium where the parking lot south of Soldier Field is. The stadium, as designed, would be immense, eight stories taller than Soldier Field. Think anybody would notice?

We won’t get into how much this would cost Chicagoans . We’ll disregard all the blather about hotel and tourist taxes paying for it and new bonds being issued and those marvelous things called TIFs helping out.

The very definition of tax increment financing — ‘‘the joint investment in the development or redevelopment of an area, with the intent that any short-term gains be reinvested and leveraged so that all taxing bodies will receive larger financial gains in the future’’ — sounds like snake oil of the strongest kind.

Yet Mayor Johnson says the new stadium idea is great. And Warren does, too, of course. Conveniently, Warren seems to have made his best new buddy since scooting over from the Big Ten in January 2023 — that being the mayor of a city always struggling to pay its bills.

• No love for new Bears stadium from Illinois’ top Democrats

But Warren’s declaration was full of defiant good cheer.

‘‘The plan will be to put a shovel in the ground on the lakefront,’’ he said.

Let’s get beyond the partial public financing of a gigantic building for a private company (remember, we don’t own the Bears; the McCaskeys do) and move to an equally, if not more, important matter. That is the lakefront, the greatest gift ever bestowed upon Chicago.

There is nothing like Chicago’s glorious access to Lake Michigan, which, along with the other Great Lakes, holds 90% of America’s fresh surface water. You think that’s precious? When you notice that a liter of bottled water costs more than a liter of gasoline, it hits you.

We can go back to two of the most impressive events in Chicago’s history, the Great Fire of 1871 and Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett’s 1909 ‘‘Plan of Chicago.’’ The first gave us the best urban architecture in the United States. The second told us the lakefront ‘‘should be treated as park space to the greatest possible extent,’’ then declared: ‘‘The Lake front by right belongs to the people.’’

That’s us. Not the Bears. Not the mayor. The people. The citizens.

And now is a perfect time for citizens to think bigger than a mere sports stadium — a structure that, by the way, could be built in any of numerous spots in Chicago — and take up the city spirit of Burnham’s famed dictum, ‘‘Make no little plans. ... Think big.’’

• Bears have designs on the lakefront, as Mayor Johnson plays the wrong position of cheerleader-in-chief

We should make the lakefront even better than it now is. Make it spectacular.

Back in 1870, plans for Lake Shore Drive (now DuSable Lake Shore Drive) were begun. In time, the road effectively cut off much of residential Chicago from the beaches, water and surrounding nature. Sure, you can get to Lake Michigan through various passages, but crossing DuSable Lake Shore Drive itself is impossible. Unless running across eight lanes of divided highway traffic works for you.

Imagine Chicago connected to the lakefront for almost all of its 26 miles. Imagine DuSable Lake Shore Drive lowered underground or completely torn up. Imagine it gone. It is noisy and filthy and acts like a moat filled with crocodiles for a huge stretch of Chicago’s eastern boundary.

Sure, it’s a semicrazy idea. But it has been floated before by architects with Burnham’s vision. Such a move would change Chicago into a city on the lake, not by the lake. The grass, trees, parks and public spaces that could result would change our city for all time. There would be nothing like us anywhere.

Yes, it’s a wild idea.

Or we can default and just build another stadium by the lake and watch the games that happen there. That’s easy. That’s small.

Detroit Lions 2024 schedule released, including Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving

(WXYZ) — The NFL has released its full 2024 regular season schedule, including the dates and times the Detroit Lions will be playing.

We hired a couple Detroiters to help us unveil this year’s schedule @ticketmaster pic.twitter.com/5DpHhcqp7X — Detroit Lions (@Lions) May 16, 2024

You can see the full schedule below:

Week 1 - Sunday, September 8 Los Angeles Rams at Ford Field at 8:20 pm on NBC Week 2 - Sunday, September 15 Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Ford Field at 1:00 pm on Fox Week 3 - Sunday, September 22 Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium at 4:25 pm on Fox Week 4 - Monday, September 30 Seattle Seahawks at Ford Field at 8:15 pm on ABC Week 5 Bye Week 6 - Sunday, October 13 Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium at 4:25 pm on Fox Week 7 Sunday, October 20 Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium at 1:00 p.m. on Fox Week 8 - Sunday, October 27 Tennesse Titans at Ford Field at 1:00 pm on Fox Week 9 - Sunday, November 3 Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field at 4:25 pm on Fox Week 10 - Sunday, November 10 Houston Texans at NRG Stadium at 8:20 pm on NBC Week 11 - Sunday, November 17 Jacksonville Jaguars at Ford Field at 1:00 pm on CBS Week 12 - Sunday, November 24 Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium at 1:00 pm on Fox Week 13 - Thursday, November 28 (Thanksgiving) Chicago Bears at Ford Field at 12:30 pm. on CBS Week 14 - Thursday, December 5 Green Bay Packers at Ford Field at 8:15 pm on Prime Video Week 15 - Sunday, December 15 Buffalo Bills at Ford Field at 4:25 pm on CBS Week 16 - Sunday, December 22 Chicago Bears at Soldier Field at 1:00 p.m on Fox Week 17 - Monday, December 30 San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium at 8:15 p.m on ESPN and ABC Week 18 TBD Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field

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