Chicago Bears officials are conducting traffic studies in Elk Grove Village, taking soil samples there and in Hoffman Estates and preparing drawings of how their new suburban stadium could look.
All that activity–coupled with the complete breakdown of talks between the Bears and Chicago officials–has generated a stir in the suburbs over whether the Bears may move there when their lease at Soldier Field expires after the 1999 season.
But team and city officials say that it is far from certain whether the Bears will leave Chicago. Nor, they said, is it likely that the battle over a new stadium will be settled soon.
“Everyone seems to think that something is imminent, but that is not necessarily the case,” Bears spokesman Bryan Harlan said. “There is a lot of research being done.”
Nowhere has the uproar over a possible Bears move been greater than in Elk Grove Village, where the team is taking an in-depth look at 70 acres near the Northwest Tollway and Higgins Road. The team’s interest remains tentative, but opposition to the stadium is already mounting.
Residents complained to the Elk Grove Village Board on Tuesday night that a football stadium would jam roads and infringe on nearby residential areas.
Steve Cyburt, a Wildwood Road resident whose back yard would be in the shadow of the Bears stadium, led a group of at least a dozen families that turned out for the board meeting.
“None of us want a stadium. That’s why we’re here in Elk Grove. We moved out here from the city to get away from all that has to do with city life,” Cyburt said.
Cyburt vowed, if negotiations with the Bears progress any further, to force a binding referendum vote on the issue.
Another resident, Jim Lopuszanski, expressed frustration at the secretive talks between the village and the Bears.
“They don’t tell us anything,” Lopuszanski said. “Elk Grove Village is bustling by day, but in the evening, it turns quiet. We want to keep it that way.”
More Top Picks What Evaluations Should Be In A Dyslexia Iep
Meanwhile, the Bears have taken soil samples from a smaller tract in Hoffman Estates, just off the Northwest Tollway and west of Beverly Road.
“I talked to (Bears President Mike) McCaskey three weeks ago,” said Hoffman Estates Mayor Michael O’Malley. “We talked about a number of things, including Hoffman Estates and Elk Grove in conjunction with the Bears.”
Harlan, the Bears’ spokesman, said the team is looking at other suburban sites as well, though he did not identify them.
The team also remains interested in talking with Chicago, Harlan said, though city officials said they have not heard from the Bears since last fall.
Edward Bedore, an aide to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley who has been negotiating with the Bears, said the city made its best and final offer nearly three years ago when it proposed adding 4,000 seats and skyboxes to Soldier Field.
The city has no intention of sweetening the deal, Bedore said, though McCaskey rejected it at the time and threatened to move his team to Gary.