Bears say they aren’t pursuing horse racing at Arlington Park
CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears disclosed Wednesday that they are not interested in continuing horse racing at Arlington International Racecourse, despite a report that another investor group wants to do so.
The Bears entered a purchase agreement in September to buy the horse racing site in Arlington Heights for $197 million, and are continuing to evaluate various aspects of the proposal before hoping to close on the deal in 2022 or 2023. But Scott Hagel, the team’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, made clear that the team is not looking to race horses.
“We are in the process of conducting our due diligence on the property and are not pursuing any horse racing opportunities on the site,” he wrote in an email to the Chicago Tribune.
His comment came in response to a report by the Daily Herald that a group of investors proposed working with the Bears to keep racing at the track starting in 2023. But the group did not bid on the property when it was for sale this year, and had not formally contacted the Bears.
Roy Arnold, CEO and president of Endeavor Properties, which was a finalist among bidders for the 326-acre property, said he would also like to work with the Bears to offer both racing and football on the site. He believed that the other investors now proposing such a deal may include Ralph Ross, a former co-owner of the racetrack.
Arnold said he’d worked with Ross more than a year ago on possibly pursuing racing at another site, but that proposal didn’t work out. “Ralph’s a good guy, he has a history with Arlington,” Arnold said.
But, he said, considering that any interested party could have bid on the property this summer, “they’re a little late to the game.”
Churchill Downs Inc., which is selling the Arlington site, asked potential buyers to break out bids for the track alone, which Endeavor valued at about $40 million, Arnold said.
Keeping the existing grandstand and racing oval would require demolishing the backstretch and practice track to make room for a football stadium in the northwest corner of the property, near Route 53, he said. His team would also be willing to buy the track if the Bears deal fell through.
For decades, track owners lobbied for state permission to add casino gambling at their tracks, as has been done in other states. Illinois lawmakers allowed such a change in 2019.
In the meantime, Churchill Downs bought a majority ownership of Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. After that, Churchill Downs shocked the racing world by rejecting a casino at the racetrack, and instead put the site up for sale this year. The corporate officers also chose not to seek racing dates for next year, effectively preventing any future owner from holding races then, in what was seen as a move to prevent competition with its nearby casino.
Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes previously said he’d welcome combining football and horse racing on the site, but said Wednesday that his understanding also was that the Bears were not pursuing that.
