The Bears insist they’re still entirely focused on their proposed $4.7 billion stadium project on the downtown Chicago lakefront. But the political and financial difficulties already swirling around the effort have prompted a marked resurgence of the suburban pushes to land the NFL team. 

In some ways echoing the extended tour the Bears made of the Chicago area last year in pursuit of a stadium site, both Aurora and Arlington Heights have renewed their public pursuit of the Bears.

The core of both suburban arguments is the same: with the Bears fighting an uphill battle to get the downtown stadium project going, the more distant options provide an alternative that could represent a materially easier path to actually completing the project. The Illinois legislature recently concluded its spring session without taking up the Bears issue. 

“Instead of negotiating with state and local officials over where the money for a new lakefront stadium in Chicago will come from, we’re poised to immediately welcome the Bears’ storied franchise to the City of Lights,” wrote Aurora officials, including mayor Richard Irvin, in a recent Chicago Tribune op-ed. 

Not to be outdone, Arlington Heights also said there is a rather different conversation to be had now with the Bears.

“By no means do I think it is over,” Arlington Heights trustee Jim Bertucci told the Daily Herald in Illinois. “If they want to come back and look more seriously again at Arlington Heights, I think we’re going to have a better path for them than [it] was in the past, and maybe an easier path than what’s happening in Chicago.”

The team still owns 326 acres of land in Arlington Heights, and it had intended to place the stadium there before running into a tax dispute with the town.

Walking a Careful Line

The renewed suburban interest has created a rather delicate situation for the Bears. On one hand, the Bears certainly do not want to forfeit any potential momentum around the downtown project, and certainly don’t want to appear fickle or indecisive with any public official. At the same time, though, having additional options could prove vital, particularly if the team is not ultimately able to make the lakefront vision a reality.

“Every jurisdiction has their own way of doing business. This is exactly what I expected,” said team president Kevin Warren at a Lincoln Forum event with the Union League Club of Chicago. “We live in a complicated world. This is an election year. … We have a lot of complex issues that we are dealing with. So I’m a realist to understand these projects are not something you do just over a weekend.”

The Bears have estimated that every year lost to delays adds more than $150 million to the stadium cost. The project is also premised in part on creating a domed stadium that would make the No. 3 media market in the U.S. eligible to bid for major events such as the Super Bowl, Final Four, and College Football Playoff. 

The team will be featured on Hard Knocks this summer after years of resistance to the high-profile documentary series. Meanwhile, rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, the top selection in the 2024 NFL draft, has introduced his 888 Midas investment firm.

What do Patrick Mahomes, Caitlin Clark, and Scottie Scheffler (above) have in common? The superstars have all become part of one media company’s strategy to boost its streaming service, as the landscape continuously shifts toward more live broadcasts off cable and network TV.

NBCUniversal, via Peacock, has leaned in to that online paywall strategy like so many others. In the last 12 months, the streamer has used premium-game inventory—like the NFL playoffs and Clark’s biggest moment with Iowa—to try to drive new subscribers. Now, golf can be added to that list.

During the first two rounds of the U.S. Open, Peacock has 11.5 hours of exclusive coverage, or 42.5% of the total 27 hours that NBC Sports plans to be on air showing the championship’s early happenings. That’s up slightly from just under nine Peacock-only hours on Thursday and Friday last year.

The kicker this year is who is playing during Peacock’s coverage. The three top-ranked players in the world—Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, and Rory McIlroy—are grouped together in the U.S. Open’s marquee threesome. Their first round (1:14 p.m. ET tee time) concluded on Peacock, and nearly all of their second round (7:29 a.m.) will play out on the streamer.

The New Reality

NBC Sports released its coverage plans last week, before tee times were announced Tuesday, but it’s certainly possible that network power brokers made it known who they would prefer to play when. While Scheffler’s group is Peacock-heavy, it should be noted that the entirety of Tiger Woods’s first two rounds were available on USA or NBC.

Streaming is bountiful throughout men’s golf major championships these days, not just at the U.S. Open. The first two rounds of the PGA Championship in May had 10 exclusive hours on ESPN+. The Masters didn’t come on ESPN until 3 p.m. ET, although streaming options earlier in the day were free through the tournament’s website and app, in addition to paid offerings from ESPN+. 

NBC Sports has not released its full coverage plan for the final men’s major of the year, the Open Championship, but last year Peacock did have some exclusive windows.

No Sport Untouched

In January, Peacock’s exclusive NFL stream of the Chiefs-Dolphins playoff game led to both subscriber and subsequent revenue growth. When Clark broke the NCAA women’s basketball scoring record in February, it was also Peacock that had the broadcast.

In September, Peacock will carry the NFL’s first game from Brazil on the Friday night of Week 1, as well as another exclusive Notre Dame football broadcast, as it has done in recent years.

On a day in which Ryan Smith formally closed his deal to acquire an NHL franchise for Utah, the team is now taking several additional—and significant—steps to establish itself in its new home. 

The organization said late Thursday that, as expected, it will be known officially as Utah Hockey Club for its first season in its new home, with “Utah” running across the jerseys. The franchise has also selected a color scheme of “rock black,” “salt white,” and “mountain blue” to serve as a base of its identity for both for this initial campaign in Salt Lake City and beyond. Those colors were chosen in part to be complementary to the existing look of the NBA’s Jazz, also owned by Smith.

Utah HC additionally released the first images of its new jerseys, which will be worn by the team’s selections at the NHL draft set for June 28–29. Some initial Utah HC merchandise will go on sale to fans at that time, followed by wide rollouts as the regular season approaches. 

These key steps to prepare for the 2024–25 season arrive as the franchise prepares a forthcoming third round of fan voting on the permanent team name. After starting with 20 options, the remaining choices include Yeti, Mammoth, Blizzard, Venom, Outlaws, and retaining the Utah HC identity. There is not a timetable to conclude the process, but that third round of voting will happen later this summer. 

Both this interim identity and the permanent one are being developed with the aid of design firm Doubleday & Cartwright. The closing of the deal for Smith, also the owner of two local pro soccer teams, happened just shy of two months after the NHL announced its plan to turn the Coyotes franchise dormant and set up a team in Utah. 

The latest moves are also happening as Utah HC has received more than 34,000 deposits for season tickets, far in excess of the capacity of the Delta Center and creating something of a problematic demand crunch.