Sometime in late January, you are going to pick up your sports section and see one of the following headlines:
–Walter Payton, following lead of Jordan and Sandberg, opts to return to NFL and Bears.
–Moving vans complete move of Bears during the weekend.
Arguments can be made that both are fantasies, at least for now. But the best bet, without tapping any Las Vegas odds, is that the second headline is most certain to occur.
No, the Bears aren’t going to Cleveland, Tampa or Cincinnati. Not even northern Indiana. The team will complete a six-year project and pick up and leave Halas Hall on the campus of Lake Forest College and move into a state-of-the-art, 38-acre, $20 million training facility just off Illinois Highway 60, east of Interstate 94 in western Lake Forest.
In the span of a weekend, the moving vans will pull up to what has been the Bears’ home since 1979 and transport equipment, furniture, weights, Ace bandages and the Vince Lombardi trophy (which the Bears received by winning Super Bowl XX) and transport it to the new training facility.
“It will likely be a situation where on a Friday, the vans pull up to Halas Hall and we say `goodbye’ and on Monday we’re at the new facility,” said Tim LeFevour, the Bears’ director of administration and the point man on the project, which will not have any public funding. “All of the money comes from the McCaskey family. Not one dime comes from tax money or public funds.”
It is that issue that is particularly noteworthy, considering the often negative publicity the McCaskeys have received in their larger battle to secure a new stadium for the Bears in downtown Chicago.
When the Bears left downtown Chicago, where they trained at Soldier Field and had their downtown office, and headed north to Lake Forest 17 years ago, the new facility at Halas Hall was considered more than adequate for the needs of an NFL team. But that was before year-round weight training, free agency and the need to have both an indoor and outdoor training facility.
“Back then players lived in downtown Chicago with its mystique, and the players worked down there,” LeFevour explained. “When the move took place, many of the players opted to live in the Lake Forest area and be close to work. We wanted to keep that type of atmosphere.”
The genesis of the idea came around 1990, when team President Michael McCaskey started to explore the possibility of moving from Halas Hall, located in a predominantly residential area and across the street from the west end of the Lake Forest College campus, and constructing a new facility. One of the particular problems was the way the practice field behind Halas Hall, which also is used for Lake Forest College home football games, would deteriorate as inclement weather arrived in late fall.
But it was more than that. The Bears knew that if they were to be competitive, both in training with existing players and luring potential free agents away from other clubs, they had to have a more expansive facility.
“We wanted a state-of-the-art facility that will not only serve the needs of the Bears today but for many years to come,” McCaskey said. “Football has become a year-round sport, and we needed a year-round facility.”
McCaskey began to explore various options: Keep the Bears near their Lake Forest home or consider moving to the west or south. The competition to lure the Bears to other Lake County and southern Cook County facilities intensified.
Eventually McCaskey spotted a parcel of land in what then was unincorporated Lake County. The Bears agreed to buy the land in April 1995.
“We actually looked at 89 different sites,” LeFevour recalled. “But every time we would sit in a meeting and I would pitch other sites to Michael, he would always come back to this one. He thought it was the best environment for players and staff to raise their families.”
Halas Hall is very accessible, sometimes too accessible, to the public. Fans can and have camped outside the facility to get a glimpse of everyone from Mike Ditka to William Perry to Bryan Cox.
The new facility, more than a mile off busy Highway 60, won’t have those problems.
“We looked for seclusion,” LeFevour noted. “We wanted a place where we could concentrate on football.”
McCaskey added that the new facility won’t be accessible except by a private road; it isn’t that the Bears want to hibernate, just the opposite.
“We want to remain a part of the Lake Forest community,” he said. “We also wanted to maintain the integrity of the land and its environment.”
Aside from the bricks and mortar, the Bears were determined to keep the same type of “family” atmosphere at their new home.
“The way Halas Hall is laid out, there is constant interaction between coaches and players, players and staff, staff and coaches,” LeFevour said. “One of the critical things Michael wanted with the new facility was that we could make sure that, say, an intern could walk in and see Coach (Dave) Wannstedt or a secretary could run into Rashaan Salaam.”
The training site had to be built, in part, around wetlands, which also required approval by federal and state environmental agencies.
“We both agreed on that, that a beautiful piece of property would remain that way,” said Lake Forest City Manager Bob Kiely. “The Bears had to go through a series of access negotiations as well as going through the public hearing process. Generally it was painless.”
Lake Forest officials were eager to keep the likes of the Bears’ Todd Burger while keeping out McDonald’s double cheeseburgers. The identification the city has enjoyed as being the home for the Bears was a plus for both business and private interests, according to Kiely.
“We knew there were a lot–and we know a lot–of other communities that wanted them. We knew the Bears wanted seclusion, to be off on their own so a scout from Green Bay couldn’t travel down the interstate and see the signage and try to come in,” he said. “We wanted to work with them because they’ve been a great resident and have brought a lot to the community.”
Inclement weather in the spring pushed the anticipated completion date. The facility will be among the NFL’s largest.
“We went to around 15 to 20 NFL facilities and about 20 college facilities to pick up things we could incorporate into ours,” LeFevour said. “The closest to us in number of acres is probably a Denver or a Phoenix, which have around 14 to 16 acres.”
Among the features of the new facility:
– Nine regular classrooms, ranging in size from 15 to 70 players per room, that will also house draft day and other media events such as free-agent signings.
– A 1.5-mile path for running and cycling and a racquetball and basketball court.
– A two-floor weight room, with a high-tech sound system and 10 to 15 TV sets at workout stations.
– Two and a half natural turf practice fields that will feature 14 miles of underground heating tubes.
– An indoor facility with artificial turf that will replace the “McBubble” in Waukegan that has served as a refuge for Bears’ practices during inclement weather.
– A three-room players’ lounge that includes a kitchen and room with nine computer work stations.
It is clear the weight room is popular with Bears’ coaches.
Wannstedt can hardly contain his enthusiasm for that feature as well as the overall facility.
“Is it tremendous? You bet it is, especially compared to what we have now,” he said. “The weight room, the state-of-the-art facilities–we are going to be able to do things now on a year-round basis. The players are going to want to stay around because there won’t be a better facility in the NFL.”
Another major consideration was recruiting. Recruiting in the NFL?
“Obviously when you are talking about free agency, money is a key issue, but if it all comes down and everything is even, this is going to be a great plus for us,” Wannstedt said. “When a player comes in and sees this type of facility, he knows our commitment to winning a Super Bowl is real.”
Lake Forest College, which has leased Halas Hall to the Bears during their stay, will miss its high-profile tenants.
“We’ve had an outstanding relationship with them,” said Lake Forest Athletic Director Jackie Slaats. “They’ve been marvelous people to work with. We’ve had many of our student-athletes work for them in various duties, from answering the phone to helping put the tarp over the field when they were done practicing. We’re going to miss them.”
College officials have no plans for Halas Hall at present.
Even with the new digs, leaving a place the Bears have called home for 17 years will be emotional.
“There are great memories here. It’s where we won our Super Bowl,” McCaskey said.
Bryan Harlan, Bears’ public relations director, recalled when the Bears received their championship rings in 1986. “We all went into Coach Ditka’s office,” Harlan said, “and champagne corks were popping all over the place. They were flying so hard and high there are still dents in the ceiling to this day from those corks.”
Louise Johnson, team receptionist, remembers the phones ringing non-stop when the Bears started their path to the Super Bowl.
“Actually, it was the year or two before when you really noticed all the excitement from the people that would call,” she said. “It started to be a very exciting time. I’m going to miss this place. It’s been a great home.”
