The Bears are leaving Bourbonnais after 18 years.
The team announced Wednesday that it will hold training camp at the remodeled Halas Hall beginning this year.
The Bears’ contract to practice at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais had been on a year-to-year basis. The team had scaled back its number of open-to-the-public practices there in recent years.
“We will host training camp practices at Halas Hall in 2020, while maintaining a public component to many of the sessions to incorporate our loyal and passionate fans,” Bears president Ted Phillips said in a statement. “Olivet Nazarene University continues to be a valued and committed partner, but with the recent investment in our campus expansion and state-of-the-art facilities in Lake Forest, we feel it is important to stay home for training camp. We would like to thank Olivet Nazarene University, including President John Bowling, and the Bourbonnais community for their 18 years of partnership and hospitality.”
The Bears will make tickets available to the public for some of their training camp practices in Lake Forest. Details will follow in the spring.
Bourbonnais Mayor Paul Schore said the Bears called him with the news on Tuesday morning. He suspected the team could leave soon, but surprised it was this year.
“It was all good stuff the whole time,” he said. “It was fun. It was a free activity for the area. I wished it would continue, but I realize most NFL teams were doing their camps at their own facilities now. It was a business decision on the Bears’ part.”
The Bears were only one of 10 teams to practice off-site during training camp, a trend that began a decade or so earlier when teams began building larger facilities and growing more wary of prying eyes.
The Bears doubled the size of Halas Hall when earlier this year, adding a 162,500-square foot addition to the 143,000-foot facility. The team remodeled another 30,600 square feet. Keeping training camp at the facility will offer players the chance to use their regular training table, recovery areas, weight room — and sleep in their own beds at night.
They trained in Platteville, Wis., from 1984-2001.
“It was a good run,” Schore said. “It was 18 years here. It did an awful lot for our university, our county, and for Olivet Nazarene University.”
BEARS TRAINING CAMP LOCATIONS
2001-19 — Bourbonnais
1984-2001 — Platteville, Wis.
1975-83 — Lake Forest
1944-74 — Rensselaer, Ind.
1935-43 — Delafield, Wis.
1934- Chicago
1933 — South Bend, Ind.
1930-33 — Chicago
