Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the odds of Bears fans returning to Soldier Field this season are less than 50 percent.
In an interview with “Mully and Haugh” on WSCR-AM on Friday morning, Lightfoot said that “we’re no nowhere near at a place where we can even realistically talk about fans coming back to Soldier Field.”
The Bears will not have fans inside Soldier Field for their home opener Sunday. The team just last week said it hopes that will change later in the season.
Lightfoot, though, sounded frustrated by a lack of communication with the team.
“We’re willing to absolutely work with the Bears,” said Lightfoot, who’s also a Bears season-ticket holder. “But they got to talk with us and be willing to cooperate and not just say things in the media.”
Just last week, Bears chairman George McCaskey said the Bears were in contact with the city about a plan for fans to return.
“We’re very optimistic, we’re talking to the city, we’ve presented a plan and we think it’s a good plan,” he said. “We’re told that it is a good plan but the city wants to see the numbers of active cases in the city come down before we can bring people to Soldier Field.
“So we’re hopeful. But we want to be prudent, we want to do the right thing and we want to cooperate with the city in their health and safety measures.”
At an unrelated news conference that followed her sports radio interview, Lightfoot talked specifically about what she needs from the Bears before allowing fans at Soldier Field.
“Work with our [public health] experts,” Lightfoot said. “Come to us with specific, concrete plans. … Hundreds of people have to be there, just to support the game itself. Then, when you layer into it … the people in the stands, that is a complicated exercise.
“It is a massive exercise to put one of these events on. That’s why you can’t just talk about it in the media. You’ve got to dig down and do the hard work of planning to make it happen. But it’s always gonna be dictated by the public health guidance.”
The Colts, Jaguars, Chiefs and Dolphins are the only NFL teams that are allowing fans in their stadiums in September.
Lightfoot noted that Chicago is “just coming out of a spike in cases” that started in late July and continue through August and early September. The “downward trend” started seven-to-10 days ago, but Chicago’s positivity rate is still “not where anyone would like it” to be, the mayor said.
