If the Chicago Bears want an enclosed stadium, no need to cross state or city lines, one local architect is suggesting. Why not create one where the team already plays.

Edward Peck has come up with a proposal to build a translucent roof on top of Soldier Field, in an effort to keep the team in Chicago.

The proposal expands capacity with new suites and fan amenities “to challenge the assumption that Soldier Field is no longer viable,” Edward Peck, the managing director of Edward PECK DESIGN Design, told the Tribune.

But the proposal has no connection to the team, the city, or the park district, which owns the stadium. Most importantly, there is no identified way to pay for it.

As Indiana and Illinois lawmakers spar over where the Bears should build a new stadium, even Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has acknowledged that the team’s next home is unlikely to rise within Chicago’s city limits.

“I think now there’s a common understanding by most of the (Illinois) General Assembly that they’re not going to be able to build in the city of Chicago,” Pritzker said last month.

The latest idea is similar to a $2 billion plan to put a dome on Soldier Field put forth under former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2022, which went nowhere. The new plan would create an entertainment complex by building a deck over adjacent rail lines and Lake Shore Drive.

The downtown site next to the Museum Campus, the Loop, and McCormick Place Convention Center, would likely generate significantly greater revenue for the city and state than either suburban site, said Peck, whose firm has been involved in numerous large projects, including NFL stadiums and Olympic venues.

The deck concept echoes that of Landmark Development’s One Central plan, which proposed a mixed-use development built over the rails west of the stadium. State lawmakers are considering tax incentives for a scaled-down version of that proposal, separate from the stadium debate.

Peck estimated his plan would be 35% more cost effective than building a new stadium, which would help pay for the estimated $700 million cost of the 10-acre deck.

The Bears wouldn’t comment on the proposal, but have their own plans to build a new stadium either in Arlington Heights or Hammond, Indiana. The Bears have said they want an enclosed stadium, and have shown one in their own plans.

They even included a dome in their previous proposal to replace Soldier Field, but that plan also went nowhere after state lawmakers refused to help pay for it.

During the groundbreaking ceremony for the Chicago Fire’s new — privately funded — soccer stadium near Soldier Field in the South Loop earlier this month, the mayor sent another signal that he hasn’t given up on the Bears staying in Chicago, even though there seems to be little appetite for the team’s 2024 proposal to remain in its longtime home by building a partly taxpayer-funded domed stadium on the lakefront site.

“There is no better city for sports than the city of Chicago,” Johnson said in remarks to a room of Chicago Fire executives and other business leaders at the riverfront property where the new soccer stadium will go up. “I will say that it is so good to make sure at least one of our football teams in Chicago is good.”

Afterward the mayor told reporters he still believes “we can put together an agreement that works for the fans, the players, the ownership and the city of Chicago” to keep the Bears in the city.

“Keep in mind the circumstances are a little bit different because the stadium in which the Bears were investing in in Chicago, it’s a stadium that the city of Chicago owns, so they will be a tenant,” Johnson said, speaking of a potential new stadium at the Soldier Field site. “But the point being is that we can build stadiums in Chicago, that we can create an opportunity that works for all of Chicago.”

Indiana lawmakers recently voted to create an agency to build a publicly-owned stadium that the Bears could lease and eventually buy. In response, Illinois lawmakers are considering legislation to let the Bears negotiate tax breaks on the site in Arlington Heights.

The advantage of the Bears’ proposals is that they would create new facilities with existing land to build surrounding hotels, restaurants and other uses to offset the costs of the stadium. The Bears would get much more revenue from the new stadium operations than they do from Soldier Field.

The Bears already paid nearly $200 million to buy the former Arlington International Racecourse, and demolished the grandstand there to create a 326-acre site that’s ready for construction.

Back in 2022, the team proposed spending $2 billion on a stadium, with a surrounding $5 billion mixed use development in Arlington Heights–if they get a tax deal. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said the state won’t pay for a new stadium, but would help pay for surrounding infrastructure, like highways or transit.

Any estimated costs have likely gone up significantly while the project has languished, sports stadium consultant Marc Ganis said.

Ganis isn’t involved in the Bears’ deal, but because of Soldier Field’s limitations and existing plans to move, he said, the new dome proposal is “not relevant.”

“If there was a viable plan, they should have come up with that already,” Ganis said. “Either Indiana or Arlington Heights is going to happen. I’ve said from the start that Arlington Heights is the likeliest location.”