NFL fans sound off on reports of Bengals and Bears sharing stadium in Chicago -"Sounds like a really dumb idea"

The Cincinnati Bengals have a stadium problem. They have less than three months before the deadline to extend their lease at Paycor Stadium lapses, and recent comments by EVP Katie Blackburn have not exactly helped their case.

NBC's Mike Florio has a "brilliant" idea: move to Chicago and share a new suburban stadium with the Bears, who are themselves looking for a replacement for Soldier Field:

"The best outcome for the Bengals, and the Bears, could be to partner up in a new Chicagoland stadium. Lakefront or Arlington Heights. Wherever. The revenue from 20 NFL games each year, along with everything else that could be hosted in a fixed-roof building, should be able to pay for the building."

Safe to say, not everyone is on board with the idea:

More of the pushback can be seen below:

"Chicago will never have a 2nd NFL team", one reiterated.

"The Bears do not have a stadium problem... Bengals don’t either," another insisted.

"I'm sure the Cincinnati fans would love that expense and travel time to see their team. Smh," another sneered.

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Bengals EVP Katie Blackburn hints at franchise leaving Cincinnati

It was at the recently concluded league meetings that Katie Blackburn first floated the possibility of moving the Bengals away from Cincinnati. When asked about the status of the franchise's lease at Paycor Stadium, she said:

“We play it day by day, and like everything else, we just continue to have discussions, see where things are, and then have to make decisions at the appropriate time.”

But it was in the next part where the topic became interesting. When asked about what would happen were the lease extension not invoked, she hinted at relocation, even with discussions ongoing:

“We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year. Like I said, all these things will be done in due course. We are having discussions, and so we’re hopeful that the county is thinking about it a lot too and wants to get it addressed in a way that would be beneficial to both of us.”

She concluded:

“Our stadium obviously needs to continue to be maintained appropriately, and you want to keep it at a certain level that’s important, just so that we’re competitive with others.”

Tensions between the Bengals and Hamilton County, where the city of Cincinnati is situated, can be traced as early as July 2024, when the organization withdrew extension offers and ceased negotiations on a renewed lease. They resumed in January this year.