The Chicago Bears had many reasons to hire Kevin Warren as their new team president. Among the biggest selling points was his experience in engineering the entire process of building a new stadium. He was instrumental in the Minnesota Vikings establishing their new home at U.S. Bank Stadium. They hope he will be able to duplicate or even top that with the Bears’ intentions to do the same. It is a project Warren has already thrown his time and energy into despite having only been on the job for a few months.
Things didn’t take long to get tangled up in bureaucratic red tape. Cook County politicians have made strong efforts to delay the team’s attempt at getting things rolling on a stadium in Arlington Heights. The big sticking point is not finding a fair agreement on property taxes. No doubt they feel this will force the Bears to negotiate on their terms. One prominent television executive told Dan Pompei of The Athletic that those people have no idea who they’re dealing with. Warren is a completely different animal from what they’ve encountered in the past.
If they’re not careful, he will negotiate circles around them.
Trying to negotiate with Illinois politicians on stadium issues has frustrated the Bears for much of their existence. They have never had a negotiator like Warren, however. He has crafted contracts as an attorney, a player agent (he represented Hall of Famer Will Shields), an NFL executive (one of his duties was negotiating with players when he was senior vice president of the Lions) and as Big Ten commissioner.
Warren is transparent and clear about what he expects in a negotiation, according to John Miller, president of acquisitions and partnerships for NBC. He is personal but unemotional. And he is prepared — his goal is to spend 10 researching hours for every hour of negotiation time.
“It’s like a chess game negotiating with him,” Becker says. “He’s always three moves ahead in terms of where he’s thinking something may go.”
Kevin Warren is already moving pieces across the board.
Rather than get frustrated by the stalling tactics of Cook County officials, he decided to pivot in a direction nobody saw coming. He began taking calls and meeting with other townships interested in potentially hosting the Bears’ new stadium. Naperville, Aurora, and Waukegan have all come forward with proposals. They sound serious too. Some people think it is nothing but negotiation tactics, but it’s looking less and less like this is the case. Warren seems more than willing to withdraw from the Arlington Heights plan if they insist on not making fair tax offers.
This is what Mr. Miller said about him being prepared. Kevin Warren likely went into those talks with a clear understanding the opposition would try to strongarm the Bears into compliance. The tactic has worked in the past. Not this time. This team president has gone head to head with some of the best negotiators in the country and often came out on top. Intimidation tactics won’t work on him, and it doesn’t sound like he’ll be outsmarted, either. For once, it seems the Bears got the hire right.
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