Fans have grown tired of the entire Chicago Bears stadium saga. This issue should’ve been long settled by now. There are literally other NFL teams that have started new stadium projects after the Bears and are already building. Yet this team can’t even get things squared away with the state government because they have approached talks with an appalling lack of preparation. The latest example is not having a traffic study on hand to help sway lawmakers on the PILOT megaprojects bill that would give them the infrastructure assistance they need. This is before getting into other blunders that have slowed talks to a crawl. That falls at the feet of Kevin Warren.
The Bears’ team president was hired in 2022 to oversee the stadium negotiations. He’d helped Minnesota do the same with U.S. Bank Stadium in the late 2010s. His experience was the biggest selling point for his hire. Yet signs keep growing that he has zero grasp of the situation and is flailing around looking for answers. He constantly pivots from one potential site to another, catching the Illinois government by surprise and ultimately doing more harm than good. The latest example was supposedly the re-engagement of talks with the city about a lakefront stadium. Senator Robert Peters finally became the first public official to openly say, via the Chicago Tribune, what fans have begun to realize.
Kevin Warren has no clue what he’s doing.
State Sen. Robert Peters, a Chicago Democrat whose district encompasses Soldier Field, expressed frustration at Warren and how, despite his success in helping the Minnesota Vikings secure a new stadium, “he is now being known for this three-year cluster mess of the Bears stadium deal, and his approach to it.”
“We have come to this place where it’s an easy narrative about the governor versus the mayor. And I don’t think that’s the right narrative. The main narrative is that the Bears have been totally inept in this entire process,” he said Thursday.
“None of us want to have our heart broken seeing the team we love move,” Peters said. “What we also don’t want to see is the team we love bamboozle us.”
No lies were told in that statement.
The reality is, Warren has nobody to blame but himself for this mess. He already had the table set for him when he arrived. Property had already been purchased in Arlington Heights. All the Bears needed was to work with the state government on a property tax and infrastructure solution. If Warren had spent all his time focused on that rather than pivoting to a new lakefront stadium and then flirting with other local suburbs for several months, the issue would likely have been resolved by now.
It took him three years to even consider the idea of using Indiana as leverage. Yet even when he did that, he somehow bungled it. This rumor that the Bears secretly spoke to Chicago’s leadership about a lakefront stadium suggests Warren never really got over Illinois saying no to that option the first time. It was clear the Bears president was obsessed with the idea. He wanted it to be the crowning jewel of his tenure. Having it ripped away clearly didn’t sit well with him
🔥 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel to hear Chicago legends tell stories you’ve never seen in headlines — real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.
Now his misguided communication once again derailed the negotiations that matter.
George McCaskey could end this if he wanted.
The Bears chairman was the one who “scouted” and eventually hired Kevin Warren. It was almost entirely for this specific reason. That it hasn’t come to pass after five years is a clear indication that the man can’t close the deal. Nobody would begrudge ownership if they decided to make a change. There has to be somebody else who can do a better job, both in terms of organization and communication. Even somebody already working for the team. Unfortunately, McCaskey isn’t the type to do something like that.
Bears ownership has long been one of slow movement on any decisions. They’ll stick with coaches or general managers who are clearly not up to the task for longer than necessary for the sake of continuity, and hoping that said person can grow into the job. Besides, it would be humiliating to fire the man they hired specifically for this stadium job before it is even finished. Thus, the ship moves forward, colliding with icebergs, garbage patches, and sandbars along the way.
