The positive news arrived early on Thursday for the Chicago Bears when they traded for All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons. Suddenly, a defense that didn’t have a central star for years has one of the absolute best in the league. A team that looked offensively driven has legitimate balance on both sides of the ball. People can start thinking about a Super Bowl push. On the same day, a report from Crain’s Chicago Business revealed that momentum is building towards a deal between the team and the state on property tax assistance legislation. Based on the details, team president Kevin Warren won’t like it.
According to Greg Hinz, there is mutual optimism that enough support can be found in the House and Senate to push a deal through during the fall veto session next month in Springfield. It will look something like what the Senate put forward in the spring, involving a publicly owned stadium through municipalities that the Bears would then lease. What led to this sudden surge? People tell Hinz that Bears part-owner Pat Ryan stepping in was a key turning point, along with the inclusion of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
That and the sidelining of Kevin Warren.
“Insiders tell me the recent involvement of Bears minority owner Pat Ryan has made a big difference. The insurance billionaire has a reputation for getting things done and arguably has better relationships with the billionaires who really run the National Football League than the McCaskey family does. He also has strong ties to Pritzker and Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, whom he knows through their shared involvement in Northwestern athletics…
…NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also has joined the negotiations with Pritzker, a sign that the league may be eager to keep the Bears in Illinois. Perhaps that’s thanks to Ryan’s influence, or maybe Goodell’s own Chicago ties: His father-in-law is Sam Skinner, the former U.S. attorney in Chicago who served as transportation secretary and White House chief of staff under President George H.W. Bush before returning home to run Commonwealth Edison.”
The intrigue doesn’t stop there.
It appears Arlington Heights isn’t the only choice on the table any longer. There has been a groundswell of support for keeping the Bears in Chicago. The problem has been finding a suitable location that politicians and activist groups inside the city would accept. The museum campus is out of the question. Many have offered the South Works area. It certainly has the size. However, it is pretty far south. The Bears would prefer to remain at least close to downtown. That is where the latest proposal comes in.
It is known that the Chicago White Sox are planning a move to a new stadium as well. They’ve picked up a location in the South Loop, about 10 minutes north of their current one. That means the property where Guaranteed Rate Field sits will become available. The ballpark could be demolished, paving the way for the Chicago Bears to build their new state-of-the-art complex on that spot. It is less than 3 miles from Soldier Field’s location and already has infrastructure in place to funnel fans. The key would be to expand parking and add amenities like bars and hotels.
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The humiliation is almost complete.
Kevin Warren took over as Bears president in 2022. He’s spent four years trying to close a stadium deal while having the advantage of already owning the property. His only job from that point on was to get the necessary support from the state. Rather than focus on that objective, he spent numerous months and millions of dollars fruitlessly pivoting from one possibility to the next. Each time it was clear he had no concept of a plan or the ability to do proper research. Combine that with his bad tendency to put things out in the media, and it’s little wonder people didn’t like him.
If Ryan manages to close this deal mere months after essentially hijacking the process, it should be the final nail in Warren’s coffin. A part-owner does your job for you in a fraction of the time. The Bears will be left with a simple question: What good is this guy to the organization? No doubt this must be going through his head right now. This was supposed to be his victory. Instead, his mismanagement could cost him everything.
