On the Chicago Bears stadium front, CEO/president Kevin Warren said that the team's "focus now is on both downtown and Arlington Heights" just 12 months shy of the Bears stating that their sole focus was building a stadium in the city of Chicago.
Handful of updates regarding the Chicago Bears future stadium and the state of the team's ownership after the passing of Virginia McCaskey.
Chairman George McCaskey on the Bears succession plan regarding his family's ownership: "We've said for many years that we intend to own the Bears for as long as possible. Another a hundred years would be great. (Virginia McCaskey) set it up for us to accomplish that. She gave us the playbook, she coached us up. Now we got to execute the plan and we're prepared to do that. We got to stick together."
Bears president/CEO Kevin Warren said the stadium focus “now is both” downtown and Arlington Heights.
Plenty more to come from his conversation with reporters this morning in Florida.
“We’re gonna set that bar high, and push toward it each and every day.”
Ben Johnson is setting a new standard for the @ChicagoBears organization, striving for success. 👏
George McCaskey said the Bears will continue to look at options for employing private equity, as other NFL teams have done (like the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins did in selling minority ownership stakes to PE firms and the New York Giants exploration of doing the same).
As it stands, McCaskey said that private equity "may be utilized as part of our stadium construction financing plan, but we haven't made a decision yet."
A lot to come from a lengthy chat with both Kevin Warren and George McCaskey, but here are your headlines:
- The McCaskey Family plans to own the Bears for a long, long time. That hasn't changed following Virginia McCaskey's passing.
- The stadium focus has clearly shifted back to Arlington Heights. Private equity could be used to fund it.
- The Bears voted in favor of banning the tush push and McCaskey made his case in this week's session.
Noticeable change in tone about stadium from #Bears President/CEO Kevin Warren, who said to us today that the ‘focus now is on both downtown and Arlington Heights.’ The team had said previously their focus was on downtown.
More details to come.
"To me, it comes down to toughness. We’re looking to establish an identity to … really get this team going in the right direction."
Bears GM Ryan Poles discusses the team’s approach heading into the NFL Draft 🙌