Daily Herald opinion: The Bears' new CEO offers some reassurance of suburbs' interests in stadium development
This editorial represents the consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board
It's a brief, simple drive northwest from the Big Ten headquarters, where Kevin Warren has worked the past three years, to the vacant property in Arlington Heights his new employer has its eyes on for a $5 billion NFL stadium development. The similarly short road to a promised first-quarter 2023 closing on that deal promises to be considerably more complicated.
We saw some signs this week that the new Chicago Bears president and CEO is ready for the challenge, but the obstacles looming between now and the end of March leave plenty of room for concerns and surprises.
Indeed, if the $197.2 million purchase of the former Arlington Park site concludes by the end of March as promised, Warren's role technically may be more in executing the deal than negotiating it. He doesn't officially take over leadership of the franchise until April.
Still, at an introductory press conference Tuesday at Halas Hall, Warren said many of the right things - but with the diplomacy that still leaves open a world of possibilities, both for the suburbs, which would find the prospect of a Bears stadium development transformative, and for the city of Chicago, which is fighting to cling to the franchise it has hosted for a century.
Perhaps chief among them was the observation that whatever happens regarding the stadium, it must have a benefit - in his word a "why" - for all parties involved.
"It just can't be what's the why for the Chicago Bears or what's the why for this group or that group," he said. "No matter what constituent group you put in front of me, what's the "why?" And the more common the why that you have, the more people will understand."
OK, so we're not completely confident we understand what Warren was saying there, but we trust that he means that both in the determination of whether to move forward with a stadium in Arlington Heights and in the process of developing it should the decision be made, he'll be as understanding of the suburbs' needs and goals as he is of his company's.
His pre-Big Ten experience helping the Minnesota Vikings complete a new stadium may not be precisely comparable to the challenges he faces with the Bears project, but it does provide him some valuable insights into what's required to make an effort of this scope successful.
"I just believe that at this point in time, where we are in our life span in the NFL and the Chicago Bears, the time is right," Warren told reporters Tuesday. "I'm confident with the intellectual talent in this state and in this city and all the people who love the Chicago Bears, that we'll be able to come together. It's time."
We may not yet know exactly what he thinks it's time for, but whatever it is, we hope he's sincere about respecting the suburbs' priorities in the process.