Kevin Warren Discusses Bears’ Lakefront Stadium Proposal at Economic Club of Chicago

Sean Connolly, CEO of ConAgra Foods with Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren (Photo Credit: Tacuma Roeback). Hundreds gathered at the Sheraton Ballroom, many wearing their dark navy and orange Chicago Bears jerseys, eager to hear the man who many feel has their favorite team on the precipice of enduring success. The Economic Club of Chicago invited Chicago Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren to participate in a wide-ranging discussion about his upbringing, career, and the approaches and philosophies he’s employed to lead one of the NFL’s most storied franchises.& Invariably, moderator and interviewer Sean Connolly, CEO of ConAgra Foods, asked Warren the question that loomed the largest that evening: where things stood with the team and its negotiations for a new lakefront stadium.& “To have an ownership group commit to over $2 billion in private money. And I’m not being funny or joking when I say this: I have searched tall and wide to find out the last time that a private entity, a family-owned business, committed $2 billion on a project that would be collectively owned from a public-private partnership. It hasn’t happened.” said Warren, referring to the Bears’ proposal to build a state-of-the-art fixed-roof stadium along Chicago’s...