Acme Packing Company
Aren’t you glad you cheer for a team with a decentralized ownership structure with the ability to raise capital as needed? I know I am. Makes me happy.
The Chicago Bears, though. The Bears are owned by the McCaskey family, and their primary business is the Bears. They’re not owned by billionaires who made their money in finance or oil or insurance or AI, and sometimes that’s a good thing. While all rich people care mostly about becoming richer, the McCaskeys, I think, do care about football in a way that goes beyond “this is my rich person’s toy.”
But there’s a downside as well, which is that the McCaskeys don’t have the hard-nosed business experience you get in some of those other fields. Sure, they can hire firms and advisors and lobbyists (and Kevin Warren) to do that work, but they’ve made several high-level tactical blunders in this process, and it’s hard not to push that blame all the way to the top. I doubt the idea was ever to wind up in Hammond, Indiana, but it’s becoming more and more likely as time goes on. As the Bears have boxed themselves into a stupid corner of their own making, it is increasingly hard to see a way out. But where did this all go wrong?
Leverage is Everything
The business of getting the public to pay for a new stadium is a dirty one, but it’s also pretty simple, and it all boils down to leverage. When a team has an expiring lease in a so-so market, it’s incredibly plausible that they might move, like the Cardinals in St. Louis or the Rams in St. Louis. All you need to do at that point is put together a plan for a new stadium, preferably with some additional development around it, put together a BS economic study about how it will help the area, and then pitch it to politicians and voters. You’ll know you’ve done a good job if JC Bradbury yells at you.
However, it’s VERY important that you proceed in the proper order, that you have a plan, that you have a BS economic study to point to, and that your threat to relocate is an actual relocation to an actual new physical space, many many miles away. The Bears have messed up every last one of these things. Let’s take it one stupid step at a time.
One of the underdiscussed, and frankly, crazy things about all of this stadium drama is that the Bears’ lease still has nine years on it! Now, you do have to start planning these things well in advance, but if the team keeps hitting roadblocks and whatnot, they can still play at Soldier, and in fact are technically obligated to play at Soldier, until 2033! And if they leave early, they will have to pay penalties up to $90 million! The only real urgency here is the McCaskeys’ missing out on that...
