Two Years Apart
Kevin Warren spoke today at the NFL Annual Meeting. Two years ago, at this exact event, he said the opposite. We have a transcript.
By Dear Kevin Warren · 2026-03-30
Kevin Warren gave his first substantive public interview on the stadium since August 2025. Seven months of silence. The interview aired on NBC Sports Chicago. It is 114 seconds long.
We have a transcript.
We also have a transcript from two years ago.
"There was not an appetite"
Today, Warren was asked directly about a downtown Chicago lakefront stadium. He said the Bears talked to someone at the museum campus "a couple years ago" and "there was not an appetite at that point in time." Other downtown sites "just don't fit."
No study cited. No numbers offered. A memory of a conversation, used to rule out the lakefront.
Here is what Warren said two years ago, at this exact event, the NFL Annual Meeting:
> "Building a stadium on the Chicago lakefront would give the Bears the best opportunity for success." > — Kevin Warren, March 26, 2024, NFL Annual Meeting
Same man. Same event. Two years apart.
In October 2024, Warren said the team's focus "remains along the lakefront in downtown Chicago on the Museum Campus site." In January 2025, he held a press conference and said downtown "still remains the focus. The museum campus." He called it "the most beautiful piece of property."
The site did not fail. The $2.4 billion public subsidy ask failed. The Illinois Legislature declined to fund it. "There was not an appetite" is Warren's preferred description of that event. The appetite was for the site. The legislature had no appetite for a $2.4 billion transfer to a private NFL franchise.
That is a different sentence.
"The only site in the state of Illinois and Cook County"
Warren said today he "strongly believes" Arlington Heights is "the only site in the state of Illinois and Cook County."
Worth noting: the Bears' own website said in April 2024 that the Museum Campus was "the only viable option" in the city. In September 2025, Warren wrote an open letter calling Arlington Heights "our future home" and "the best and only path forward in Cook County."
Whatever site Warren is currently negotiating against becomes the "only" option. The lakefront was the only option until it wasn't. Arlington was the only option until Indiana became the threat. Now Arlington is the only option again, because it needs to remain a credible fallback.
"Only" is leverage language. It always has been.
Four deadlines. Zero accountability.
Today is March 30, 2026.
| Date | What Warren said | What happened | |------|-----------------|---------------| | January 7, 2025 | "Shovels in the ground in 2025, and I'm confident that will happen" | Did not happen | | September 8, 2025 | Arlington Heights is "our future home." Breaking ground "spring 2026." | Pivoted to Indiana three months later | | February 20, 2026 | Indiana is "the most meaningful step forward in our stadium planning efforts to date" | Due diligence still ongoing | | March 30, 2026 | "Sometime this spring slash summer we'll know" | We are here |
That is four deadlines in eighteen months. Warren has never acknowledged missing any of them. Today he said "I don't have a set deadline."
He also said costs go up "$150 million a year" the longer they wait. That clock is running because Warren missed every deadline he set. He is using his own failures as urgency.
"Legitimate due diligence"
Warren said Indiana due diligence is "progressing right on pace." He described it as "working through traffic and construction items and transportation and all those different things."
The Bears committed to this due diligence on February 20, 2026. The interview was March 30, 2026. That is 38 days.
Stadium site due diligence for a $4 billion project typically involves: environmental assessment (Phase I and II), geotechnical surveys, traffic modeling, Environmental Impact Statements, flood plain analysis, infrastructure capacity review, title search, land acquisition, historic resource review, financial modeling, legal review, and market analysis. For projects of this scale, the process takes 12 to 24 months.
Warren mentioned traffic and transportation. He did not mention environmental review.
The Wolf Lake site sits on a water table. Environmental groups have raised concerns about migratory birds, drainage, and flooding risk. Indiana passed an environmental deregulation bill in tandem with SB 27, preemptively clearing the hurdles Warren didn't name. Indiana legislated away the environmental obstacles before the study finished. That is not due diligence on pace. That is a conclusion in search of a process.
The word "legitimate" does not belong in a sentence describing 38 days of due diligence on a $4 billion site. Warren put it there because he knew someone would ask.
"Our focus is on our fans"
In February, Axios polled Bears fans. Seventy-four percent said they would "carry a grudge" if the Bears moved to Indiana. Thirty-five percent said the team should even keep the name "Bears" in Hammond.
The Bears sent season ticket holders a survey in January 2026 gauging interest in Northwest Indiana. It asked how they felt about the site. It touted tailgating. It did not ask whether fans wanted the team to stay in Chicago. That question was not on the survey.
Bears PSL documents are written to be valid only for games played at the specific stadium where they were issued. They do not transfer. Fans who paid thousands per seat at Soldier Field are not owed anything at the new building.
Seventy-four percent. The survey that didn't ask.
"Focus is on our fans" is what you say when you are not focused on your fans.
The mixed-use argument
Warren's case for needing 326 acres: you need hotels, restaurants, retail, residential around a stadium. Mixed-use development. "You've got to have that space to be able to do it."
Oracle Park, San Francisco. Waterfront stadium. Roughly 13 acres. Revenue beyond even what the most optimistic investors imagined. Attendance jumped roughly 58 percent over the team's suburban predecessor. The mixed-use ecosystem grew in the surrounding neighborhood because the surrounding neighborhood already existed.
Camden Yards, Baltimore. Harbor location. Roughly 40 percent attendance increase in its first year. Revitalized an entire district. Model for twenty years of waterfront venue design.
Three hundred and twenty-six acres is what you need when there is no ecosystem. You have to build the neighborhood from scratch because the stadium is surrounded by a former racetrack or a floodplain next to a toll road. The lakefront already has the ecosystem. It has had it for a hundred years.
Warren is walking away from a neighborhood that has been building itself for a hundred years to construct one from scratch next to a toll road. And calling it smart.
The Minnesota receipt
Warren has said the Bears "have not asked for state taxpayer dollars to build the stadium."
His last stadium deal: U.S. Bank Stadium, Minnesota Vikings, 2016. Direct public subsidy of $498 million. Property tax exemptions worth approximately $380 million in present value. Total public cost: approximately $880 million. Roughly 83 percent of the project.
Seven years after opening, the stadium needed $279 million in repairs. In 2020, Minneapolis could not make its $17 million stadium payment. The state covered it.
He says he will not ask for state money. His track record is the only data point we have.
"Warren chose not to be in that meeting"
On February 18 and 19, Illinois officials held a three-hour working session with Bears staff on the megaprojects PILOT bill. Both sides were making progress. They were drafting an amendment.
Warren was in Milan.
The next morning, Indiana advanced SB 27 with Bears backing. The Bears released a statement calling it "the most meaningful step forward" in their planning. Illinois officials were blindsided.
Gov. Pritzker said publicly: "Warren chose not to be in that meeting."
One Illinois legislative source: "Right now, there is nobody in Illinois state government that trusts Kevin Warren."
Warren today: "We continue to work with Illinois' leadership and appreciate the progress being made."
Wednesday
Warren and George McCaskey speak publicly at the NFL Annual Meeting on Wednesday. It will be their first joint appearance since August.
They will be forced to answer questions about Indiana.
Today was the warm-up. One hundred and fourteen seconds. Carefully worded. Nothing useful.
Wednesday is two days away.
Update, April 3, 2026: Wednesday happened. Warren and McCaskey appeared at the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix. No announcement. No deal. No timeline. The meeting concluded April 1 without any stadium agreement. The bluff keeps running.
Full transcript available. Interview via NBC Sports Chicago, posted March 30, 2026. Sources: Chicago Sun-Times, NBC Chicago, FOX 32 Chicago, Axios Chicago, Indiana Capital Chronicle, Capitol News Illinois.