Paris Schutz: Kevin Warren didn't listen to Bears' hired lobbyists
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What led to the Bears' pursuit of new stadium legislation stalling?
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This drags on past me. Do you have three fifths? There's no there's no effective date on the bill. So it does not. That means it won't take place. It won't become effective until next year. So it does not need the doesn't need 36 votes.
Discussion about the Bear Stadium continues. Guys, remind me of who that was. Bill Cunningham. So he spoke sometime yesterday. That was while the Bears were trying to get, and the Senate was trying to get a separate bill. So I know I said I wanted you guys to hear this, and I think it is really important. Per Schatz was over at Fox 32. He is now with the team at NBC5. He has been reporting on this constantly, and he has been a resource for us. And before you start to point the fingers... Just give me two minutes and listen to what Parrish Shutz had to say about this reporting from Springfield.
These are questions that lawmakers were asking all weekend. How are they not here? Like we said, Reinsdorf has been down there. Reinsdorf was all over it 30 years ago when Jim Thompson and Mike Madigan stopped the clock at midnight. And, you know, they got their deal done to prevent the Sox from going to Florida. That was not the case here. But... This goes back to their approach for the last couple of years. One of the things a source told me was that typically when you want something big to happen, you hire some lobbyists that have these relationships with lawmakers. Again, it might be an unseemly process. We might hate it, but this is the reality. And what they do is they go – build a coalition. They go meet with individual lawmakers.
They go do what they ever will have to do to get to get the votes. And what I'm told is the Bears didn't do that. They didn't meet with individual lawmakers. They had this high level 500 foot strategy where we just need to talk to the important players here. And they're going to get the lawmakers on board. Well, it turns out these important players in the legislature did not have that much muscle to get their members to back the Bears. They do on other things. But again, the Bears by themselves weren't enough to get people to just say, yeah, sure, I'm going to vote for them. Like a lot of lawmakers, I don't think they... are going to lose sleep if they're the reason the Bears go to Indiana. They just don't think it's a big deal.
They all want to be reelected, and they don't think this is going to cost them. So it was up to the Bears to build that coalition, and I'm told over and over again that's just not what happened. They kept it to the governor's office, the legislative leader's office. I mean, two years ago it was the mayor's office, and that didn't work because the mayor didn't have that much power to get stuff done. This is not like the days of Daley. So I'm just telling you, I'm relaying you what I heard that lawmakers are puzzled that this was the strategy. And it wasn't it wasn't more because let me tell you this. They hired a bunch of lobbyists that know their way about Springfield. And I was told over and over again that Kevin Warren didn't listen to them.
You've got to be kidding me. And not just that, but we hear reports about how neither Kevin Warren nor George McCaskey were present for the process in Springfield. This is unacceptable. I understand that Kevin Warren had a family member competing in the Olympics the prior time when this was on the legislative agenda for the state and the House of Representatives.
Why didn't Kevin Warren listen to the Bears' hired lobbyists?
But there's no excuse here. You have to do the business in the way if you want to do business in this state, which has had nine hundred and seven billion dollar GDP last year.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What led to the Bears' pursuit of new stadium legislation stalling?
0:01–3:58
2
Why didn't Kevin Warren listen to the Bears' hired lobbyists?
3:58–5:12
3
What questions were lawmakers asking about the Bears' strategy?
5:12–7:22
4
How did the Bears' approach differ from past successful strategies?
7:22–12:30
5
What role did the presence of Kevin Warren and George McCaskey play?
12:30–14:07
6
How did the Bears underestimate the significance of this legislative moment?
14:07–15:30
Speakers
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