Tears welled in Bears chairman George McCaskey’s eyes when he was asked what the preseason opener Sunday will feel like without his mom, Virginia, who died in February at 102.
‘‘It’ll be an adjustment,’’ he said. ‘‘Sunday and [the second preseason game] next Sunday will help because I think [the season opener] Sept. 8, it will be difficult. But, again, she showed us the way. Her leadership, her guidance, her direction has been invaluable, and we’re all the beneficiaries of it.’’
The matriarch’s death signaled a new era of Bears football, aspects of which the team’s top executives addressed Friday at Halas Hall:
They’re focused on Arlington Heights
The 326-acre former Arlington International Racecourse site is the only one that makes sense for the Bears to build a stadium on, president/CEO Kevin Warren reiterated. The Bears are ready to build there, he said, if they can get a ‘‘mega-development’’ bill passed by state legislators in October.
‘‘We’re ready now,’’ Warren said. ‘‘Everything is in order. So if that bill passes in October . . . . There are items we have to work on, and obviously there is a process you have to follow with the village of Arlington Heights from an approval process. But obviously they are committed. So the goal would still be to be in a position to move dirt this year.’’
The Bears hope to have legislation passed that freezes property-tax assessments for large-scale projects and allows them to negotiate payments with local taxing bodies. The state legislature adjourned in June without voting on it.
The stadium already has been designed. The Bears are meeting weekly with Arlington Heights officials, Warren said, and are not engaged with Chicago about the potential lakefront site near Soldier Field. As recently as April 2024, Warren declared the lakefront site the Bears’ only logical choice.
A scene in ‘‘Hard Knocks’’ last year even showed him eyeing chairs for a potential stadium.
A survey of season ticket-holders produced one common answer.
‘‘They’re ready for a new building,’’ Warren said.
The succession plan is on
The Bears are filling Virginia McCaskey’s spot on the board of directors with Edward L. McCaskey, who is chairman George McCaskey’s nephew.
‘‘He’s bright, he’s articulate, he asks great questions,’’ George McCaskey said. ‘‘He’s eager to learn. And it’s exciting to have the next generation of our family on the board.’’
Warren, minority owner Pat Ryan and four McCaskeys, plus George, are also on the board. McCaskey declined to comment about a Sportico report that the McCaskey and Ryan families will share in the 2% equity stake they bought back from the Andrew McKenna estate that estimated the value of the franchise at $8.8 billion. The McCaskeys own 77.5% of the Bears, the report said.
‘‘We consider those matters to be private,’’ George McCaskey said. ‘‘The important thing, as far as we’re concerned — the thing that Bears fans might have on their minds, might be concerned about — is that the Halas-McCaskey family was, is and will remain what the NFL calls ‘the controlling owner’ of the team.’’
He talked in April about the task ahead of keeping his family members together, the way his mom wanted.
‘‘We’re together,’’ George McCaskey said. ‘‘I said then, she gave us the game plan, she coached us up and we need to execute the game plan. Our goal is to remain owners of the Bears, as my brother Pat says, until the second coming. I say, ‘Another 100 years.’
Either of those would be great.’’
A leap of faith in Poles
The Bears’ decision to give general manager Ryan Poles a contract extension through 2029 — the same length as coach Ben Johnson’s deal — was a show of their faith in him. Warren called Poles a ‘‘world-class leader’’ who ‘‘has a transformative thought process.’’
McCaskey acknowledged the obvious: Poles’ 15-36 record needs improving.
‘‘Ryan will be the first to tell you we don’t have the results yet,’’ he said, ‘‘but you can see him putting the building blocks together.’’
