Fans may not have liked his tenure, but the schools certainly did
Kevin Warren’s reception as President of the Chicago Bears has been up and down with fans. Some appreciate the work he’s done trying to make the Bears the big business they should be, while others point to the slow progress with the stadium project, believing he should have made more progress there.
Warren was previously the Commissioner of the Big 10 before he took the job as Bears’ president, and he wasn’t very popular among the conference fans. However, after some news that was unearthed by USA Today, he was very popular among the schools that belong to the Big 10.
Warren received a significant bonus of $5.75 million from the conference as his tenure was ending in 2023, “for his accomplishments over his full tenure as commissioner, including his contributions to the new TV rights deal,” according to a statement from the Big 10 to USA Today.
Warren was paid $1.1 million as a base salary before being awarded such a huge bonus. That bonus was largely due to the new television rights deal that he brokered for the Big 10, which, according to USA Today, pushed the Big 10’s revenue to almost $1 billion in 2024.
Warren was hired by the Bears in January of 2023, and his new role as Team President began in April of that year. During his tenure, Warren has been criticized by fans and media for the slow progress of the Bears’ stadium project, but was lauded by Ben Johnson’s agent, Rick Smith, for making the Bears a first-class organization and one of the key reasons Johnson chose to come to Chicago.