I don't think they need to have the move complete, as Teddy will probably screw it up again. I do think they need to have closed on the land. If you're Jeff Bezos or someone else looking to buy the Bears, I think it would be more attractive to be able to build your own vision of a stadium.

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It would be dumb to sell their ownership interest in the team. Make more sense to hire professionals to manage their insanely valuable asset. Bears have had 2 winning seasons in the last 11 and still sell out every home game and get featured games in prime time TV multiple times a year. Da Bears money train doesn't slow down regardless of performance on the field.

They seem to have no family interest/aptitude in running a professional football business. The children are all old (and there’s 8 of them). She’s got 21 grandchildren. There’s no clear successor aside from George? Maybe?

Cash out now when pro sports franchises seem to be a bit of a bubble and go invest your money on something you care about.

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I guess it depends on whether they think the insane NFL valuations have peaked, and if the kids have been waiting for Virginia to die so they can cash out. The Board is basically made up of the family, Patrick Ryan and Andrew McKenna. Maybe Ryan would buy them out but I don't see anyone there who is going to want to keep the team.

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Unless the newer generations have some specific domain knowledge to enable them to make wise investments, finding places to invest that sort of coin isn't easy. Well, it's easy enough to find people willing to take your investment, challenging to not end up losing your shirt over and over again to a Theranos or WeWork or Madoff type scheme. Commercial real estate would be a relatively passive investment you could park large sums but covid has made even that field tricky nowadays. And it depends if they pooled the sale proceeds into a common enterprise or if they sliced it up into smaller lots. if they sell the Bears for a multiple billions and divide it up among the heirs, i'd guess it won't even take a generation before it's mostly all gone.

The Arlington Park property is going to be a bigger money maker than anything else they could invest in. They'll make millions a year just from hosting college sporting events with virtually no effort.

Now, maybe Jeff Bezos will pay them $5 billion for the team knowing that but they'll still have to wait to actually prove it.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The McCaskey stake is going to be split 40+ ways in a decade. It’s a similar situation to Brown-Forman, only those people seem competent.

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you're probably correct, people see a huge pie and they want their slice all to themselves now. but they'd be well-advised to keep taking the NFL drip rather than getting the whole slice at once and pissing it away.

Its incredibly tough to keep everyone on the same page. 8 children, 21 grandkids 19 great grand kids (I think I recall seeing the number at 40 for grandkids and great grandkids). The 8 and any descendants of deceased will be the ones that have to deal with each other. Im not going to say its impossible but I find it unlikely they keep it together with the 5 billion value on the franchise.

I read yesterday that for tax planning Virginia has likely already spread her 80% shares amongst all the 8-20 heirs. I can only see this is true if there is some agreement they don't go crazy and splinter everything until she is gone.

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Elections have consequences.

rest of family probably has a right of first refusal on any offer.

It would be kind of cool if the lesser gifted Mc Caskey's wanted to sell and some young, bold one bought them all up to form a brilliant, new ownership unfettered by his poorly bred cousins.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

You would think at this point with how old the family is there would be someone who was younger who actually cared about football that could step up and take control.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Ryan and McKenna have to be offered first before anyone outside of the family.

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possibly she put them in a revocable trust for the benefit of the various heirs? That would make sense. They can't do anything with them until she passes but once she's gone they automatically gain control of the shares.

I’d love to understand how that works. I’d assume they’d have an opportunity to match some type of reasonable offer?

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Virginia and the family own 80%.
Ryan and McKenna own the remaining 20%. They bought in around 1990 and as part of that investment have first right to buy majority shares.
I have zero doubt the distribution of Virginia's shares once she dies as well documented and outlined.

One open question still remains with the purchase of the Arlington property. I still feel they don't have the cash available for that purchase and someone else has come in to help with that and will have a sizable ownership stake.

http://www.michaeldonnellybythenumbers. ... -19th-2021

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Maybe they avoid estate tax by mortgaging the Bears up the ass for Arlington and the stadium.

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Elections have consequences.

I get that much, I’d just be curious how they value the franchise. I’m sure there’s some agreement on an independent 3rd party valuation but there have to be some wild assumptions around future cash flows given the pending stadium project.

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Couldn't they just go to their bank and take out a loan?

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Those two are about as old as Virginia.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Sweaty teddy as trustee. I can’t imagine they haven’t been in contact forever with a good estate planner.

Thought I heard the NFL helped build the stadium in LA. It would seem to be in the best interest of the NFL to make sure the sole franchise a major market has a state of the art facility, would expect them to give the Bears plenty of assistance in order to McKaskey proof the process.

Would expect some type of offset using gambling money, wasn't the fact that the city wouldn't allow a sports book one of the primary reasons they gave for the move?

Ted probably fleeced the McCaskeys years ago in some fine print and will inherit the team when Ginny shuffles off into eternity leaving her idiot sons with nothing

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

The NFL didn't help McCaskey proof the 2003 renovation. Then again...that would require the NFL to both McCaskey-proof and Chicago-proof the project. No one is that gifted.

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