Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Adam Hoge: Bears aren't bluffing about potentially moving to Indiana

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris were joined by CHGO host Adam Hoge to discuss the Bears taking a key step forward in their vision to build a new stadium in Hammond, Indiana. In Hoge’s mind, the Bears are on the “half-yard line” in their stadium discussions with Indiana.

So we have this information, according to a source familiar with the Bears Stadium situation. They confirmed the post on X from Matt Hill. Matt Hill posted this at 9-11 in the morning. He is the deputy chief of staff for communications to Governor Prisker saying that the Bears leaders requested the ILGA pause the hearing to make further tweaks to the infrastructure bill. And he also added this morning, we were surprised to see a statement, lauding Indiana and ignoring Illinois. So we've gotten that confirmed yet again.

And according to a source familiar with the situation, there is an agreement that things are moving in the right direction, that there's an understanding about language tweaks to the bill that need to be finalized, and that the House is waiting to hear back from Bears' leadership. So that doesn't sound like it's been tabled at all. It sounds like this is negotiation as part of a bill. No, I've always said this is negotiation, all of this. And unfortunately for Indiana, here's how I feel about this.

Lela, you've seen this movie that I had to go see in the theater, and I did not want to go see it. And I was like, why do I have to go see it? It's called The Notebook. Are you familiar with it? Yes. So in the Notebook, it's a love story, you know, spoiler alert, starring Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams.

And Rachel McAdams family doesn't want her to be. with him. And what happens is... Doesn't want her to be with Ryan Gosling. Yeah, doesn't want her daughter to be with Ryan Gosling. And Ryan Gosling goes away and Ryan Gosling is living with this other woman. And here comes Rachel McAdams character back into the fray. And remember, Ryan is living with another woman.

She comes. He basically leaves the woman. And the woman says, like, oh, I've heard about you. I knew about you. He never forgot about you. Are you describing the meme of those two people walking together, the guy and the girl, and it's like her versus the girl you told her not to worry about. It's the girl in the red dress walking on the left side facing the other direction.

Listen, in this scenario, I believe that Ryan Gosling is being played this part by the bears and that that woman that he was living with while he was not with Rachel McAdams' character is being played by Indiana and Rachel McAdams is Illinois. I think right now they're heavy and hot with Indiana. But guess what? They're probably going to come back to Rachel McAdams in Illinois and build in Arlington Heights. That's probably. So Indiana is a mean timer in this situation.

Not to much things up here. But, you know, she was with another dude also. Yeah, but we didn't take that dude. No one watching that movie took that dude that Rachel McAdams character with was with seriously. The moral of the story is don't cry at the end of the movie. That's the moral. Let's go to our hotline and bring it a reporter who has been a part of this saga, although Adam is not as dramatic as anybody in the notebook.

I bet I haven't seen the notebook though. I bet he has too, but he's just more practical. Adam Hogue of the Hogan John's podcast. Hi, Adam. How are you? The notebook is phenomenal. And anybody who says otherwise is just wrong. But don't cry at the end. Like, it's hard not to.

Yeah, it's emotional experience. It's been emotional too with what's been going on with the Bears. Exactly. State of Illinois. I mean, there's some real connections here, I think. And so I say that, like, I understand all this news that's happening overnight into the day in the canceled meeting with Illinois. But I just feel like the preference from the Bears is to build in Arlington Heights. And this is just another step trying to show leverage.

But I also think there is the possibility. And it's a real one that they could pivot to Indiana if they don't get what they feel like they need to get from Illinois. How do you see that? Let me be very clear. They have pivoted to Indiana. The pivot has happened. I mean, this is, now, it's not done. They're, but it's close to done.

I mean, they're at the half-yard line. As long as they don't run any of those weird Matt Nagy shotgun runs and fail to get in or maybe snap the ball through Cole Komet's legs last year over the head of Kyle Monongai, as long as is, you know, something weird like that, doesn't happen. This thing is headed towards Indiana right now. If you watch this Ways and Means Committee meeting where they amended Senate Bill 27 in Indiana today, and it was 24 nothing, but it was everybody who spoke at this spoke as if it was done, including the speaker, as the bears are coming to Indiana. Now, the governor put out a statement, the governor in Indiana now I'm talking

about put out a statement basically saying, you know, they still got a, the framework of the deal is there. It's a great deal for the bears. So there really shouldn't be any hold-ups. I mean, that's the one of the biggest difference is here between Indiana and Illinois is that this is a very team-friendly deal for the bears. I was almost surprised to hear today them say that the bears are going to put two billion towards this in Indiana. But, you know, if they are, that's even more reason for why this should get done because that's that helps the state of Indiana on their end of all of this as well. What really just needs to be finalized, I think, is the actual location near Wolf Lake in Hammond, which they know that it hasn't really been quite put on a map for the rest of us yet.

And then just the due diligence that is necessary in both the team and the governor of Indiana today in their statements, their respective statements indicated that that is still last hurdle, you know, the actual site, the due diligence to know that, hey, this is viable to actually put a mega project. And that, of course, goes beyond just the stadium site. There's the issues of the Indiana toll road, which is going to help fund this project. That was also part of the news this morning in Indiana. And like, what happens with the skyway where it costs $16 just one way to go through there right now? If you're coming from the city, you know, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered from that standpoint.

Yeah, that's it. And the tolling, the toll road was a new development. Governor Pat Quinn, Adam Hogue, he referred to it on with us earlier today on our show. And while I understand that the intent is there from the state of Indiana, there's still a lot of logistical questions as you just brought up that remain to be answered. And that's what makes this difficult is the process, if you start from scratch on the Indiana side, even though they've made a lot of progress in a short amount of time, there's still a lot of questions that have. have to be asked. Like, for example, what is the delta, the difference of the amount between what the bears are willing to put forward, which has been the same on both states' discussions, $2 billion for both Illinois and Indiana? Well, we still don't exactly know where the money is coming from outside of the bears on the Illinois side and how much of it Indiana is going to put up. You know, the difference is, I think, if Indiana puts up a slight bit more than just what is happening on the Illinois side for the infrastructure. If Illinois puts anything toward the actual stadium, that becomes a more favorable deal from a monetary standpoint for the bears.

Yeah, I mean, look, the deal is going to be more favorable for the bears in Indiana. I think, but part of the, part of the issue here is like this morning, the, as their list, they were very clear in Indiana today how they're going to fund it. I mean, from bond issuance to a Hammond tax to repay it. They already have the blueprint from Lucas Oil Stadium. It's very similar to how they funded Lucas Oil Stadium, which has been very successful down there. They're going to renegotiate the lease with the Indiana toll road

to help repay for the infrastructure that will be needed in Hammond. There's a food and beverage tax that'll go in in Lake County, Indiana, as well as a 5% in-keepers tax. I mean, all of this stuff was laid out in a way that I could easily take notes right here in this notebook and relay it to you guys. And like, that's just not what's happening in Illinois when these, like they might be having these discussions, I'm sure, but none of it. It just, it just continues to stall. And I think even in the last 24 hours, and this is something I wanted to bring up with you guys. Like, it's very convenient of Matt Hill, the spokesperson for the governor's

office today to come out and be like, Illinois was ready to move this bill forward, which he put in a tweet. And he said this morning, we were surprised to see a statement lauding Indiana in the ignoring Illinois. Well, my understanding is the team gave the governor's office a heads up last night that this was happening this morning with Indiana. So there continues to be political posturing. The governor spoke yesterday publicly. He was asked directly that question if Illinois was ready to move the bill forward. And he didn't say that. He just said progress was being made. And he referenced somebody else's report in saying that that was pretty much accurate, that progress was being made. Like, they could have come out yesterday and said, yes,

We're ready to make this happen. Let's get it done. And that might have changed the tune in all this. The reality is the bill that was going to be discussed this morning in this meeting in Illinois that got canceled. It even has a sponsor on it from Arlington Heights. That's not even part of the discussions from my understanding. So the point I'm getting at here is everything on the Illinois side is messy. It's not clear.

You watch the stream of what happened in Indiana this morning. and it's very clear. And everybody's on the same page and it passes 24-0. They're literally cracking jokes about how efficient Northwest Indiana is in all this compared to Indianapolis downstate. I mean, some of the politicians in Indianapolis were like, man, we got to learn from you guys because you guys get right to the point and get stuff done. So there's a lot to overcome here from the Illinois side where it's just been messy and messy

like pretty much every step of the way. You just mentioned a lot of new taxes for the taxpayers of Indiana, Adam, when you when you talked about how they're going to pay for this. So the list when you consider food and beverage tax, tollway tax, Inkeeper. Possibly Skyway. Yeah, hotel tourism tax, however you want to say it, like various states have various comments about it.

They title it different ways, Inkeeper Hotel Tax. That's a bevy of new taxes. It's my understanding that the state of Illinois didn't want to have a lot of new taxes and they're not as flexible in the tax structure. Is that what your understanding is? In a broad sense, yes. I mean, and I think that that's been, it hasn't been discussed as specifically

as Indiana obviously did laying it all out on the table this morning. But I think in general, if you follow Governor Pritzker's messaging, every step along the way, he's like, you know, while this could bring a lot of boom and jobs and all this to the state of Illinois, you know, he wants to make sure that it makes sense for the Illinois taxpayers, you know, but that's normal political jargon that he keeps repeating.

And you can appreciate it. Obviously, no one wants to be paying more taxes. You know, as somebody that lives in Lake County, in the Illinois, not necessarily in Cook County. but could be affected by this too just because of how close we are to Arlington Heights. Like, yeah, I mean, I would expect that there's somewhere it to hit my taxes along the way, but it hasn't really been communicated specifically how. Adam, Hoag joining us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3, the score.

He's the host of CSGO Bears and the Hogan Johns podcast. Okay, Adam, you said you feel like this is at the half yard line. Does that mean it's going to take some type of Pete Carroll Super Bowl error of judgment for Indiana and not to cross the gold line on this to the Bears or does Illinois have a chance to mount some kind of comeback otherwise? So I mean this is a big

question. Have you guys haven't been able to listen? Have you guys brought up what happened with the Patriots yet back in 1999? We have not. Okay. So to give you a little background on that, in 1999, the Patriots and their owner, Robert Craft,

they announced they were going to Hartford, Connecticut. had a deal sign with the governor of Connecticut. They had the land, the stadium renderings. The deal was done. The deal was done. Now, that's why this last thing that was mentioned both by the governor of Indiana today and the Bears in terms of the actual stadium site

and doing their due diligence on that to make sure it's feasible for all this matters because there was essentially at that same stage right before construction was going to begin in Hartford, Connecticut, they found contamination. in the site. So there was that issue. Meanwhile, though, Massachusetts put together a better offer and they reversed course and they went back to Foxborough and they built the new stadium there, which is the stadium the Patriots currently playing. So is it possible that because that actually was even farther along than where this is, although this is pretty close to that at this point with what happened in Indiana today. Is it possible that all goes down? It is. There's two problems.

though. And one goes back to what we just talked about. I just, I find it hard to believe Indiana or Illinois, excuse me, is going to be able to come up with a deal that is better, a better financial deal than what Indiana is offering right now. I just, I just, I, I, I don't see how that's possible. The second, too, is more of the emotional component, all this. And in the reality is, and you're seeing it play out in real time this morning, too, with now the governor's office trying to say, hey, we were ready to do this. What happened? We're surprised. like the political posturing in the back and forth and all this. There's a lot of repairing that I think needs to be done here

between the Bears and the state of Illinois. Because this all should, what's happening now should have been done at this exact time last year. I was in Indianapolis at the Combine having these conversations and doing some reporting on all this. And the Bears were ready to put a shovel in the ground. And they wanted it all passed by the end of May, which was the end of the spring session downstate in Springfield.

And it didn't even come close to, they didn't even vote on it. It didn't even come to a vote. It just got, it just stalled out. Same thing happened in the veto session in the fall. And so, and then they were evidently told, which Kevin Warren put in the state, the open letter to fans back in December, that they weren't even going to be a priority in 2026. At some point, if you're George McCasky and Kevin Warren, you get fed up and you say, all right, well, we got to build this thing.

So we're moving on. And so not only do they have to reverse this. thing, Illinois I'm talking about from a financial standpoint to give them a better deal, which I just find that hard to believe. There's an emotional standpoint, emotional component, all this to bring the Bears back to the

Illinois side. And I don't know if that's completely repairable at this point. There were signs of it in the last couple weeks but I don't know, guys. It sure seems like the Bears have moved on at this point. Well, what was the incentive then to be in Illinois at all if you're illustrating it that way for the Bears?

if it's truly about the money and about the tax certainty. I'm not trying to put you on the spot with it, but I mean, that's an easy question to answer. No, it's fine. It's a fair question. And there's two answers from it. Now, financially, the benefit of the Arlington Heights property always has been that you can own this whole development yourself and profit off it. Now, that remains to be seen with this Indiana deal, how exactly that's going to work.

when are the bears going to have actual full ownership of this? How is revenue going to be shared from, let's say they put a concert in there. It's going to have a roof so you can have concerts in January, February, March, whenever when the weather's bad, all of that stuff is money that if you own the stadium goes in the owner's pockets and does not need to be shared with the players. In Arlington Heights, it's very clear. The bears already own the property. How that's going to work out in Indiana, I don't know yet, but it does seem like the bears are going to benefit from. maybe they don't quite benefit the same way as quickly as they would in Arlington night.

So that is one of the benefits of still being in Arlington nights. Now, the second is the PR hit. We're all talking about this this morning. There's a lot of fans upset. They don't like the idea that the Bears will move out of the state of Illinois. I'm getting texts from people all over that are laughing at this. And there is that component of this too. And it's the component that so many, including myself, have found.

it hard to believe in recent weeks as this has continued to advance in Indiana, would George McCasky actually leave the state of Illinois and is willing to take, you know, that, that hit as moving a team that was founded in the state of Illinois, been in Chicago since the second year of the franchise existed, to actually move them out. That seemed hard to, hard to believe. I think that part of it, though, eventually people will get over as long as two things happen. A, that stadium better be awesome. Because if they end up

building a dud of a stadium across state lines, that is going to be hard to overcome. And then two, they got to keep winning. As long as the Bears win, people will be fine with the fact that the stadium, which by the way is basically literally across the street from the city of Chicago, not just Illinois. That is Chicago across the state line.

It's not that far. Yeah, I agree with you. And the only thing, just based on what you just said, Adam, that I wanted to say is, that's my problem in processing this is I don't understand how Illinois can come up with a better financial deal, basic financial deal for the Bears than Indiana without it being to the absolute detriment of Illinois taxpayers. I just can't envision that. Well, and that's it.

It might be in the in the come rather than the initial bet. You know, it's in that, as Adam said, it's in the bears being able to profit off of events they hold there here as opposed to an Indian. Vienna where it might be a split. I should hope for them. It is. Yeah. And again, I think that they just won't come up with a better financial deal. And so they got to hope that, you know, the people that are still sitting here saying, you know, I think I think everybody can at least except what I've been trying to report now for over a month, that this is not a bluff. This is way more than a bluff. The bears are willing to make this move. But is there something Illinois

can do beyond just the finances to get the bears to do? change their minds back and realize that, hey, this team belongs in Illinois, even if you can get a better deal across state lines. And that's where I just feel like this morning, the biggest part of this is it's becoming more and more evident that the bears are willing to do this. Adam Hogue, thanks again for joining us.

If you want more of Adam's work, you can go to CHGO and also the Hogan John's podcast. I know you just finished recording it. Yes, we did. And we got plenty more coverage coming your way. And there's a story up on all CHGO, with all of this, including our reactions. So, appreciate you guys having me on. I hope everybody is a great day.

Thanks so much, Adam. Thanks so much. Now we've, we've heard from a former governor. We've heard it from Adam Hogue. You've heard from us. Time to hear from you. 312-644-67-67 is our number. We want your opinions on the latest developments in the legislative calendar of the state of Illinois and the bear's intent on working with the state of Indiana next.