Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Examining the latest on the Bears stadium roller coaster

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote reacted to the latest developments in the Bears’ pursuit of a new stadium.

Hello and good morning. What's your DefCon level at when it comes to Bear Stadium? How do you feel about it today? What a roller coaster yesterday was as the news broke during our show. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody on 104-3, The Score. Mark Grody is also in today and did some reporting on it, as he has since the inception of this concept began, which I'm pretty sure is 84 years ago, like the Titanic. It's been 84 years.

Which one is more real than the new Bears Stadium. The Titanic, which sunk, is still more real than the new Bears Stadium. That movie was a documentary, right? Come back. Jack. A hundred percent, somebody was drawn like one of your French girls. Absolutely happened. Bears come back.

The heart of the ocean is a necklace. You said they're moving to French lick? Is that what he said? The bears are? No. Larry Bird joins us at 125. What do you think about all this French lick business? Mr. Bird?

Also, by the way, there is some big state of Indiana news this morning that broke Pete Thammel, per an ESPN source, Kurt Signetti has agreed to a new deal at Indiana that pushes his annual salary up to 13.2 million. It goes through 2033. So congratulations to Kurt Signetti

who actually deserves it. You know what I call that? I call that Mark Cuban's hard earned donor money at work. I call that Indiana just keeps getting things done, don't they? Pushing through the, you know, the House and the Senate, 24 to nothing. Democrats and Republicans getting along. Boy, Indiana is the

place to be, isn't it? Oh, see, you're trolling. But, however, it was a very busy day at the Indiana State House. And that's what we were covering was the Bears were supposed to have a meeting, as we mentioned, scheduled for 8 a.m. yesterday, the day before that we know they had met for three hours with state of Illinois officials. Kevin Warren was not in attendance at that meeting. We also know he was supporting his great niece, who is an Olympic speed skater at the Olympics, which family is important. So I understand that aspect of it too, although usually only build one stadium in your career, unless you're Kevin Warren, who now has the chance to build two, one of Minnesota one here.

And in addition to that, then we get the information of, well, how earnest is this Indiana situation that's going on? You know, we have guys like Adam Hogue tell us in our show it's at the half-yard line. Then we hear other concepts of what's happening where the Hammond mayor spoke, but he said there's not been, even though Wolf Lake has been discussed, there is not a specific site that has been checked out yet. So that's very important when you consider where they're out with this. Like, for example, in Arlington Heights, the Bears bought a specific plot of land,

so you know exactly where it is. You know exactly how big it is. And Hoag tweeted because he was at that press conference. This happened at 3 o'clock yesterday. Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott's still not ready to discuss specific location around Wolf Lake. Specific location says it's the Bears project, so it's up to them to do. decide when to talk about the location. Then we get the news from Rob Elgus, Marshall's coworker,

over at ABC 7, that there's a lot to do regarding due diligence. The proposed Hammond site will require strict environmental review. And Elgus saying, IMO, this is another late game public negotiation tactic. We might be in the fourth quarter now. Senate Bill 27, which was trying to get the framework financially for the state of Indiana to fund a Bear Stadium did pass, as you just mentioned, Mark. We understand that we'll include more taxes for the state. We went over those yesterday. So they were earnest in their efforts and their process

to make sure they're doing what they need to get it going. And then there's also Governor Mike Braun who spoke to the afternoon show yesterday. But I think when you reset, going back to, say, 10.08 this morning yesterday, we felt differently about the certainty of a Bears stadium in Indiana versus now there's another meeting schedule. according to the Daily Herald between the bears and officials of the state of Illinois for next week. And then we also got the information from J.B. Pritzker saying that the bears were the ones who postponed the meeting.

It wasn't canceled necessarily. It was just postponed and that there was legislative language they had to go over, which in a bill is very common. You know, so the roller coaster yesterday for me was the Indiana thing I thought looked more concrete. I do think the state of Indiana is going through the processes that are typical with something like this for a stadium. They're doing all the things that they're supposed to be doing. They've got their ducks in a row. They're crossing their T's. They're dotting their eyes. But we still don't have an understanding of the framework of a deal in Indiana.

How much money would they get back? How much money would they spend up front? What would be the split of the profit between them and the bears? And we also don't understand on the bear side, if you're committing $2 billion to a proposed $5 billion project, where's the other three coming from if 880 million are going to infrastructure? So all of that is very much still up in the air. And then I think the biggest part for me was when you still don't have a set location in Hammond, that makes it come together in a different way for me.

It's not nearly as cut and dried as we thought, although the state is doing the right things in order to put that funding together. Talking about the Bears Stadium development and where it's going to be built, will it be in Hammon, Indiana, will it be in Arlington, Heights where the Bears own the land here on Rahimi Harrison Grohury. 104-3, the score. And I got to tell you, Leila, it did come with a little clarity for me. When you hear the way that Mike Braun talked about things, when you get the understanding

that they don't have the exact location, that tells you they're not maybe as far down the road of a stadium in Indiana as a lot of people assume they were when those tweets came out yesterday morning in concurrence with the, hey, this meeting's postponed, by the way. with Illinois. And it just feels like two states jockeying for position. And as I always say, it's usually hard to beat the incumbent in anything. It's usually hard to come in there and take away something that belongs to someone else, unless you have a really good plan, one that can't be overlooked by the person who's being

proposition. In this case, that person would be the Chicago Bears. I still believe wholeheartedly that the Bears will get a better deal. offer to them by Indiana, it's just a matter of whether or not the bears want to pull the trigger. And if that money is a big enough difference to stop them from building on their own property in Arlington Heights, it comes down to what is that number that they're saying, it's so big, we're saving so much or making so much, however you want to look at it, that's what's going to take us to Indiana.

I think they're still leaning towards Arlington Heights, even after all this information that Lela just shared. I think that no matter what they're going to get a better deal from Indiana. Exactly. And that doesn't mean that the stadium can't be built in Illinois in Arlington Heights. It just means that the Bears apparently still want more out of what they would get in Arlington Heights. They don't need necessarily the state of Illinois to go above and beyond what Indiana is doing because it would almost be impossible to offer all that Indiana has. And just to kind of back up what you're saying and kind of what you recapped as well, Lela. And you guys were awesome yesterday, by the way.

had you guys on most of the day, even while I was in between my phone calls. We missed you. That's okay. You don't have to say that. You guys were awesome. No, but I missed you. I won't speak for everyone else. I appreciate that.

After the bill was, of course, pushed out of the Ways and Means Committee, as Lela mentioned, 24 Zip, what will happen now is that it would go to the, if it passes through everything, it would go to the Indiana governor's desk before the end of next week. and what's important to point out, and we've been kind of talking about it here, it does not mean that it is close to being a done deal. And that the Bears are moving to Indiana, the Bears will not be at that point. That's what I can report here. The Bears will not be at that point next week. Let's say it goes to the government desk on Friday, and he signs it.

That does not mean it. It means that it actually means that with the due diligence, as you guys pointed out, that Indiana still has to be done on the site, that low-key gives the state of Illinois a whole bunch of time to get back in this. This doesn't mean that they can dilly-dally and just hang out and not act with urgency. But the Bears have said, and it's right there in the press release too, in the second sentence of it, that they're going to do some of that due diligence. So this does give time to the state of Illinois to continue to put together what they believe is fair, what the Bears believe is fair. I think if it were far and away the

best deal, the bears would have done it. Like, that's my issue is you're like, no matter what, Indiana would have offered the best deal. But if that's the case, when we're talking about billions of dollars here, then I think the bears would have done it. I think what remains to be seen when it comes to the

Indiana deal is, number one, you don't have a site figured out yet. Number two, there are environmental studies, and Mark Gannis confirmed this on the morning show today, that the bears already did on Arlington Heights. And that would have to be done on a proposed side in Hammond.

Number three, it sounds like the state of Indiana would want to recoup a lot of their money that they're putting up on the taxpayer side through events that happened at the stadium. And what we learned yesterday was the bears, at least this is from Adam Hogue, that the bears with the agreement in Arlington Heights, because they bought that land, because theoretically they would be financing it themselves or at least alongside with the NFL, that the state is not financing it, that the bears would therefore get. to have the profit of whatever they hold at that stadium. So I think because of that,

I don't necessarily know if we know yet whether or not the deal over time would be the best for the Bears. But the capital to put it all together is still very crucial in all of this. But regardless, there were just some misleading statements that also occurred yesterday. The statement out of the Bears about the new stadium or about at least trying to have a vision in Hammond, Indiana, was a bit misleading when you consider how it was written

when they said our vision for a stadium in Indiana in Hammond. The exact quote is, we are committed to finishing the remaining site-specific necessary due diligence to support our vision to build a world-class stadium near the Wolf Lake area in Hammond, Indiana. Then we find out from the Illinois side that the Bears walk that back a bit because they said that Indiana wanted them to put that out there.

Now, I get it if you're doing business with them, you should put something out there. But the intent versus the actual letter versus the actual facts all seem to be very different in this case. And again, it goes back to what I always say. Follow the money. And right now the money is still more so on the side of where they spent it to the tune of $200 million in Arlington Heights.

That's why they get the benefit of the doubt. That's why even if they don't put together as monumental of a proposal as Indiana is, it could still be Arlington Heights. Yeah, I never thought that the Arlington Heights site needed an Illinois deal as good as the Indiana deal from a financial aspect for the stadium to be built in Arlington Heights. That's never been it because I think we all have agreed on now that Indiana, at the end of the day, we'll have a better financial offering for the Chicago Bears. But it's a lot easier to build where you already have land number one and just the way their team is set up with Hallis Hall being in Lake Forest and where it is and where everybody lives. I understand a stadium would be five, six years down the road from right now when we're talking about it. But I think the other thing is when you talk about their vision, it's very much an if vision.

And we've all had double vision before. I know I walked into a club in my early 20s and saw a girl and like, she looks good. And then turn around and said, she looks good. That's called double vision. You got options. It's optionality. I can't fault the bears for having optionality. What did you do in that situation then?

I got both the numbers and we continue discussions to another day. How are the Bears not doing that right now? I think they are. I think they've gotten both numbers. And you know what? That's not even the way this is going. They in this situation are the hot girl in the club and one man approaches them. And then 15 minutes later, another man approaches them.

And they make decisions down the road based on follow up, what you have to offer. You want to take me to where? You want to take me to Taco Bell for our first date on Tuesday night? whereas you want to take me to some fancy steakhouse on a Friday night? Guess what? The girl's probably going to go with the dude. If all things are equal with the steakhouse on Friday night. Now, I ain't have steakhouse money, so if you didn't want to go to Taco Bill,

you probably weren't going anywhere with me in my early 20s. But you get the idea. Well, I think that all of this was supposed to have happened before they bought Arlington Heights. You sure was. And there would have been a lot of municipalities in Illinois who would have also given them deals like what is happening in Indiana. I said this yesterday.

and I'll say it again. What you're seeing out of the state of Indiana with the process is how it goes. It's just how it goes before you bought the land already. And that's why this is an, it's an inaccurate process based on how other teams have done this. So like Indiana, if you just take Indiana in a vacuum, the idea of Portage, hey, we have this site. Gary, hey, we have this site for you. Hammond, hey, we have this site for you. And then here are our pitches as to how it gets financed, where it's going to be.

And then how it goes with the state. all of that is typical. What hasn't been typical is then buying the land first and then wanting stuff from Illinois on background. If you don't have to act certainty, then neither should the bears. We have more coming up on this on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043. The score.

We bring you a Cubs game today, by the way, for the first time on 103. We're pretty excited about it on 1043 because it will be FM quality. So we're thrilled to hear that. Yes, Cubs are playing the socks. Go Cubs. In the meantime,

We are also going to listen to the interview that our afternoon show had with the Indiana governor. So he brought in, spent 20 times with our afternoon show, had a lot of really valuable information, and talked to us about important stuff that was happening in the state on a very busy day at the Statehouse in Indiana. So we will listen to those comments. And in the meantime, we'll tell you, we're broadcasting live from the Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody. You heard Mark Grody.

You heard Marshall Harris. Ray Diaz is our producer along with Tyler Buterbaugh. Brandon Fryer helps us out as well. You can join us on Twitch, twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. And you can also chat with our Twitch mob who hangs out there alongside our video team, Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis. You've been calling and you've been texting. 312, 64, 67, 67, and you can join us there calling and texting all day today as well.

We'll be back with more from the Indiana government. Governor Mike Brought next.