Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Examining the latest on the Bears stadium roller coaster (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote opened their show by reacting to the latest developments in the Bears’ pursuit of a new stadium. Later, Grote shared why he believes Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is still motivated to keep the Bears in the state.

The score. This hour is sponsored by Black Lung Brewing. The views and opinions of Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports.

Gay, thanks. Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 1043, The Score. Alan, just know that here in Chicago today, most of our show has been centered around whether or not the bears are leaving Soldier Field, which is a conversation that I think started percolating around the time you were still here. It's still going. I didn't know if it was a spoof. I saw Indiana.

What's that supposed to be? Some kind of sick joke? No, sir. What is it supposed to mean? I don't know, sir. When I was there, not so much so, just a tiny bit they were rumbling that it was going to be where the old horse racing area was at. But I saw Indiana today and that and that absolutely blew my mind. Once in mind is pre-blown. It cannot be re-blown. The fact that you said it came off as a spoof to you, does that tell you how outraged you think Chicago fans would be at a move like taking the Bears? Not only out of Soldier Field, but out of the state of Illinois and putting them in Indiana. Listen, I don't know if that's a negotiation tactic. I don't know what it is.

It just sounds so foreign to me that the state of Indiana would even have two football teams and the state of Illinois would have zero. It's all there black and white, clear as crystal. So you get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir. I can't even fathom the Chicago Bears not being in Chicago, let alone being not even in the state of Illinois. Where do you live? Chicago.

Excuse me? Chicago. It's in Illinois. Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104. The Score. Hello and good morning. What's your DefCon level at when it comes to Barry? 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 Grotie 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 Bear Stadium. The Titanic, which sunk is still more real than the new Bears Stadium. That movie was a documentary, right? Come back! Jack! 100% somebody was drawn like one of your French girls.

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

Hey, 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 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. It was 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 McDervitt'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 scheduled, 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 not 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 Highland? where the Bears own the land here on Rahimi Harrison Grotty. 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 governor's 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. 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 our, Arlington Heights, and that would have to be done on a proposed site 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 fined. 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 the 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,

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. And 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. It 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 Friar 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. or Mike Brought next. Rahimi Harrison Grody.

I don't want to break time. I want to yell about it. Can we handle more Anthony Herron? Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. I can't tell you what's going to happen in the end here. I've been a Bears fan for a very long time, and I wanted them to perform, stay, play here, continue to believe that that's the best thing for them.

I believe they understand in their hearts that that may be the best thing for them. But, you know, we'll see what it is that they end up doing here. But we're waiting to hear from the Bears what they'd like to do next because they've essentially stopped things in their tracks until we hear more. Yeah, that describes the waiting period. We're all in. That was Governor J.B. Pritzker yesterday talking about the latest that he had heard from the after they had canceled.

Canceled is the wrong word. After they had postponed their meeting, we now know it's reportedly going to happen next week with the Illinois legislature regarding language on a bill that would give the bears roughly $880 million to have infrastructure for their Arlington Heights site. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And yesterday, not only did we hear from J.B. Pritzker,

but our afternoon show had a whole segment from 5 to about 523, Mike Braun, the governor of Indiana, spent that much time talking to our afternoon show about what was going on and the latest regarding not only the passage of Senate Bill 27, but just what the state's position is regarding the Bears and a Hamlet's Indiana site. So let's listen to what Mike Braun had to say when it came to the possibility of being used by the bears as well. Have you at any point over the past couple of months thought that you were being used for Leverett. You know, not really because there was a sincerity that I think, I think the big thing I would

wonder is how did they get this far when there was so much time to do something otherwise? And I think when they took a look at what it would be like in Indiana property taxes, the cost of doing business, we've got John Deere just moved. into northwestern Indiana with a super large distribution center for the same reason. And we're getting folks from around the country. Our economic growth in Indiana is twice that of Illinois, three times that of Kentucky, and five times out of Michigan. It's a good place to raise a family, start a business, or even move a business.

So Mike Perron talked about it when he said, Indiana is pro-business. He discussed why. As we understand, there are additional taxes that will come in on the financing for a stadium in Northwest Indiana. We've discussed them earlier. There's a food and beverage tax that reportedly would happen. There's a reassessment of what the toll fees would be. There's a discussion surrounding an in-keepers tax, hotel tax, whichever you call it. So there are some taxes that would be additionally levied, the question becomes, how much money would the state put up front? How much money would the state get back in a return like that? So there's a illustration there that he has. He also, when he compared the growth in Indiana to the respective growth of Michigan and also

of Illinois, he is correct. Like growth percentage is the right way to look at it. But at the same time, there are some numbers I want people to keep in mind here. The 2025 GDP by state. In Indiana, it was 432 billion. That's nothing to sneeze up. That's very good. The state of Illinois was 907 billion. So more than twice that. And the state of Michigan was 738 billion. So by percentages, a dollar in Indiana is going to reflect more growth than the dollar would by percentage in a state like in Illinois or in Michigan. Now, does that mean that there's not growth? No. but when you consider the overall number, there's still a reason Illinois and Michigan

have a lot of business and the growth may not look as large via percentage. Well, that's the thing about percentages, man. When I tell you, you can play with percentages, if I tell you you get a 50% pay raise and you're making $10 an hour, that means you're making $15 an hour. But if you're making, I don't know...

Take the North money. Take the North money and you're making... You guys are the beneficiaries. Always remember that. Yes, we always. No, we think they take the North Podcasts. I always take from that allotment for you guys. But to what I was saying, if you're making $10 an hour and you go to 15, that's a 50% pay raise. But if you're making $12 an hour and you go to 15, well, that's only a 25% pay raise.

You're making the same amount of money. And so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison when you talk about percentages when the GDP is already established. To be frank, Indiana has way more room to grow percentage-wise. because they were at such a minimal level compared to the states that Mike Braun wanted to bring up in comparison. And because of that, they also have more wiggle room when it comes to levying taxes. You know, they can levy more taxes and maybe it's not as much of a, what's the word? It's not as exhausting on a taxpayer base. You know, when you're talking about a 907 billion GDP, the discussion is a bit different.

That puts Illinois, by the way, roughly in the top five or seven or eight, depending on the rotation of the states. California, no shock number one, Texas, the high population states, Florida, obviously, those are the top ones. But the growth percentage is notable here because the percentage of growth is theoretically going to be a lot higher in a state like Indiana because their base is lower. And that's important to note in this as well. This is all part of how this goes. These are the discussions that have to happen.

As part of the question that he was asked on the bite that we just played about the leverage part, it's very possible that Governor Braun and the state of Indiana are being used for leverage. And they know it. And they know it. And moreover, I don't think they care. Like, he wasn't going to say that. They don't care because they love to be able to. And this was part of the interview yesterday on the afternoon show.

Spiegel and Holmes did a great job in that interview. I was glued to it as well. The fact that the bears are even considering doing business in the state of Indiana allows Governor Braun to puff his chest out and say what he was saying yesterday. Just another reason why, I mean, he's doing an advertisement for Indiana right now.

It's a great place to do business. Look what we already have here. Was it John Deere that he mentioned? The John Deer plant being there. And now, hey, look, the mighty, the charter franchise of the biggest city in the Midwest wants to do business in Indiana. They could puff their chest.

And if it doesn't happen, Believe it or not, it's not egg on their face because the governor can say, guess what? We came close on the bears wanting to do business with us. Look at us. We're Indiana. It's akin to awards season rolling around, and you know you're not going to win a war because it's unlikely. I mean, you could.

Just being nominated is enough. But just being nominated is an honor, and he's being nominated, and all press is good press, and he's signaling not only to his electorate, but to the rest of the country. hey, this is a place if you're thinking about starting a business, come to Indiana. Look at us. We'll make it happen for you. Well, it's also, who's, a Bear Stadium would help Northwest Indiana. Absolutely.

A Bear Stadium and some sort of Bears experience surrounding that. Hondo. Hallis Harbor, whatever you want to call it. Welcome to Hollis Harbor. I'm kind of bummed that's not happening. Not going to happen. Not going to happen. I do think Clay's disappointed.

Yes, I think Clay, Halis Harbor's brother is actually more disappointed. But I do think that that would help. But that's the point is, is that what cost to your taxpayer? And if Mike Braun and the state legislature who passed this minus a ballot, you know, I've said this before, if you really want it, you should be able to vote for it. That's the truest way to get everybody's opinion here or Indiana or Wisconsin or Iowa, any of them, the middle of Lake Michigan, if you dare. But the point is, you know, if he thinks and the Senate thinks and the taxpayers actually think that that's a benefit,

then the rising tide lifts all boats here. But I think when it comes to a very taxed tax base in Illinois, the state legislature is saying, here's what we can do, here's what we cannot. And what I get bothered by is also when we bring up these comps, when we bring up these numbers like growth and who pays what, SoFi Stadium is not the comp here when it comes to the property taxes. The property taxes are not the main source of income for the state of California.

The state of California has an entertainment tax. They have a graduated state income tax that goes up to over 10%. They do things differently there. And additionally, Stan Cronkey paid $5 billion of his own money to finance that stadium. $5 billion. The Delta was covered by him. And they split it with the chargers. So would you consider all of that their property taxes and the state property taxes for everybody are not the correct comp here?

I love that this discussion has in a way been educational to a lot of people about not just how politics work from a state standpoint because it started if you think about it with the municipality and the city standpoint and a Cook County standpoint, right? When we go back to the beginnings of these discussions about where the bears are going to build their next stadium, then they buy the land in Arlington Heights. We learn a lot about that, but now we're learning about how different states operate even. because somebody who's lived in Illinois their whole life might not understand there are different ways to go about running businesses, courting businesses, inviting people to be a part of your state and the competition of it all. But at the end of the day, we know that this is a competition between two areas that would like to, one, retain the bears and the other invite the bears away from where they currently sit. I just nothing has happened and nothing has been said by either governor or any of the representatives of either state that make me believe that Illinois and Indiana aren't in a situation where Indiana is being used to leverage. And I'm not saying they wouldn't go to Indiana. I'm just saying it would take such more of a sweetheart deal than I think is being offered.

And you're right, Lila, we haven't gotten all the finer points on the money where it's coming from, specifics of the taxes, all of them. that. We don't even know what the site would be yet. But we're further along on some of those details as to how money is even being raised than we are in Illinois. And that, my whole thing is, we still don't know if they're really trying to get taxpayer money to fund the stadium in Illinois, I'm saying. Well, they, I mean, to fund part of it, we are, right? Because of the infrastructure. But the infrastructure is something that we've all kind of accepted, I would think, because that's the way business has been done. Anytime there's been a major project, they build a factory, they're going to help with infrastructure. 7.08 has a good point here on the

tax line. I'm curious what the monetary number of the economic loss is if the bears cross state lines. I understand the opportunity cost is basically the economic impact numbers that everybody likes to throw around. But what kind of dent would the bears leaving make to the Illinois economy and taxes or otherwise? 10 million annually, 100 million, 500 million? Can the state even afford to lose the bears? And that's really what this is about. Perhaps the only ones who really have that answer are the bears and they're going to tell you the numbers that mean a lot to them. Or is it the state of Illinois. And Mark, I know you've dug into that part of it, just the emotional part. And I know that sounds cheap right now, but I do think it matters. And then also just the intent of both

the state of Illinois, the Bears, and then we heard the intent from Governor Braun on the Indiana side. Yeah, why don't we, I know we got to take a break, but when we come back, I will tell you what I was told about the perspective of the state of Illinois, where things are with what I was told regarding Governor J.B. Pritzker and from the House and the Senate. So I will tell you what I know when we return. Rahimi Harris and Grody. That sounds so crazy. 104.3. Wow. I like that. Middays 10 to 2 on 1043 The Score. This is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 104.43 The Score. We know we've got a lot of calls and texts coming in. We will take them 312, 644, 67, 67. But first, Mark Grody, our dogged reporter, has been on the scene.

You were at the rally in Arlington Heights last week. You have more information that you've gathered even since yesterday morning regarding the bear's latest. I am dogged. There is no doubt about that. Better to be dogged than dogging. So I appreciate the doggedness. I talked to a lot of people yesterday. And a lot of it's been discussed already.

Obviously, I cover the bear. He's been doing that since 2018. So iron's in the fire there. People don't. People on the AM know this, but maybe not on the F. You know, our new FM people? I did work in, I was a reporter, news reporter in Springfield, Illinois, ladies and gentlemen, for two years of my life where I chased ambulances, but also made my way to the state Capitol building when a George W. Bush was campaigning for president and a young Barack Obama. See how I got both sides in?

A young Barack Obama was just Jenny from the block. You were there? Yeah, yeah. And I did not cover the state. on an everyday, but I was assigned there every once in a while. So I've got a little bit of experience in all of that. And I will just say this about what is going on with the state. From what I understand, the governor, J.B. Pritzker, is fairly motivated to get this done,

but there isn't necessarily the same buy-in from the House and the Senate, which you could look at, I think, in all sorts of different ways, depending on what side of all of this you are on. It's good that the governor, if you want the bears to build in Illinois in Arlington Heights, that he is the one that is pretty motivated to get this done. But those of you who are watching out for your taxes, the House and the Senate has your back right now as well. I wanted to ask you guys on this specifically, and people will weigh in 312, 6, 4, 4, 6, 7, 67. We're taking your phone calls at the top of the hour.

But if you're Governor Prisker, how much of a black mark? is it if you are allowing the bears to leave the state of Illinois? That's the big question. And I think it's person to person. You guys have taken the calls. We've read the comments. There are people that will say the bears are dead to me if they move to Indiana. There are people right now that just don't care anymore.

They just want to know where it's going to be. There are people who wanted in Indiana. Do you want to know where I am right now with all this? I'll tell you where I am. The only time I ever had a dog in the race. I don't like to say dog in the fight. The only time I ever had that, and this was meatball of me in a little bit, I would have loved for there to have been a path to build downtown,

to build the stadium and Soldier Field. I realized that that was not realistic. Honest to God, I'm at a point right now, just from all the conversations I've had over the last week or so, and maybe something, there's been a psychic change in my head, I don't care if they move to Indiana. I really don't. I mean, I see so many different good possibilities for Indiana if it is to go there.

That doesn't mean I don't think there's a million great things about Arlington Heights as well. And of course, as somebody who grew up here, grew up a Bears fan, it does feel weird the idea that the Bears have moved to Indiana. But I'm at a point right now where I honestly, and this has happened organically, like maybe even yesterday where I was like, I'm okay with Indiana if they do it. Like I've been making my piece throughout this whole process and I've arrived at that. Well, and that's, that's, I think that's fine. My biggest issue has been, if you really want to know what everybody thinks, if you want to give everybody their fair say in it, you'd have a ballot issue in Indiana. You would ask the voters what they think of the state. You would ask the voters of the state of Illinois what they think.

And then you would actually get the true opinion of everyone. But I know that you don't have to have public money to build a privately profited stadium. You don't have to. States that are near other bordering states, you know, teams. that are near other bordering states like Chicago is, you can go ahead and ask another municipality, just like Kansas City did, if they want to fund your project.

And if you get a deal that's best for you, you have the right to do that as a business. But as far as taxpayers are concerned, ask them whether or not they want to pay the extra freight. Now we know historically that answer's been no. But I think that it should have been the voter's decision if they wanted that. The Bears didn't have that option

in Arlington Heights because they already bought the land. So that's what makes this different. Right, which is why and the other thing that I'm reporting, and I have already discussed it is, but just to make it succinct, if both Illinois and Indiana come up with fair proposals because of what you just said, Layla, they own the land at Arlington Park.

Illinois is going to get the benefit of the doubt, even if the proposal is not as dominant as what Indiana can offer. So when you say fair proposal, my first thought is, well, what do the bears think is fair? because they are the arbitrator in this. Well, you know, what they keep saying and what we keep hearing over and over and over again is the, obviously, the infrastructure, which feels better now than it used to in terms of people accepting what would have to be paid in that regard, but it's the property tax certainty.

That's the two things that we've been hit over the head with throughout this entire process. And that's their phrasing. The bears say they want that. So that's important to note as well. That is what they have put out there day after day after day after day. You're right. You're right. Yeah.

So I think that that's important to bring up. 3-1-2, 644, 67, 67. Now, Mark, based on when you were in Arlington Heights last week, and based on the events of yesterday and what you heard, do you feel any different about anything that you gathered in that time? Like either what happened last week, do you feel like there was more clarity or what happened yesterday? More clarity?

Yeah. Or just like, is there something that you, something that happened that you heard from like, say, last week, that you feel like got answered and you're reporting yesterday. Yeah, I don't really think, no, I don't think anything has been exactly answered as of yet, because it does feel like once we think we know something, we don't really know that something. So none of the big questions have been answered as of yet. But this qualifies as a developing story then, just in the nature that there's, have our already been twist and turns, but you feel like there's way more twist and turns around the

corner? I don't know if there are twists and turns necessarily around the corner because at this point, as I said earlier, this might go to, to be very specific here, the Indiana governor's desk, Mike Braun, next week could be at the end of next week. That does not mean that by the end of next week, the bears will be ready to say, yes, we'll take Indiana. It gives us. It gives Arlington Heights, then the state of Illinois, time to up their game. I think until they break ground on something, we might not necessarily know. Like, you've got to put the laws in place in order to build around it, but you don't actually have to build anywhere until you're actually building somewhere.

That is true. Let's just hope that's 2026 and not 2027, because that means that this ordeal will be over and we will have decisions that have been made. The shovels in the ground podcast. I am telling you. That is it. Listen, you could just start another podcast and call it the shovels. And we can battle with the cranes in the air podcast.

Because, you know, sometimes you have a podcast and it's not like this everlasting podcast. It's just a series. That's what it should be, the shovels in the ground podcast. And then once the shovels go on the ground, it's over. Then we've got to move on. And you can listen to it and understand how this all came to be. The podcast is fluid, just like the situation with the stadium. We'll keep renaming it until, you know, we like irrelevant names.

That's what it is. Irrelevant names. Take the North is irrelevant. The North has been taken. No, but you got to take it again next year. Oh, God, that's right. That's, it's, it's, every year the North has to be taken. Because that's the whole thing.

That's the podcast. Every year the North has to be taken podcast. Are they taking the North next year? Or are we going to talk about that later? That's in five on it. You're always doing this. You're always taking like a five on a topic and trying to bring it up early. I'm sorry.

No, you're not. I jumped a gun. You're not sorry. He does it for the ply? He does it for the ply. Hey, guys. Did anybody ask if an AH is going on the helmet, though? A.H.

It's not going to have you sometimes like to stir thing. I do think about Les Grabsstein a lot right now because his head, this might have killed. If what killed him then didn't kill him then, this would have killed him. All of this talk, like he had had a strict, I don't want to hear about it. We're not talking about the stadium. Anybody wants to talk about KMA. We'll talk about Amen. Who knows how he would pronounce Ogbog.

Mamega's last name. That would be a trip too. Are you saying it would not be AGB? It would not be Ogbong Mabiga. The linebacker. Yeah, the linebacker. Everybody knows that. Yeah.

He'd be like, A-O. Amen hits from the bong of Obiga. I don't do drugs and I don't eat chocolate. Less was a sober man. Remember that? That's a sobering thought. No chocolate in your life? No, it was like a weird thing.

I was like, what are you, a dog? You don't eat chocolate? I gave up sweets for Lent and I'm already counting down the days. Oh, wow. You gave up sweets, huh? I still love to give something up. I'm always late. Am I too late?

You can't give up the bears because we wouldn't be working with you. I was going to suggest that, but that's crazy. I think the reason that I was so anxious to ask you about the bears winning the north is because it's like I can't wait to get back to just talking about the bears as opposed to the stadium stuff. It's going to be a while. It's going to be several shovels in the ground podcast from now before we get back to that. I will stay on the phones. I will stay on the phones and we will inform you like we do on the Rahimi Harrison Grody show.

Yeah, and we'll stay on the phones with you. We'll take your calls next. Yeah, that's right. get the longest segment of the hour next. 312, 64, 6467 on 104-167-3, the score.