Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - How close are the Bears to building a new stadium?

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote reacted to the latest developments in the Bears' quest to build a new stadium. The Bears have made progress in their discussions with Illinois lawmakers to build a stadium in Arlington Heights.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3 The Score. We thank you for joining us on this Tuesday. And I know that it is a topic that is tedious. It's just basically a lot of people speaking in front of microphones. Gee, why would we be interested in that? Oh, we're a lot of people speaking in front of microphone. We're entertaining. Interesting.

So the latest on the stadium is that there is some movement. Everybody's saying multiple reports that the Bears and the Illinois lawmakers are closer on a stadium. deal. And this is really birthed from what J. Brie Pritzker had to say yesterday when he talked about there being a little bit of movement closer to the concept of the bears getting some work done in Illinois. So J.B. Pritzker was at an event downstate. He talked about the so-called pilot legislation that would give the team ability to negotiate property tax levels within the village of Arlington Heights at the land they've already purchased for a stadium. Paris Shuts was on with the afternoon show, Spiegel and Holmes.

Let's listen to how Paris, the Fox 32 reporter who's been following this, explain what the details are now. I mean, all signs, Lawrence, and thanks for that introduction, Lawrence and Matt, point to the fact that this Indiana play has motivated Illinois to change its tune. You see Governor Pritzker and State Rep. Cam Buckner going from saying, we're not helping out a billion-dollar corporation to today, saying, you know, we feel there's progress and let's find a deal that's going to be good for the team and good for taxpayers. So what I've been told, there are talks that are going on, and I've been told these

talks have been going on pretty regular between a deputy governor, Andy Minar, in the governor's office, and Cam Buckner, and then state senator Bill Cunningham and the Bears. And they've been hammering out the details. And what sources close to these talks say is that there is an agreement. Lawmakers are on board the idea of infrastructure spending. Governor Pritzker has said that. He's not opposed to that. And they're on board the idea of this pilot legislation, as it's called, that would give mega developments like the Bears the ability to negotiate property tax levels

with the community as opposed to getting their giant piece of property assessed and then having a $100 million tax bill. They would negotiate these things going forward. That's the thing that Kevin Warren is called, property tax certainty. So those, it's just the details of those things aren't agreed to, but the principle of those things, lawmakers are now saying, okay, we can do this. That was pair of shots on with Spiegel and Holmes yesterday. So he kind of translates for us.

Now, keep in mind a couple of things. The Bears bought Arlington Heights in 2023. So we, it's February, I believe, of 2023. So we're to the three-year mark of there being nothing construction. wise. Property taxes have been a major sticking point as we know. I don't necessarily know how much them threatening to go to Indiana mattered in this. I think there's also been a reiteration on the state's part of what they're able to do. But that part about the quote, property tax certainty, and that just basically means they want their rates to be some sort of guaranteed or set.

Which is normal. Yeah, usually though you do it before you buy the land. And that's the thing here, that that's, I've always maintained this. They did it out of order. So these are the three aspects of this you have to keep in mind when you hear this. I think it's understandable that they want the tax certainty. Of course, yes, they are out of order, but this franchise has been out of order and a lot of things at a lot of time. So that's unsurprising.

Pre-kevin Warren, we'll say. Kevin Warren is brought in to get this thing rolling, and it has not rolled as of yet. But it feels like, it feels like, it feels. feels like they are getting to the starting blocks here. And I think that's progress. And this idea that the Bears are going to build in Arlington Heights is not one that is lost on anyone. That's been the assumption because why would you buy all that land if you weren't going

to build on it? But at the same time, this Indiana thing was a game changer. Let's be honest. I agree. This moved everything that was stalled into motion. I completely agree with that. that it just happened to be because one of the new reports was, and I happened to read the Chicago Tribune article,

that the Bears and the state of Illinois have been meeting regularly since December. What happened in December, Mark? When the letter came out from the Bears as in regards to Indiana. And as Paris said, yes, they did change their tune. As they were being, the state was being a little smug about it. Like, we're not going to help a billion dollar industry. And then all of a sudden, J.B. Pritzker is back to the table here.

I think this is good, though, because you guys are both right if it's out of order, but the bears now have, will have had, if they are allowed to the mega-projects legislation, if they are able to negotiate with the local municipalities, won't they have had two out of the three things that they wanted out of this? the other one being the Soldier Field debt payments from the renovation, which occurred in 2003, that they want out of that as well. Yeah, that was an add-on. That is.

So that's the other part that they have to talk about. I concede that that should not necessarily be a slam dunk. But that's the point of this is that in negotiation, all these other pieces of this have developed. that originally we knew that the state of Illinois hadn't changed position on we'll give you around a billion dollars I know that that is not a fun number to round but that they'll give you around a billion dollars for the infrastructure that we knew like that that that was said that was maintained by jb pridsker that was maintained by the state of illinois then there was the issue of the property tax rate and that's where a lot of this

has come from that's where we are that's where I argue most of this has come from Then there was the pep rally that they had with Brandon Johnson, where they also decided to ask the IFSA, which is the bond, you know, the bond issuing entity that created, say, guaranteed rate field, which, by the way, is the equivalent of what Indiana just created is the bond issuing outlet that they had to put that legislative position forward to move forward on this. So once you create an entity to issue the bonds, that becomes a little more real. So they asked them for a bunch of money in between what the Bears wanted to contribute, what the NFL wanted to contribute, and then what they wanted for the building. The building discussion is now off the table, as I am to understand. Fox 32 reporting, Warren has vowed that the team will pay for all costs of actually building the stadium structure. So we keep getting all these bits and pieces as to what the deal is.

And now we're finding out more things. Remember when we found out Marshall that the concept of the Bears paying the debt left on Soldier Fields renovations from 2002 was a thing? 500 million in public debt. Yeah, and they wanted to essentially throw a couple of bucks at it

because was it 25 million they offered up? What the Bears offered on the 500 million? Yeah. It's like me paying a credit card bill. It was like, it was very like, oh, is this what you're coming to the table with? And now because Indiana is involved and because that legislative session ends at the end of this mark.

And there is an actual bill drawn up that the Senate has approved. That means Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, Cam Buckner, all of the associated parties, they got to get it together and quick. They do. And it should be pointed out as well in all of this. Like there are, you know, from both sides, there's issues. The Bears did have promised, and this was forever, $2 billion in private investment towards the stadium projects. So it's not like the bears are asking for everything.

And I know I told you guys about this, but you mentioned the word pep rally. There is going on in Arlington Heights tomorrow night. The mayor and some other speakers as well, representatives from Arlington Heights will be there. I guess the way it is posed to me, urging the state to play ball and to keep the bears in Arlington Heights as opposed to Indiana. I do plan to attend just to get a feel for what's going on. I don't know exactly in what form I'm going, reporter, just myself, just curious citizen. Curious citizen, but just to hear what they're saying, see who might be there as well. So, yeah, it's just things are, that my point is to say things are happening right now. Yeah, and part of this is because the

state of Indiana decided to, the state of Indiana has a, a self-proclaiming. deadline on when they've got to figure stuff out, which is February 27. But here's the funniest part. They've actually upped the speed because they're like, we got places to be. We would like to get this decided by the 17th. Isn't their season over though? No, because the legislative session in Indiana is February 27th. That's what I mean at the end of February.

Right, but they have said they would like to get this done by the 17th. They get their own deadline. So that's what I'm trying to explain. So yeah, they decided to even advance that somewhat to try to get this part. process rolling. Now the thing about their entity that they created is that entity can then act, get the land, tax people for the stadium, do all the things

that are necessary to make it happen. But the point of it is, yeah, the bears have been willing to try to contribute $2 billion. But the cost estimate on this project as a whole has come up to way more money than that. There was an argument said originally after that

PAP rally with Brandon Johnson that the bears were asking for $5 billion. dollars. Additional. Additional. And like originally it was three billion. It was two. And then the Illinois bond issuing entity said it was going to be upwards of way more than that. And that's what this is. It's negotiation.

And we're all along for this ride. We're all on the table, ladies, gentlemen. When we talk about being along for this ride, if it comes out that us as taxpayers are going to be left with yet another bill, an exceeding bill, let's say the bears pay for seven, 70% of the stadium and the taxpayers are left for the other 30% of the actual stadium,

not the infrastructure, the stadium itself. You know what I'm going to say? Yeah, y'all go have fun in Indiana. And who knows? So might the bears. I'm curious, too, what the people think. What the people think. Yeah, we need opinions on this.

Because there's a lot of people dealing with real issues as far as where the tax money is going specifically when you talk about the state money in Illinois. So, yeah, we definitely need to hear from the people. I'm sure they're texting. I don't know that the budget is in the business of guaranteeing discounts for a lot of people, which is what the bears and the have argued for and the state of Illinois has maintained they cannot do. So that's the other part of this is, well, what kind of tax certainty are you going to get? Is it year to year?

You know, like, what does that actual law that they want to draw up look like that would make this all make some sense? So that's another question that I would have in all of this. Yeah, I mean, that's all going to be. negotiated and hopefully come to the light soon if they could agree on all of this. Yeah, so we'll get into more on what we expect to happen with this. We'll take your calls as well. 312, 644-67 is our number here on 104-3. The score, we're still on 670.

And frankly, if the whole state's going to pay for this, I know we got some people down in downstate who are listening on in 670 who might want to share. Shout out, Springfield, Peoria, Lincoln. Yes, 670 is for the day. distance. 1043 is for like our building. We couldn't get anything behind our building. So, you know, we fill in the gaps with everything else. So that's how this goes. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3, the score. As I mentioned, we want to get your thoughts on just whether or not the stadium should be here, should it be in Indiana. Do you care? Do you want to pay for it?

Yeah. Well, and you're already paying for it. Chances are if you're listening to us. 312, 644, 646767 is the number. Our producers are Ray Diaz and Tyler Buterbaugh. You just heard Marshall Harris and Mark Grotty. I'm Laylorahaheimy. You can join us on Twitch as well, Twitch.tv slash the Score Chicago or YouTube. The Score Chicago is our address there as well. Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis are our video team.

Braden Friar helps us out as well. And we have more coming up on this topic, which is sponsored by almost freeteeth.com, affordable implants, life-changing smiles. Do we actually think shovels will be in the ground this year? Let's start with that concept. I'm done with that game. Well, three years later, after you buy a property is always would you like to build, right? It sounds like the shovels are going to be in the ground.

It's just going to be a matter. Are they going to be in the ground in Illinois or Indiana, Indiana. Hold your thought. Let's discuss that next.