Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Indiana Senate approves a bill to fund a potential stadium for Bears

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Marshall Harris and Mark Grote reacted to the Indiana Senate approving a bill to fund a potential stadium for the Bears across the state line.

Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndle 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 670 the score. Hey, what's going on? We're going to talk Bulls and NBA trade deadline coming up in a little while, 1125 with Ricky O'Donnell. We get a full hour of Clay Harborness. He will be in studio with us at noon. He'll do five on it with us and we'll just go crazy talking NFL and Bears with Clay Harbor. We've also got Ben Verlander. Ben of the Verlanders will join us at 1 o'clock today to talk Cubs and White Sox and Major League Baseball just to warm you up a little bit.

I'm holding a story in my hands right now. The headline which reads Indiana State Senate advances Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to lure the Chicago Bears. It's advancing, ladies and gentlemen. This is a story from ABC 7 written by John Garcia over there at Longtime Guy from ABCC. You probably know John Garcia, right? From your working over there at ABC 7? I've seen him. Okay, you guys don't cross paths.

I don't cross paths with a lot of people. It's so funny. It's like my whole thing with Terry Boers. Like, I love Terry. Fairly do Terry. We just didn't cross paths physically. But anyway, I will read. I shall read from this.

And then I'll stop when I feel like enough information has been submitted to the audience and that we'll react to it here. The Indiana State Senate has advanced a bill. and designated to lure the Chicago Bears to build a new stadium in Northwest Indiana. Last week, the State Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved a measure to establish a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority, similar to the one that built the home of the Indianapolis Colts. The bill now still must go to the Indiana State House before making it to the governor's desk, Governor Mike Braun's desk in this case.

when the Chicago Bears President Kevin Warren wrote in his letter to bear season ticket holders that the team was looking into options for building a stadium in Northwest Indiana, he said he was not using it to gain leverage in Illinois, but that certainly seems to be the way it is working out. And that would be the opinion right there from John Garcia and ABC7.

I will stop it right there, and I will say what I have been saying now since then, basically, that the Bears began this, play for Northwest Indiana, whether or not they will end up there. That I don't know. And I am inclined to still say, no, they won't move there. But what a move by the Bears. The Bears have taken the leverage lead in this. They have, they don't have the governor scared. They don't have the state scared, but they've got the state squirming a little bit. Arlington Heights is not scared, but they're squirming a little bit now. The Bears have the upper-hand

right now because of what is becoming, I'll use that word again that I like so much, more and more legitimate with the moves and the conversations that the bears are having with Northwest Indiana. So this is Senate Bill 27. That's right, 27, 28, whatever it takes. And the City of Gary has proposed three locations for a potential Chicago Bear Stadium. I'm a little shocked that you're not thinking that the state Arlington Heights isn't scared because I'm underselling it maybe

cash rolls everything around me yeah dollar dollar bill y'all I mean it seems like this would be an advantageous decision for the bears to say we're going to cross state lines to Indiana and get this thing built for a whole lot cheaper

and maybe in the past when there was stadium talk whether it was the rehabbing of soldier field and the potential of moving elsewhere, it wasn't as big a deal because stadiums were a lot cheaper to build back then, but stadiums cost a lot of money to build right now. And if you are in a rent-to-own-type situation with Indiana,

I don't know how that can't be taking very seriously at this stage of the game. And that makes me wonder that if the Bears did do it, I understand the react. I would like it. I wouldn't like the idea of it, of my Chicago Bears, the team that I grew up watching, that's right, the 80s Bears, that they are moving, not just moving out of Soldier Field in beautiful downtown Chicago, but moving to Indiana. Like, it is shocking to the system, but I also think if it becomes normal after a while, after a year or two, sort of like my analogy Marshall would be rule changes.

like rule changes in baseball. What a wild idea to have a pitch clock. You can't possibly have a pitch clock. You can't put the DH in the National League. And it does feel awkward at first. And it does feel like you push back on it. But then it became normal. And I don't know what it would be like without it.

I think less so, the pitch clock, I don't think anybody was against the, from a fan perspective, I don't think anybody was against the pitch clock. I think the DH thing is the bigger. Pitchers hated it. Yeah, that's not us. That's not the fans. It's about the fan experience. You can go to a game now in two hours and 15 minutes as opposed to three and a

half hours? It's the best thing ever. It's the pitch clock was overdue. It was in my opinion. It's the greatest rule change in sports ever. And so what I'm saying is, I said it. That's right. Unless you're Mark Grody literally walking to the stadium and walking home from the stadium, which most people don't get to do anyway. Once you're in a car, you're in a car. And this idea that people would be appalled and drop their fandom of the Bears is ridiculous. They're not dropping their fandom. That is correct. I think that's what I meant and you said it better, that it's going to of maybe a few games.

Maybe your buddy will have tickets to go to the new stadium. You'll be like, screw that, man, I'm not doing it. But you will once the Bears are 9 and 2 and you're loving on Caleb Williams and you're seeing Colston Loveland run for 100 yards. You'll be like, Bears. Yeah, I don't think the Bears thing.

It may affect who's going to the games. I'm not saying that's not a thing. And you're entitled too. Like, if you're pissed about it and anger, I am not trying to convince people that they should like Indiana. I'm projecting what might happen if it actually came to that, which I don't think it was.

But last I checked, they do sell out every year, season ticket-wise, right? Yeah. There are people on a waiting list right now to get into the stadium. My brother was on one of those for a long time and got in about 15 years ago. It's not unlike the professional basketball team in town. You may love them, you may hate them, but guess what? Buildings full every night. Buildings full every night.

Exactly. And people are happy when the building is full every night. So I think the bears are in a win situation here and the possibility of even. Indiana grows day by day. I'm not ready to say, yeah, the bears are definitely moving to Indiana. But you know what, Mark? I'm not far away from it. The top look at the top text. I know we get a break. 3-3-1. I'll be a Packers fan. Yeah. You get a lot of that. And I am not pushing back on it because, you know, I am pretty much a purist too when it comes to things like a beautiful stadium in downtown

Chicago. That's where I would have preferred it be all along. But I don't know. money, money, money, money. Money is the truth. When we return, there's your stadium update. How about another update on something that we talked about yesterday? The pro football, yeah, the pro football Hall of Fame released a statement following the Bill Belichick vote report. We'll call it the vote report from yesterday for Belly. We will read that to you, that statement, and we will talk about it and see what's new with Billichick

and not getting into the Hall of Fame. It's next on Rahimi-Harrison Grotie on the score.