Jeff Buchholz

And technically, the Bears portion of that loan has been paid off.

So technically, the remainder, which is about a half a billion dollars, I think, is sort of on the state and the city are kind of on the hook for that.

But as you point out, that renovation doesn't happen without the Chicago Bears.

So I think that that's part of what the conversation is going to be.

So I'm more of a basketball fan.

Okay.

I don't have a great sense of football strategy and X's and O's.

I'm the guy who watches the Super Bowl for the commercials.

But my guess is that the state of Illinois has probably scored, has probably just recorded a first down.

I think they're still pretty deep in their territory right now.

And I think Indiana is well into Illinois territory, though I wouldn't call that a touchdown either.

There's a lot of work that needs to be done.

And I do think, and I talked about this with Layla and Marshall yesterday, I really do think that this is going to come down to whether George McCaskey is really interested in

alienating a whole bunch of fans of the Chicago Bears so that he can get a deal out of the state of Indiana.

I think he's looking for any reason to not have to say yes to Indiana and then get stared down by people the next time he has to go to a City Club of Chicago luncheon.

He needs to hear a number that he can get behind.

And that means a number for, you know, an amount of money sufficient to mollify, to borrow a word from Governor Pritzker the other day, the Chicago delegation.

And he needs to hear a commitment from...

the speaker and from the governor that, okay, if this is the number, then we're going to get the votes together and we're going to make this happen before, and we're going to make it happen before the end of the regular legislative session, which is not, which is, and I'm going to say it's not until the end of May, but the end of May is going to be here before we know it.

So that's what, that's what he needs to hear.