Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Mayor Brandon Johnson is still making push for Bears to stay in Chicago
13 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are Mayor Brandon Johnson's views on keeping the Bears in Chicago?
Rahimi Harrison-Grody. Bears tight end Cole Komet. Cole, welcome to the party, pal. Well, thanks for having me. I heard it was a big day, so naturally I dropped everything I had going on today.
You've complained a lot through the years about not being able to hear the score on the 670 AM dial when you're inevitably cruising around downtown. And now that we have an FM signal, Cole, you can now hear the score all day, all the time, all you want. You can hear all the Bears hot takes you want.
Well, that's perfect. I'll make sure I blast that in the locker room.
Chapter 2: How does the new FM signal impact Bears fans?
Beautiful blast! Rahimi Harrison-Grody. Midday's Tindal 2 on 104.3 The Score.
It was my impression that we are inching closer and closer to a bill for the pilot bill payment in lieu of taxes for mega projects in the state of Illinois. Not just the Bears, although a lot of people are calling it the Bears bill.
The Bears are covered in the bill, but it's a lot of other stuff that that was in a better place that we were going to have some progress and movement on that sooner rather than later. And then I see this from the mayor's office today on Twitter. Mayor Brandon Johnson at Chicago's mayor. This is at 10.02 a.m., so at the start of our show. Mark Brody, Marshall Harris.
There's no good reason to incentivize the Bears to leave the top tourist destination in Illinois or to gift them property tax reprieve when they already don't pay property taxes on a publicly owned stadium. The Bears belong in downtown Chicago. Let's listen. Some say you're trying to kill a stadium in Illinois.
Why was it okay to be all in on the Bears downtown, but it's not okay to be all in on the Suffolk? If it's not Chicago, wouldn't Hammond almost benefit the city more than Arlington Heights?
Well, first of all, I was in Springfield to fight for progressive revenue. I would have much preferred to focus our energy there. In fact, for the last couple of years, Springfield has gone silent on the Bears. I was elected to defend Chicago, and I still believe that the best place for the Bears to play is in the city of Chicago.
I don't know why we would incentivize the Bears to take jobs outside of the city of Chicago. I don't know why we would incentivize property tax
reprieve that they would receive when they don't have to pay property taxes in chicago right because it's a publicly owned stadium it would remain a publicly owned stadium the best viable location for the chicago bears to play is the top tourist destination i'm going to continue to work with city council with the state legislature with the governor to continue to build safe and affordable communities and the way in which we can do that is by creating 20 more green space downtown on the lakefront
with thousands of jobs and people can benefit from it economically. We're building a soccer stadium, the 1901 project on the west side of Chicago. We're building a brand new hospital for the first time in 100 years on the south side of Chicago. So all of this economic vibrancy is happening at a time in which our airport is the busiest in America.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of the proposed bill for mega projects in Illinois?
They bought land for Arlington Heights, which has always been what I've maintained. And I know that they need to be diplomatic with each other, the Bears and the city, because of the relationship that happens at Soldier Field.
But Soldier Field is not a world-class stadium that is expected these days in the NFL to host a Super Bowl, to host major events, like Kevin Warren mentioned the Final Four. It's just a matter of where this is going to be. But the Bears are not going to be playing in Chicago once this lease ends.
The ship has proverbially sailed, and it sailed quite some time ago. I just wonder, and actually I don't wonder. I believe that this is all posturing to get something back for the city of Chicago on the way to being signed into law and the Bears making their move to Arlington Heights. He's basically saying, what's Chicago getting out of this? And I get it.
And that is his job as the mayor of Chicago to make sure that they get something. I just don't know that the something is going to be anything close to what he is envisioning.
And I think Cam Buckner, the state representative of the district that contains Soldier Field, has been trying to do that. But I'm not quite sure what the mayor's role is in all of that when Cam Buckner's role is active in the process of this.
He knows that it's not going to happen in Chicago. That's the thing. I mean, that's it. At this point, he is pandering to those constituents and those that still think that there's a chance for it. And what you said, everybody wants a little something. Downstate, what's in it for us? What does this do us? So this is that part where everybody is talking about the progressive revenue and
All the things that, like, this would have sounded good. I guess it did sound good two years ago when they unveiled the plan for downtown, a meeting which I attended. Very impressive. Very neat to the point where I was like, yeah, let's do this. That looks awesome.
But even those of us who really wanted to stay downtown moved down a long time ago, and it's time for Brandon Johnson or a friend to go up to Brandon Johnson and say, hey, man, it's over.
Well, those words should have come from Lori Lightfoot when the Bears were still not yet buying Arlington Heights.
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Chapter 4: Why does the mayor believe the Bears should stay downtown?
It's like, give me a piece of that sweet potato pie. Because the sweet potato pie is there. And he just wants to make sure he gets the biggest piece he can possibly get.
Yeah. Because there's only so much pie to go around. That's part of where we are in this process right now.
But that's good that we are to this point where it's like, last call. If you're going to extract something, now is the time. Because it's either going there or there. But really, it's really going there. It's going there. It's going on to heights.
I can't see where we're pointing here, but yeah.
In the meantime, there is some concrete stadium news. The Fire tweeted this at 4.30 in the morning. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.
I'm loving it.
They're excited to announce McDonald's as the official naming rights partner of their new stadium. See you at McDonald's Park in 2028. And McDonald's dropped off refreshers for us. They have a new drink lineup. Here are some of the delicious new flavors. You saw me drinking the pink one on Twitch. Strawberry watermelon refresher. That's the one I had.
Blend sweet strawberry and watermelon flavors with a lemonade base plus freeze dried strawberries for an extra burst of flavor and visual flair. Mango pineapple refresher mixes tropical mango and pineapple flavors with a lemonade base and a strawberry popping boba to deliver a juicy burst of flavor.
Blackberry Passion Fruit Refresher pairs bold blackberry and passion fruit flavors with lemonade alongside free dried dragon fruit for a touch of sweetness and a pop of color. And there's Sprite Berry Blast, infusing the iconic Sprite with a sweet blue raspberry syrup. Orange Dream is a fan favorite. Twist on the high sea orange lava burst, mixed with a hint of vanilla flavor.
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