Reacting to George McCaskey's latest comments on the Bears' stadium pursuit

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Rahimi & Grote Show 17 min 4 speakers 6 chapters transcribed 3 months ago

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What are the implications of George McCaskey's comments on the Bears' stadium pursuit?

Leila Rahimi 0:00

People always ask, oh, well, you guys talk about football a lot. Yeah, when football's going on, the league news is happening. The NFL never sleeps. And neither do your tax dollars, whether you live in the state of Indiana, the state of Illinois, or somewhere else. People listen to us in Wisconsin. You know what I've always said. If the Bears really wanted to threaten about the stadium, they would have threatened Wisconsin.

How does the Bears' stadium issue affect tax dollars in Illinois and Indiana?

Leila Rahimi 0:22

If they really wanted to show that they had leverage, that's what they would have done.

Unknown 0:26

Is this the time where I tell you I don't do politics? Is this a bad time to tell you that?

Leila Rahimi 0:30

I mean, it just depends on how you feel like you need to go through your day.

Unknown 0:34

Yeah, I don't do politics, except I do do politics because politics is going to do me every time. And you.

Leila Rahimi 0:40

That's it. That's the overwhelming issue here. And I know that a lot of people listen to us because they don't want to do that. But the Bears stadium issue continues to be a major discussion, and it continues to either somehow use your dollars, or is it the state of Indiana because they put all the processes together? And perhaps that was one of the most surprising things to me, Marshall, was... Not only did we get a lot of news yesterday from the owners' meetings about the Bears stadium, George McCaskey finally spoke. Remember the only sound that we had heard from him? We say sound, you know, that's just his voice that you hear. The only interview we had heard from George McCaskey prior to this, since the season ended, the season where he as chairman got to see his first playoff win.

Leila Rahimi 1:30

So that had happened. Actually, second. Second playoff win in 15 years because George started in 2011. So when he got to see that, a victorious season, more so than he's had in 15 years. We still didn't hear from him, and I thought we should have. He spoke to WGN. Thanks to them, they actually let us carry some of what he said, and we played it back. He talked to Jarrett Payton. He called the Packers team Voldemort. We hadn't heard him talk about anything else to anybody else. He didn't bring up the stadium with Jarrett. And we finally get some discussion from George McCaskey regarding this. And perhaps what was most surprising to me was that despite the way we've seen the order of operations go smoothly in Indiana...

Leila Rahimi 2:16

As to what typically happens whenever you have a stadium search where various municipalities will ante up and say, oh, we have this land, we have this land for you. The Hammond site is considered the most viable Wolf Lake. And then they do the environmentals. We hear from Kevin Warren yesterday. He says that's not a concern. then the state says okay here's how we're going to fund it they talk about the taxes that they want to add to make sure that they can do that the senate says yes to it governor says yes wasn't voted on i still think these things should always be voted on but that whole process was typical that was that was if you take out the part where they bought the arlington heights land which is impossible but just do it for me for a second

Leila Rahimi 3:00

That whole thing went smoothly. So I was kind of surprised when I hear George McCaskey say that no plan is in place with Indiana.

Unknown 3:09

It was orderly the way they approached this from an Indiana perspective as opposed to the much lauded about purchase of the Arlington Heights land and then trying to make everything fit together after the fact. And so to see those two things go the way they went, I was like, okay, the Bears finally look like they have a plan in Indiana if it has to go that way. Remember... My whole thing is they want to build in Arlington Heights. That is the first option, second option, third option, fourth option. I said yesterday on the air, Layla, it's like when you're at home and you're like, what am I going to eat? And you're out of food, but you've got that honey bun that's been in your cabinet for three years.

Unknown 3:44

If you have to eat the honey bun, you will. That's Indiana right now. But they have no intention of eating the honey bun if they can avoid eating the honey buns.