Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Where's the publicly owned site Brandon Johnson claims is Bears-approved? (Hour 4)
01 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What did Brandon Johnson claim about the Bears' stadium situation?
They're not going to be called the Arlington Heights Bears.
Oh, I miss Les. K-H. That is from one of my favorite moments listening to the score was Mark Grody in the crosstalk segment with Les. What would you call that? The segment where you and Les got to overlap.
Off the rails. Ridiculous is a word I would use for it. Insane. Eye-opening. Doesn't have an official title. Wrong at times. Embarrassing at times. Great at times.
Grody's asking Les if they were going to put an A-H on the helmet.
You sometimes like to say things just to get me stirred up, is what he said after that.
Oh, my goodness. I was howling. And you know what's funny? As true to the late Les' form, it hasn't happened yet.
It's true. It was correct. Yeah. It's not going to happen. It's never going to happen. He's right about that. That's what I would have called it. Wait, what? Raw leg. Raw leg. Go on. Say more. Yeah. Lesson grody. Wait, raw leg, lessen grody. Oh, oh, wait a minute.
I really want to understand this.
You guys are raw. Oh, like Eddie Murphy raw. Like we're raw. Because y'all are raw. Yeah. Lifetime achievement award. Every time I hear a clip, I think about how raw you guys were. We were. I think raw is a pretty good word to describe what went on at 4 o'clock in the morning every day for about five years.
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Chapter 2: Why are there concerns about the Bears' stadium funding models?
The state's not going to chip in, but maybe the local hotel tax, maybe the local tax on gaming or amusement tax, we can help you out.
Look at the Indiana model, because that's exactly what they would have to do here to do what you're describing.
Yeah, you could argue that this is going to be worse for taxpayers because there absolutely will have to be taxpayer skin in the game here. And so now it's leaving it up to the mayors. And this is why I suspect Mayor Tenali in Arlington Heights is pretty cool to this idea, because now the mayor, the bears are going to be like, OK, what do you got for us? And the mayor is going to.
So he's supposed to go and say, all right, well. We'll bond out the construction here backed by future amusement tax revenue that the city will be getting or future, I don't know, hotel tax revenue or something like that. I mean, this is now local taxpayer dollars that are now going to be at play. And, yeah, in Indiana, they've talked about hiking liquor taxes and hiking tolls and whatever.
Like, people are going to pay for this. Either way, there's no free lunch. So... I don't even know that this is a political winner for Mayor Brandon Johnson or Mayor Jim Tenaglia or the local folks. It was an 11th hour deal when the pilot fell apart. They, in 24 hours, come up with a brand new mechanism for a state publicly owned or municipally owned ā Sports facility authority.
I mean, that's insane. You know, like like hundreds and hundreds of pages of details here. Now, maybe maybe they had this in their back pocket for weeks. I don't know. But no, to answer your question, it does not feel like the mayors were involved in this. And it remains to be seen whether they even want anything to do with this.
So that was Paris Schutz on with Mully and Haw. But in reading the Brandon Johnson statement that he released, and I don't want to read the entire thing again, and understanding his colleague at NBC5, Marianne Ahern's reporting, it did sound like, number one, there were side meetings that people didn't know about.
going on with the bears and the city of chicago authorities and that the mayor seemingly pulled enough rank to get the chicago caucus of the senate to say no to the pilot bill that had already been approved in the house and if you read a statement guys it sure sounds like he out of all the statements we've read seems to be the most satisfied with the result
Oh, certainly. The way he's talking about the 2024 plan, like that's still a thing. And it goes back to what J.B. Pritzker said, what was that, less than two weeks ago? About, well, the mayor's late to the party as far as presenting something. Said he didn't have a plan. Didn't have a plan.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of a publicly owned stadium for the Bears?
Politico had that quote earlier in the morning after both bills had ultimately failed. Sciacoppo saying a political senator, Robert Peters, saying the Bears have been quite difficult throughout this process. We have multiple reports saying they didn't listen to their own lobbyists. Then we have this addition in where the Bears, Jeff Buchholz said earlier, yes, that...
Jeff said that they were meeting on the side.
So if the Bears don't have a clear-cut plan and they're acting like they don't have a clear-cut plan and they're asking for money in these tax breaks and it's clear that they don't have enough on their own to just go out and build like the Ricketts did or like Joe Mansueto has talked about and they don't want to do what Jerry Reinsdorf did, which was do the deal first, then finalize all the details.
then they're stuck in this position. And then they stuck themselves in even further of a position because they don't want to commit to anything.
When we talk about these reported secret side meetings, you wonder, or at least I wonder, whether or not that was the Bears talking to Brandon Johnson to make the city of Chicago whole in order to get the approval, to get this... Because clearly, whatever happened did not work out in favor of the Bears from Brandon Johnson's viewpoint.
Whether it's him and the rest of the Chicago caucus or whoever, they had enough... Skin in the game to wreck the votes. And so I wonder if that side session wasn't necessarily about letting the Bears in as far as another opportunity to do something in the city of Chicago, Layla and Mark, but just to say, hey, what do we need to do to make sure we do have your support going forward?
I don't know, man. This is the part that sticks to me. And we are going to take your calls on this. Where do you think the Bears are going to go? How much do you care about all of this? What do you think happened? What failed? 312-644-6767 is our number. But when he says, we have a publicly owned site the team has already vetted and approved, doesn't specify what the site is.
An existing sports authority with a dedicated revenue stream and a framework for moving a deal forward. You need more specification, Brandon Johnson, because who's paying for this? I sure as hell hope it's not the taxpayers of the city of Chicago where we need to fund our first responders pensions. I hope that's not what's happening here.
Not I said the fly. I mean, and all of this too is, even if he's not genuine in his, that is Brandon Johnson, Mayor Brandon Johnson, in his desire to get the Bears here and build in Chicago, they do have their hands out saying, what's in it for us? That's what I'm saying. Right? What do we, and there's a lot, that's what they're saying downstate too. What good does this do us?
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Chapter 4: How did local mayors respond to the Bears' stadium plans?
I don't know. We would have to do what the contests do for the big game, or how we say football Monday.
big pro football show grizzlies or something or the football team yeah the animal yeah what i do want to know is when do you think the next time george mccaskey or kevin warren speaks publicly like well since they weren't in springfield they might want to do something other than this statement Bears. Just throwing it out there.
Another dollar I owe.
Oh, dear. I would lose all the money if this happened. Bears. This is a terrifying idea. The Bears do have, we do have media access to the Chicago Bears this Wednesday. Now, that's an OTA. That's an organized team activity. Ben Johnson, 1145, 1235 practice.
Poor Ben Johnson.
Oh, yeah. Well, no, the players, it's hilarious because we have...
players are like are they you even gonna be here when the stadium gets finished yeah honestly the impression i get from the coaches and the players because they've been sort of asked about it sometimes jokingly sometimes serious they don't care and they shouldn't care because that's not their purview and it just doesn't matter and it's it's a big huge headache if they were to they don't want to know the information about the stadium trust me
Well, there's the other piece of it, too. And I actually think the way they see this is how we should see it when it comes to how much of a necessity it is day to day. They are playing football or working on football somehow outside of a few days here and there, relatively speaking, every day. And every day is not at the stadium. And that's what people forget.
You know, there are only nine regular season games up to guaranteed a year. If the NFL has its way regarding international games, does that number change? Oh, yeah. And then, you know, preseason, obviously, FanFest, you fill it in with concerts and the like. But when you know what the guaranteed days are, how much is it worth to a taxpayer?
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Chapter 5: What challenges are the Bears facing in Springfield regarding their stadium?
It is indeed quite a thing. That is referring to the site in Indiana in Hammond. That was David Hahn, our morning show. Before we get to our calls, 312-644-6767, let's play you some more of what J.B. Pritzker had to say. That was at 11 o'clock this morning. Asked if he would support a bill that would potentially funnel tax revenue directly to a Bears mythical stadium.
Do you support, I should ask, a bill that could potentially give lots of tax revenue directly to stadiums?
It doesn't require that, but yes, it allows a local government because, for example, Arlington Heights and Chicago want to compete in order to have a stadium. And you may recall that the mayor of Chicago held a big press conference with the Bears announcing a $2.5 billion stadium. that he had no money to pay for. So somehow that was going to have to get paid for.
And that's not something I was willing to do. And indeed, the amount of money that the state is willing to put up is money that we would put up for a business in the state of Illinois for infrastructure alone, not building a stadium. And that is a choice that people at a local level can make.
they now want to under that Senate bill I will say I have not seen the completed Senate bill or read it I have to say nor has my staff because as the speaker said it came late and that's okay things happen and we had a whole lot of things that were you know foisted upon the state that they were dealing with yesterday but indeed there's
The speaker is going to work hard to make sure that the House is making progress. I will certainly stand alongside them in any way that I can assist in that endeavor. And our hope is that we'll be able to provide something for the bears that will work.
Sorry. Yeah.
We still need that, by the way. 38 states, 38 states have a pilot megaprojects law, 38 states. We are literally behind the curve. All we're doing is organizing the way that they negotiate. They've always been negotiating about property taxes all across the country.
It's just in Illinois where we have a disorganized, dysfunctional endeavor forever, and now we're trying to organize it and make it work so that businesses will want to come here.
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Chapter 6: How do listeners feel about the Bears potentially leaving Chicago?
So this may be a time where we reach out to him and say, hey, what side are you talking about? Make it make sense for us. Like the only one who can fill in the gaps here on what happened might just be him. It's either him or the Bears. So that would be a welcome invitation.
We'll keep a line open for you, Mayor. 312-644-6767 is the number. That's a number that people can call right now, too. We've got a lot of calls. Yeah, yeah. Where should the Bears build their new stadium and why?
Yeah, we start with Bill in Kentucky. Bill, you're on the score.
Yeah, I think that everybody needs to ask themselves questions, and especially those of you in Chicago and Cook County. Why is $10 million a year in property taxes not enough when SoFi Stadium is paying $8.8 million a year? Well, I can stop you.
It's because SoFi Stadium paid $5 billion to be funded by Stan Kroenke, and the taxes that they negotiated are different, kind of like you being in Kentucky. The property taxes are levied differently in California. They're part of an entertainment tax in Los Angeles, and they pay different districted taxes based on that.
Sure, but where did $53.2 million come from?
Land improvement, just like if you build a different house on your property?
But it's not built yet. You said it yourself. It's a mystery. It's a mythical building. Why is it 6x what SoFi is that's standing?
SoFi isn't the comp here because of what I just said. Your house, your property tax in the state of Illinois for a house is different from the state of California. They're two totally different taxing entities. Do you want to pay 9.5% state income tax like they do in L.A.
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Chapter 7: What alternative stadium sites have been suggested by callers?
Yes. And the only reason they're using it as a comp is because they don't want to say the loud part out loud, which is Stan Kroenke funded it with $5 billion of his own money. So there was that part of it as well. We stay on the phones. Mario in Hyde Park. You're on Rahimi Harrison Grody. What up, Mario? Hey, everybody. Mob. Mob. Everyone on Twitch Mob. Take a breath. Take a breath. Relax.
It's not your property in Arlington Heights. Calm the you-know-what town. I don't care anymore. Build it on the South Lot. Just do it. Stay in Chicago. I've been saying from the beginning, they aren't going anyplace. I've said it when your former partner, Layla... And you, when this got announced, I said it that day, I don't think they're going anyplace.
I don't think they're ever going to Arlington Heights. I know they're not going to Slag Heap or whatever the hell that place is called in any way. They're not leaving the city of Chicago.
Sir, you are unfiltered, sir.
Go ahead. As Marianne Ahern reported last week about the conversations happening, I believe they never stopped talking to the city of Chicago, the Bears, that is, about a possibility of staying in the city. The city of Chicago, contrary to popular belief on Twitch, the city of Chicago is a major economic engine for the state of Illinois.
It's the third, possibly fourth largest city in the United States, depending on who you ask, and there's no reason to believe if there's a way they could stay here that they would stay. Should they leave and go to Arlington Heights, which is their prerogative to do, they have the land, they own the land, all that, fine, do it.
I just don't think the way the state legislature is set up that they're ever leaving Chicago. I will stand on that hill alone if I have to.
Layla agrees with you if you listen to Five on it. I see the point.
Well, I mean, when inactivity reigns, then what happens? You stay what you're doing.
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Chapter 8: What are the final thoughts on the Bears' future in Chicago?
And you expected them to do this correctly in order first?
Even bringing somebody in from the outside didn't help.
When you're not listening to your lobbyists, that's the part of it that I don't understand. You're making all these side plans. Then where's the loyalty?
How in the world is Ted Phillips' legacy aging well right now?
We've all made our cracks at Ted Phillips. But at the end of the day, he has a boss. Ted didn't just go out here and just decide to spend money on his own. Of course not. And that boss is the same person who we have tried to figure out the plan since he became the CEO of the team in George McCaskey.
Yeah, when in Rome is the expression that comes to mind because it feels like Kevin Warren ā I'm not even going to say he's in over his head. It's just like he was put behind the eight ball immediately.
He underestimated it.
It may have taken a miracle. I don't know that he even underestimated it. I think it's just way more difficult than the guy who hired Kevin Warren thought it would be in terms of explaining this is the job that we need you to do. and then maybe didn't tell Kevin Warren all of the idiosyncrasies of this particular position in this particular city and state.
But what frustrates me is when you buy land and tell us it's for a stadium, and the only other teams to even do something that's similar to a deal like that, and they didn't outright buy the land. was in 2015 in the state of California when they transferred it to a, like what they talk about, an IFSA of sorts, a public fund to be able to do so. And then the NFL came in and said no.
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