Latest / 2nd City Gridiron / Bears Banter Ep. 241: Brenden Moore of Capital News on latest Bears stadium drama

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Bears Banter Ep. 241: Brenden Moore of Capital News on latest Bears stadium drama · 2nd City Gridiron

• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, fairdown man, friends, it's time for another edition of the Skoggle Bears podcast Bears Adventure Power by second city, gridiron bill, Zimmerman with you, we are back!
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: for another bear's banter and the bears are in the swing of OTAs, they got mandatory mini cap around the corner, we've got some actual football to discuss, but this podcast isn't going to be talking about football.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: it's going to be talking about the stadium and if you've been a regular listener in this podcast over the last couple of three years, we have not talked about the stadium at all because I'll be honest, you know there was going to be you know, posturing from both sides, you knew there was going to be given.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Take you, you knew all this politics.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: was going to be happening and it was going to take a while for things to settle down, especially when you're dealing with Chicago politicians, Illinois politicians.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I just, I, for the most part, I haven't wanted to deal with it at all.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just kind of been like, tell me when the stadium deal is done and we'll talk about the stadium.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's got to do a point.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: where it is unavoidable to talk about this.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we are going to talk about it today and we're going to talk about it with Brendan more of Capitol news.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has been covering this down and Springfield.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has been doing a great job with it.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: and we are thrilled to have him on because he is going to bring some intelligence and some understanding to this conversation because I'll be honest, this is not something I have followed too closely.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I do not follow politics too much on state and local levels by follow politics.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's more on the federal level, but when I'm looking at this, I cannot pretend that I know all the
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: of what goes on in Springfield or what goes on with with Chicago Alderman and politics there and and Mayor Johnson and Governor Pritzker and all this stuff.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know all the details.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't live in Illinois.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know that, I lived in Illinois the first 30 years of my life.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I had to move to New York for my job.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I am a transplant in Chicago and
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've lived in Wicker Park.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've lived in Lincoln Park.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've lived in the suburbs.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've lived all around the Chicago land area, but I am no longer there.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So when you're not there, you're not going to follow local politics too much.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: But at this point, I was like, all right, we have to do a podcast on this.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have to discuss what's going on, especially with the announcement on Friday about Hammond and what wasn't even really announcement, but it wasn't announcement.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I have been poking around.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've been asking people that no more than me and look.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I say this too often with a monologue when I start off a podcast, I can't guarantee that a hundred percent of everything I say is accurate, you know, opinions or opinions, they can be wrong, they can be right.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm hoping I got all the facts right on this situation.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about it.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about this Chicago Bear stadium situation and Hammond versus Springfield, Arlington Heights, and we're even going to talk about Chicago, because I think this whole thing
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's tough to figure out what's going on because there's not a lot of people that I think can get the whole picture.
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: That can get the picture about what's happening at Hallis Hall with George McCaskey and Kevin Warren.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And still get an idea what's going on in the governor's office and still get what's going on in the Illinois Senate.
• 3:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's happening?
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Indiana in a whole different realm of politics and Chicago, which works with the Illinois government, but has its own government that it deals with.
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's so many different aspects to this.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to get a full picture as what's going on here.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I want to do this the best we can and if people want to jump out, it's not accurate.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: It may not be accurate, but I think it's accurate.
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about this.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The best of my knowledge is why I just didn't jump in and do a podcast
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: figure out as much as possible.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, this is why we're having Brendan Moron here in just a little bit to talk about everything that's going on.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's start with the announcement I'm Friday.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the obvious place to start.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: That the bears, you wouldn't think when the board votes and everything happens that.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: when they say, Hammond, you would actually think that this is it.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, the bears are going to Hammond and Indiana, but they're not.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: They might, but they may not.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because this is more posturing from Kevin Warren.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I suppose George McCaskey, but I think 95% of everything that's coming out at this point is Kevin Warren.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: because the bears are focused on Hammond.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bears don't even want the site that Indiana has picked out and for good reason, like they've cleaned it up, I understand that they've tried to do it, but like the areas around that site.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: the wolf lake site are polluted.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not just like, oh, they got to clean up some trash along the side of the road.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, like I'm trying to do research on this.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is a lead in the soil.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if there is lead in the soil at the wolf lake site, but there is lead in the soil in the adjacent areas.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's contaminated water in the adjacent areas.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the last I checked.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Pollution doesn't really just look at property lines and decide that it's not going to cross property lines.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: If things are problematic near you, then they are problematic.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm not going to, you know, I don't want to make light of situations, but this feels like the beginning of like the Aaron Brockovich movie.
• 6:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: When all the residents are told it's safe to live under the power lines until they all get cancer.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like,
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't quite understand the site and I don't think the bear is quite like the site either, or they would have said we're going to be looking at the site that Indiana has currently discussed.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, it's site TVD and the fact that they're focused on this to me,
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: is another leverage play.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, let's be honest here.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: This Indiana proposal has been out there for months, for months and the Chicago Bears are sitting there going, maybe, well, see, I don't know, give us a little more time.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And they still want a little more time.
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Indiana is sitting there, look.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: deal that Indiana has put out there is a really sweet deal for the Chicago Bears.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not everything the Bears wanted when they first went out to try and build their own stadium so they could completely control everything.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not quite that.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty close.
• 7:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the bottom line here is the Bears probably can't get exactly what they want because the McCaskey's don't have enough money.
• 7:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when the MacCasties don't have enough money, it puts them in a little bit more of a difficult situation.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're not independently wealthy.
• 7:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're wealth.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have talked about it in terms of how this team operates in football operations with the cash available.
• 7:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're not independently wealthy.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: They don't just have a $750 million sitting around that is just collecting interest and they could just tap into it whenever they want.
• 7:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's not what this bears, I'm not saying the bears are broke.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sitting there saying, if the bears wanted to go out right now and get Max Crosby and pay the price for Max Crosby and extend Max Crosby and pay what they got to pay and still extend our no right.
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying they can't do those kind of things.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: I expect our no right to get a hefty extension in the next couple of months.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the Chicago Bears do not operate football operations like a how we rosemen and Jeffrey
• 8:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: and spend extra money to free up space in the salary cap space.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like the Tre Hendricks in Deal with Baltimore, we talked about it at the time.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Lamar Jackson had like a $55 million salary and they can $52 million whatever it was.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: And they took $50 million and converted it to a signing bonus.
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that lowered his,
• 8:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: base salary to a couple million dollars.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that money gets freed up under the salary cap.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not completely because then the bonus gets spread out over the course of the contract, but it's like it's five years on the contract.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's 10 million.
• 8:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: So his base salary and his bonus makes a more like $12 million.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the ravens open up $38 million in the cap.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then they spend
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: if all to more ravens to make everything work.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead of spending, yes, they're going to give them our jacks and $50 million, $55 million this year regardless, but because of the way they structure it differently, they can also pay $300 in $30 million.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So ravens ownership is spending $85 million, $90 million to get both players instead of just paying a base salary and paying them our jacks.
• 9:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bears have not, maybe things will change.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the bears have not operated that way in the past.
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: They do it in small increments.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: They don't do it in big increments like that.
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're going to really have to start doing that if they want to be competitive when Caleb Williams starts making probably $75 million a year.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: But again, the bears, and we're just talking about this to talk about how the bears don't have a lot of cash.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the bears
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they bought the Arlington Heights money and yes, they're saying they're going to pay for all the construction, but they don't have a ton of free cash.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So they need to work closer with the government and get deals that work for them financially and hopefully work for the state governments as well.
• 10:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Indiana has rolled out the red carpet as best they can.
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: with the bears getting the vast majority of the revenues.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, everyone's talking about, oh, they can buy the stadium for a dollar when the least is up to least is like 35 years.
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 35 years, the bears are going to want another stadium.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that doesn't matter, but
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: the bears do get a bulk of the revenues.
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: They, you know, they do get a lot of the things they want, but it's in Hammond, Indiana, right?
• 10:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's in a site right now that the bears clearly aren't interested in building it.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: If they would have, they would not have said site to be determined.
• 10:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have heard a rumble that Roger Gidell doesn't love the Indiana site.
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's true, but I will say this.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The part of this was the bears wanted to host a Super Bowl.
• 11:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: and you don't get to host a Super Bowl of Rodger, and I'll go as I'm putting a Super Bowl on Amazon Indiana.
• 11:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sure that plays a new one as well, if it's true.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a rumor I've heard, I don't know if it's 100% true.
• 11:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: But we get back to this about if the bears wanted to be in Indiana, they would already be in Indiana.
• 11:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: They want to be in Illinois.
• 11:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: But where do they want to be in Illinois?
• 11:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think there is some conflict in how us all about that.
• 11:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because to me, it certainly feels like George McCaskey.
• 11:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, he was with Ted Phillips when they bought the Arlington Heights property.
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So clearly George McCaskey thinks Arlington Heights is a good idea.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not saying it's a bad idea.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I think Kevin Warren thinks it's a bad idea.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: He may not think it's a bad idea overall.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Look, as someone who has been very supportive of Kevin Warren as the bear's president, and I think Ben Johnson is here because Kevin Warren is here.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying it's tip for tap, yes, Caleb Williams.
• 12:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's, you know, he's a Chicago guy, he loves the cubs, like there's other things that play into it.
• 12:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if the ownership still seemed like a mess and seemed like a mom and pop shop, I don't think Ben Johnson would have come here.
• 12:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think Kevin Warren being here and establishing things and restructuring things, I think, was a big part of Ben Johnson feeling comfortable like he could win long-term here in Chicago.
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: So with everything that Ben, I'm sorry, that Kevin Warren may have screwed up with the stadium.
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: I still give him a pass over all because I don't know about you,
• 12:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: if your choice was Mike McCarthy and everything that goes smoothly with the stadium or Ben Johnson and this bumpy debacle, what are you picking?
• 12:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think 99.9% of bear's fans, if not 100% are picking Ben Johnson and the debacle.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: If those are the two choices.
• 12:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: But when we look at Kevin Warren, Kevin Warren is about
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we can all say that Kevin Warren likes him some Kevin Warren.
• 13:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: He inserts himself into a lot of stories that aren't really about him.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: He makes sure he's on all those social media videos.
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: He talks to every and look, the GM in the coach.
• 13:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, everyone calls their their um,
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: prospects on the day of the draft, when they select them, I don't see President's featured in those videos from other teams like the Bears feature, Kevin Warren.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe the president is, I can't, I don't, I've never been a prospect drafted.
• 13:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know exactly who everyone talks to, but the social media, if the presidents are talking to the players, they're not featured on the social media clips.
• 13:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Bears make sure they feature Kevin Warren on the social media clips.
• 13:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether it's because Kevin Warren is the only president that's doing it or Kevin Warren is a president that wants to make sure the world knows he's doing it.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of the situation, we can agree.
• 14:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren likes him some Kevin Warren.
• 14:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now George McCaskey went out hired Kevin Warren.
• 14:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The big reason he hired Kevin Warren of course was to get this stadium built because
• 14:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: If we're being honest, George McCaskey, and I'll be honest, and I've said it, I don't try and make things about politics and I'm not going to make this conversation about the bears political at all, but my politics do lean liberal.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And as they lean liberal, I am not a big fan of a lot of the billionaires in this country, because I don't believe we should have billionaires worth a hundred two hundred three hundred billion dollars when we have some of the other problems we have.
• 14:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's a financial structure that does not work long term because the money will continue to funnel up.
• 14:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: All that aside,
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I say that to say that if I'm going to have a billionaire own my favorite sports team, in a lot of ways I'm glad it's George McCaskey.
• 15:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because I think George McCaskey is a good person, overall.
• 15:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think George McCaskey wants good things for the bears, for the city of Chicago, for his employees, I think George is a good person, but I think George is kind of a coward.
• 15:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think George McCaskey can sit down in Springfield with politicians and be forceful, be a bulldog, and tell him this is what the Chicago Bears need.
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's why you hired Kevin Warren because Kevin Warren is that bulldog, and Kevin Warren will do the things that need to be done now.
• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Should the Chicago Bears have approached this for more of a good faith position?
• 15:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: You could certainly argue it based on a lot of things that have happened.
• 15:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren hasn't done that.
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren has pitted, like Arlington Heights again, Chicago has pitted Springfield again, Chicago, talking to Chicago behind Springfield's back.
• 16:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has done a lot of things that have pissed off a lot of people.
• 16:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, when you hire Kevin Warren, you need to know that's how Kevin Warren operates and either George McCaskey didn't do his due diligence and didn't know about things that were very public or George McCaskey knows exactly what he got in Kevin Warren.
• 16:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren, you know, I understand some people don't like him as the big 10 commissioner.
• 16:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: But this is how Kevin Warren operates.
• 16:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot forget this.
• 16:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren, when all of her, everyone was worried about the conferences, collapsing and falling apart, and who was gonna be left behind?
• 16:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Big Ten and the Pack 12 made an alliance.
• 16:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: An alliance, they had the Rose Bowl, they had a bond, they made an alliance that they were gonna stick together.
• 16:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, fed off the ACC, the big 12, and the SEC, they made an alliance.
• 16:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And while they made that alliance, Kevin Warren went behind the Pac-12's back and talked to USC UCLA Oregon and Washington and said, come on over to the big 10.
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Kevin Warren knew the Pac-12.
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: a power conference is because of Kevin Warren.
• 17:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now it may have collapsed anyway.
• 17:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it collapsed because of Kevin Warren because Kevin Warren stabbed the patch well in the back.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: what he did, that's how he operates.
• 17:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: When Kevin Warren got the stadium built in Minneapolis, he wasn't getting quite everything he wanted from the city, so he put together this whole proposal about moving the Vikings out to the suburbs.
• 17:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: They had this spot picked in the suburbs and the
• 17:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll give you what you need.
• 18:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Kevin Warren got his beautiful downtown stadium.
• 18:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is how Kevin Warren operates.
• 18:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, does George McCaskey hire him and not know any of that?
• 18:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I highly, highly doubt it.
• 18:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: George McCaskey knew he needed a bulldog to get things done so he hired Kevin Warren.
• 18:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So,
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: when Kevin Warren is operating the way he's operating George McCaskey can't be surprised.
• 18:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: And nobody should be surprised because this is how Kevin Warren operates.
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to pit people against each other and get people to cave.
• 18:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to play poker.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's trying to play, he's trying to bluff a lot.
• 18:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so far he's been getting called on a lot of his bluffs and they have not worked out so well.
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we get to a point now where we have this Indiana proposal and you have Tom Pelacero and Brad Biggs on this guy's going, this is real.
• 18:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is not just the posturing.
• 18:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is not going for leverage.
• 18:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's real, by the way, if they're reporting its fake and they're getting it from the bears, there is no leverage.
• 19:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me, you could only have leverage if the other side thinks it's real.
• 19:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, of course, everyone is reporting that it's real.
• 19:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if it was real, the Chicago Bears at F-R-Undon Heights is property up for sale or they'd be figuring out something else to do with it.
• 19:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: But they're not.
• 19:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, as that statement came out, Kevin Warren calls the Illinois
• 19:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: politicians and says, Hey, we're still going to talk to you and the door is not closed.
• 19:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry about it.
• 19:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, of course, it's leverage.
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that is all Kevin Warren has been trying to get for three years, two years, whatever it's been, and he hasn't been able to find a lot of leverage.
• 19:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's why we saw the renderings in Chicago.
• 19:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we know, like, look, the way Kevin Warren has handled this in Springfield, it's either one of two things.
• 20:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's kind of sabotaging
• 20:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: or it's gross incompetence.
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And while you may not agree with what Kevin Warren how he operates and you may not like him, it's hard to say that he's grossly incompetent when you look at his resume.
• 20:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, yes, did he piss people off in the big 10?
• 20:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he sure did.
• 20:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he put together television deals and they are still ranking in hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to those television deals.
• 20:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: He built a stadium in Minneapolis and you want to talk about who what he did, what he didn't do.
• 20:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's considered one of the best stadiums in the country for football.
• 20:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Kevin Warren does have a resume with success on it, but Kevin Warren operates in a way where he is going to pit people against each other.
• 20:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that seems to be what he's trying to do here.
• 20:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's trying to use, you know, Indiana, he's trying to use Chicago, trying to get what
• 21:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think there is a big part of me that thinks Kevin Warren hopes the Arlington Heights thing will blow up and in the months that follow right now that Chicago can figure out a way to get him his late-front stadium because I think Kevin Warren more than anything else more than what Arlington Heights could be with the Bears town and the Bears would have this amount or Indiana because the Bears is getting a sweet deal from Indiana government all that.
• 21:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren wants his stadium, not the bear stadium.
• 21:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: He wants his stadium sitting on the lakefront.
• 21:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So when the bears open up their new stadium on Sunday night football on NBC and Mike Trico welcomes everyone in.
• 21:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've got that beautiful backdrop with the lake and the skyline in this brand new stadium.
• 21:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you want to think if that was the case, Kevin Warren wasn't going to be getting interviewed on NBC at some point at halftime before the game during the game.
• 22:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hell yes, he would have been.
• 22:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's what he wants.
• 22:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: He wants to sit there and be like, that is my jewel, the bear's stadium on the lake.
• 22:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think he still wants to try and get that done.
• 22:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, Brandon Johnson seems to want to get that done too, but I don't think anybody knows how to get it done.
• 22:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Brandon, oh, well, we'll tax the hotels.
• 22:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't work.
• 22:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, let's be honest, I can be liberal all I want, but the Chicago government has managed to owe more on soldier field now than they did 20 years ago.
• 22:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we'll get to J.B. Pritzker, you know, comments he made about that or talked about how he started
• 22:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's where we get to with this bare situation here is that there have been missteps everywhere by the Illinois Senate.
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: by JB Pritzker, by Kevin Warren, by everybody.
• 23:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you sit there and go, people are just pointing at the bears, go, ah, bears screwed up everything.
• 23:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can't, you know, they're probably big fans of Pritzker, big fan of Democrats.
• 23:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's where it gets political.
• 23:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: People that are firmly blaming everything on the Illinois politicians, probably vote in the Republican.
• 23:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: That I put out some polls and it fit for the most part that kind of narrative.
• 23:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think the problem here is that everyone's at fault.
• 23:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren has not operated in good faith from the jungle.
• 23:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Eleanor and government made it very clear to the bears that they weren't a priority.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And J.B. Pritzker, coming out of the gate, did not, it was more, all the others, was I think more worried about running for president than he was about what's best for the state of Eleanor in the Chicago Bears.
• 23:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: So where are we at right now?
• 23:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're in a situation where the bears are saying they're going to focus on Indiana, but they still want to negotiate with Illinois because we know they want to be in Illinois.
• 23:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if Chicago can't figure this out, it doesn't seem like they're going to be able to figure it out.
• 24:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's too many hurdles to jump to try to get the bears new stadium on the lake, just too many.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if we put that aside, then we look at Arlington Heights.
• 24:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: If that's going to be the end game, the bear shrine get something from Arlington Heights, then Kevin Warren is going to have to change things, the way he's been operating.
• 24:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because he has pissed off everyone in Springfield.
• 24:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm a White Sox fan, and a Bull's fan.
• 24:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: As many of you all are Bull's fans, and some of you like the White Sox as well.
• 24:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jerry Ryan's Dwarf sucks.
• 24:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: We all know Jerry Ryan's Dwarf sucks.
• 24:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: None of us like Jerry Ryan's Dwarf.
• 24:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: We see the last day, that's a Jerry Ryanson goes, yeah, I broke up the bulls.
• 24:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Better to break it up now than not win.
• 24:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: What the hell are you talking about?
• 24:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jerry Ryanson has the white socks operating like a mom and pop shop.
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I sit there and go,
• 24:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's Murakami going to stick around after this contract and everything's like, oh, yeah, I wouldn't need.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because Jerry Rideshorfe would have to pay Andrew Benentendi.
• 25:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is the highest paid White Sox player ever?
• 25:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: The White Sox are like one of two teams that have never put out a hundred million dollar contract.
• 25:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ever.
• 25:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jerry Rideshorfe sucks.
• 25:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if Jerry Ryan's or needs a stadium bill or needs things to happen, Jerry Ryan's sort of gets his ass to Springfield and sits down with politicians face to face and tries to hammer out deals.
• 25:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's what you need to do.
• 25:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone talks about the bear some hired the best lobbyists in Springfield.
• 25:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's hot guys to try and get their stadium done.
• 25:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And apparently, the lobbyists are going to Kevin Warren and George McCaskey and say, this is what you need to do.
• 25:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the bears aren't doing it.
• 25:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bears Kevin Warren's blowing off meetings so he can go to the Olympics.
• 25:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren is not going down a spring field.
• 25:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's not meeting with people face to face.
• 25:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, it feels like open sabotage.
• 25:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying it is.
• 25:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm saying that's what it feels like.
• 25:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: So where are we at with the bears in Arlington Heights?
• 26:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bears are going to have to grease some wheels here.
• 26:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying bribe, I'm saying meet with people, talk with people, negotiate with people, Kevin Warren and George McCaskey, they need to do it.
• 26:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: They can't just have the lobbyists try and talk to them on their behalf.
• 26:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: They need to meet with these people in Springfield.
• 26:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: They need to make it happen.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now Springfield,
• 26:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: it would be nice if they try to prioritize doing something with the bears even one eye odor because they have dragged their feet out everything because they have just and they've openly said this isn't a priority for us.
• 26:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't really care.
• 26:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's not helping either.
• 26:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like you have to think about your constituents.
• 26:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're there to serve your constituents.
• 26:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're constituents.
• 26:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do they want to be raked over the calls with higher taxes so the bears can get a stadium?
• 26:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, do they want the bears in the state of Illinois?
• 26:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, most of them do.
• 26:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you need to know your representing the people of Illinois and the people of Illinois would like the bears to stay here without saddling a massive tax bill.
• 27:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you sit down with Kevin Warren and George McCaskey and say, we represent the people of Illinois, the people of Illinois want you in our length and heights if you can't be in Chicago, but we don't want to have all the residents shoulder the bill.
• 27:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to raise tow roads.
• 27:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to raise property taxes.
• 27:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to bury a beverage tax or something where everyone's going to be paying an extra buck every time they have alcohol.
• 27:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to do these things.
• 27:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's fine, sit down together and work on a deal.
• 27:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: But they haven't done that.
• 27:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ellen Hoy didn't make it a priority.
• 27:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And anytime they did, the bears weren't there to talk to them.
• 27:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So both sides screwed up here.
• 27:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Pritzker seems like he's getting on board now with the, with a couple of the bills and saying, hey, this could work.
• 28:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: This would be good for the state of Illinois.
• 28:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But what did Pritzker do out of the game?
• 28:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was where I gave him a penny until they pay off soldier feel.
• 28:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was a, that was BS from JB Pritzker.
• 28:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because Pritzker knew the bears paid their share and that there's still a balance on the Chicago soldier field renovations because Chicago screwed up the financing and the interest in terms of how they, how they meant to pay off those, their share of the soldier field renovations.
• 28:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Pritzker knows that, but he goes out and he makes this big say because again, he's running for president.
• 28:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're not given the bears up any.
• 28:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And now the bears are pissed off, but remember, the bears are just like, well, well, pay for all the stadium costs.
• 28:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: We just want infrastructure costs.
• 28:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: But that wasn't the very first proposal, the bears wanted like two and a half billion public dollars and Prince Carlaff.
• 28:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the bears asked for way too much.
• 29:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Prince Carlaff was on his political stances, running for office like it got off on a terrible, terrible foot.
• 29:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe that's why everything went downhill.
• 29:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: But now you're in a situation,
• 29:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: where the bears are saying, hey, we're focused on Indiana.
• 29:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Illinois Senate isn't going to meet again until November unless they call a special session of vote on this stuff, but they don't have anything to vote on, and they don't know what votes they're going to have, like, everything is a giant mess.
• 29:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, it's a giant mess, because everything with the Chicago Bears is always, always, a giant mess.
• 29:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're in this situation because George McCaskey is not independently wealthy because the Chicago Bears ran off and bought property in Arlington Heights before they had any idea about the tax certainties in Arlington Heights and are trying to work backwards, trying to get those tax certainties that seems like some people in Arlington Heights don't want to give them bears need infrastructure costs, but they're not doing the traffic studies and some of the other things that need to be done.
• 30:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Illinois knows exactly what kind of infrastructure cost
• 30:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Warren's not operating in good faith.
• 30:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Illinois politicians told the bears that they aren't a priority.
• 30:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody has screwed this up.
• 30:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when you have a Chicago government, that isn't being run well by Brandon Johnson, when you have an Illinois government that tells the bears they're not a priority, when you have Kevin Warren not operating in good faith, this is where you get, you get to one giant mess.
• 30:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: When is this mess going to get resolved?
• 30:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would think it's going to get resolved by November, right?
• 30:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, if the bears wait for the next time that they're in session, like, I feel like that's going to be the deadline, right?
• 30:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be like, all right, you're back in November.
• 30:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: You get this through or we're going in the end.
• 31:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I feel like that's best case scenario.
• 31:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it might even be the bear.
• 31:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you don't do a special session in July or August,
• 31:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: we're gone.
• 31:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where this is going to be.
• 31:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: It depends on what kind of sight and if the bears really are interested in Indiana because right now they're not.
• 31:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because everything has been, oh, we got the wolf leg sight and haven't looking.
• 31:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's beautiful in the water.
• 31:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, this is going to work great.
• 31:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then the bears go were focused on ham and sight TVD.
• 31:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: They don't want to be there.
• 31:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Clearly.
• 31:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bears don't want to be at that site, and they probably don't want to be in Indiana at all.
• 31:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: They want to be in the state of Illinois.
• 31:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: The caskey wants to be in Arlington Heights.
• 31:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think Kevin Warren wants to be in Chicago and the Illinois government says they're not a priority.
• 31:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is where we're at.
• 31:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Life as a Chicago Bears fan.
• 31:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right.
• 31:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: thought I handled that pretty well.
• 31:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully I got most of it right.
• 31:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Brendan Moore is going to be by and he will get everything right.
• 32:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: He'll be out by next.
• 32:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is Bill Zimmerman, Bear Spanter.
• 32:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be right back.
• 32:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, welcome back into the podcast.
• 32:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now this stadium thing, as I said, this is not, you know, I'm more on the field kind of stuff, not so much behind the scenes and politics and everything.
• 32:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we need to go out and we need to get an expert to kind of talk about this, put everything that's happened in perspective.
• 32:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're not following this guy on social media, I recommend you do it immediately.
• 32:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's branded more 13 on Twitter.
• 32:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's branded BRE and DE and on Twitter.
• 32:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: capital news for Illinois.
• 32:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's been doing a great job covering this as this is all unfolded with the bears and the Illinois government.
• 32:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he joins me now.
• 32:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Brendan Bill Zimmerman.
• 32:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: How you doing?
• 32:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing great.
• 32:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bill.
• 32:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: How are you?
• 32:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing very well.
• 32:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And thank you for doing this.
• 32:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for adjusting it.
• 32:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, Brendan and I were going to do this at the end of last week and then things started bubbling up that there may be a better stadium announcement Friday afternoon.
• 33:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sure enough, it hits.
• 33:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Brendan, let's just start right there with this announcement because I thought it was interesting.
• 33:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bears, you know, the board votes.
• 33:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: They put this big thing forward.
• 33:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're our intentions.
• 33:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, our focus, I should say.
• 33:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our focus is now Hammond Indiana, but they certainly didn't make it seem like there were definitely going to be shovels in the ground in Indiana any time soon.
• 33:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, no, they did not.
• 33:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And honestly, Bill, it felt almost like February all over again, where the Indiana legislature passed their bill, the Bears put out a statement, and everyone was like, oh my god, they're moving to Indiana, and then several months have passed and they didn't
• 33:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: really make any moves in that direction, similarly a couple of weeks ago, the Illinois legislature adjourned their session without voting on a bears bill that would give them the property tax certainty that they've been seeking.
• 33:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So last week on Friday, they put out a statement saying that the board had
• 34:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: voted to advance this project in Hammond that that is their focus now, but they left what's kind of become some trademark ambiguity.
• 34:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: They didn't say that anything was final just said they voted to advance and they also said that a site is to be selected in Hammond so they haven't even
• 34:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that we're kind of in a still in a holding pattern in a way because it doesn't seem like shovels are going to be in the run anytime soon, whether it's an amond or an early canhights.
• 34:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I kind of read it as perhaps maybe another pressure tactic on Illinois legislators.
• 34:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're not supposed to be back in session until November.
• 34:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And some of the legislative leaders have ruled out a special session.
• 34:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: But maybe that changes, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
• 35:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I just read it more as, you know, they're taking another step, but it certainly doesn't seem like the final step.
• 35:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, it doesn't.
• 35:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And certainly there's been a lot of NFL Insiders, the Tom Pelaceros, and Ian Rappapores, and Adam Shepters, this is real.
• 35:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: This isn't leverage, but Kevin Warren then goes and talks and says, we still look forward to talking to the Illinois government, these kinds of things.
• 35:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Kevin Warren actually did this in Minnesota.
• 35:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: There was this big thing about the Minnesota Vikings
• 35:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then suddenly things started happening in Minneapolis and things started coming into play.
• 35:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we know Kevin Warren works this way.
• 35:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: We saw renderings of the beautiful lakefront stadium in Chicago in 2024.
• 35:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the focus was going the Arlington Heights.
• 35:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And now the focus is going to ham and Indiana.
• 35:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I get Brendan why reporters are saying this is real because if it wasn't real,
• 36:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then there is no leverage.
• 36:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just fake so it almost feels like the bears are still searching for leverage to try and get Illinois to kind of push the button and try and get some of this done started as some of this moving forward because my take on this has been This Indiana deal has been on the table for months if they wanted to move to Indiana they already would have
• 36:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I put in a tweet on Friday that it's kind of like in dating terms you're seeing somebody new but you're still texting your ex and and there may be just maybe a possibility that you get back together.
• 36:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that to your point yes, I mean this Indiana deal has been on the table for a while and I think it's pretty clear to anybody who's been watching this that
• 36:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think most fans want them to be in Arlington Heights, I'm sure there's still a contingent that will want them on the lake for an insult or feel, but I think generally, and I don't think it's a leverage point in the sense that I think they will go to Indiana if they have to, but I think that is certainly their least favorite option.
• 37:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, not to, not to, I guess, read between the lines or try to, I guess interpret the bear
• 37:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: It almost seemed a little forced about like, you know, we're going to do this project in Hammond.
• 37:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to connect the South-Sayshicago through the central through the north.
• 37:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: It almost felt like they're kind of grasping a little bit.
• 37:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, nothing against the fine people in the region and Hammond, like,
• 37:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it seems like the site while there's been someone flattering commentary about, you know, being a slag heap, you know, and all that, it looks pretty nice now.
• 37:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: They cleaned it up pretty good.
• 37:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think it's pretty obvious that they, I mean, they own the land, right?
• 38:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like they own the land in Arlington Heights.
• 38:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: They, they would like to build on the land they own.
• 38:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that they're going to see if there is a possibility where they can get what they need in Illinois in order to build there.
• 38:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Again, I think the timeline is going to be hard because it's just this hasn't been a huge priority for legislators in Illinois and so getting them to come in for a special session would be difficult.
• 38:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when the bears be willing to wait until November to possibly get a deal, I think it's interesting that.
• 38:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: As you said, they, even after releasing that statement, they, you know, call the, or before they release the statement they called the top negotiators in Illinois said we look forward to continuing conversations, so I, I almost wonder if perhaps they can get kind of a
• 38:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: an understanding, you're just talking to the legislators talking to the governor, maybe they can hold off because as we were talking about earlier, it doesn't sound like they're all that that close to shovels in the ground and Indiana seems like there's still a lot of work to be done to just to get a site first of all, but then there's also a bunch of work you have to do before you can get to that step.
• 39:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I wonder maybe if there is some time, I mean this is already dragged out
• 39:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I mean, it's been three and a half years since they finalized the deal threat by the land.
• 39:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know, but obviously, you know, I think there's growing pressure on the bears to make a decision.
• 39:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, construction costs go up every month to wait.
• 39:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: NFL, I think wants to make a decision.
• 39:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I guess we'll, we'll have to see if, uh, uh, you know, what Ellen all you did, you know, house casting a bill, the Senate passing a different bill, there's enough, uh, for them to, to hold off and see if in the video session they can actually get something done, and, and, and, and, and, and do what they wanted to, which is I think, go to Arlington Heights.
• 39:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, and I want to spend some time talking about Illinois government and the bears and trying to make Arlington Heights work, but before we do, I do want to talk about Chicago because every time the door seems to be shut on Chicago, the mayor tries to open it back up, and he just does not, he just does not seem to want to be the mayor that let the bears leave, whether it be to am and or to Arlington Heights.
• 40:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And every time we hear this, you know, I mean, obviously we've heard
• 40:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: financing and everything that the city of Chicago did is actually ballooned that amount more than what they've actually paid off.
• 40:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: We've heard about Brandon Johnson wanting to try and use a hotel tax to potentially pay their part of the stadium and still build them.
• 40:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Lakefront, but there doesn't really seem to be a plan.
• 40:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like in your estimation, know in how Illinois government works and a bit on how the Chicago government works, does it even seem remotely feasible for Chicago to still at all be in the mix at all?
• 40:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because I will say, if Kevin Warren, the president of the Bears, if he had his choice, he would be building the stadium in Chicago, it just does not seem like it's at all possible.
• 41:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: yeah i understand the alert i mean it is just the opening shot uh... you know do something i put ball or whatever it you can't beat that shot of soldier field and the skyline in the background uh... so so the alert is real but it's really hard to see them being able to build in chicago on the lake front uh... big a big barrier to that has been the fact that you know you they would need public funding to build the stadium uh... the
• 41:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: 2024, the proposal would have required about $900 million in state-backed bonds for direct stadium construction, which is a red line that Governor Pritzker and state legislators have made that we are not going to directly finance stadium construction.
• 41:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's on top of about $1.5 billion in infrastructure that would have been required.
• 42:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And a big reason this is an issue is because the stadium would have to be publicly owned, because it's on park land, you know, it's on the Lakefront and you have the Lakefront protection ordinance.
• 42:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So,
• 42:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the bears wouldn't be able to do necessarily able to do all the surrounding retail and entertainment and bears village.
• 42:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the financing would be difficult.
• 42:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we also forget that there's this group called Friends of the Park, that are
• 42:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: pretty steadfast in protecting space on the lake front and would probably probably file a lawsuit against any type of stadium, bear stadium, deal on the lake front.
• 42:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that would, you know, even if you're successful in being that back, that's several years of litigation potentially.
• 42:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a lot of bears and there's not a lot of other sites that you can do.
• 43:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: the city, and the Michael Rees Hospital site has been talked about, but the bears have ruled that out.
• 43:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's been talk about, like if the White Sacks went to the 78 that perhaps you can build, you know, on the, or if the White Sacks playing out 30 bitton shields.
• 43:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's just, it's very difficult.
• 43:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, in the bears, you know, I've said that it's between
• 43:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: but although we don't know the extent of it, but they have continued talking with the city up until last month at the very least they had, you know, my friend Justin Lawrence at Crane's reported six meetings between official at the Bears and the city.
• 43:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: So they've kind of kept that door open in a way and that that hurt them in terms of getting their mega projects bill.
• 43:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: The reason to come up is because of these back channels, potential back channels with the city, but it just seems, it's always seen kind of like a pipe dream, even when Kevin Warren and the bears had had the big press conference for years ago.
• 44:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they own the land in our lives and the heights and just given some of the barriers in terms of support from elected officials, because I was a thing like I don't have any more in realizes at the time, because yet Mayor Johnson with them at the press conference and was trying to, you know, just pal it up with him.
• 44:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well,
• 44:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Brian and Johnson couldn't deliver that project because it would have required state approval and the governor and legislated leaders like we're not on board with that.
• 44:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, I would never say never, I mean there's been so many twists and turns in this saga, but I would say at this point, I would put my money on either armates and heights or hand and I don't think Chicago, I just don't see the path.
• 44:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: for forgetting that done.
• 44:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: It just doesn't seem realistic to me.
• 45:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right.
• 45:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's pivot here to Arlington Heights and what needs to happen here.
• 45:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And look, we've heard Pritzker talk about how he doesn't want to make a bad deal for the Illinois taxpayers.
• 45:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we've heard the bears are talking about tax certainties and the infrastructure costs that they'd like Illinois to pay for.
• 45:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's just give you the floor here to kind of summarize
• 45:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are the specific hurdles for the bear spans who've been trying to follow this and they're getting pulled in 800 different directions?
• 45:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are the hurdles?
• 45:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: What specifically are the bears looking for that Illinois has been hesitant to do at this point and where they could potentially come together and maybe make a deal down the road?
• 45:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Big one, number one by by a long shot is the property tax issue.
• 45:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Bears want property tax certainty to build an Arlington Heights.
• 45:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've seen a few models for that that the one that people have focused on the past few years has been this mega projects bill, this payment in lieu of taxes, which would allow for the Bears to negotiate and lock in a lower property tax payment for a period of 40 years.
• 46:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It would allow them to negotiate with the local taxing bodies, so your school districts, municipalities, park district, etc.
• 46:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And basically, in they point out, and this is correct that they, you know, under the current system, they would probably pay the highest property tax by far of any NFL team.
• 46:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: in the country and also you're looking in Illinois, I mean they would be an outlier too because obviously stocks, power, consulture field or public, no property tax.
• 46:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: United Center has a property tax break, a weekly field has historic tax credits and I believe they also get a property tax break too.
• 46:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So they'd be paying full freight and the argument is that
• 46:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: that is not reasonable for us.
• 46:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: We want to pay our taxes, but the way the system is set up is just it would make a project unfeasible for us, especially because we're talking about the Macaski's.
• 47:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they're not borrow a lot of money to make this project go.
• 47:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of that is tied in to, you know, do you know what your costs are going to be moving forward.
• 47:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So so that is
• 47:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that is the thing that's been most difficult hurdle to overcome, because we're all we've also talked about infrastructure, for instance, like that's not a difficult thing.
• 47:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, yeah, you've got to work out the fine details.
• 47:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears still need to submit a traffic study.
• 47:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, but it's understood, though, that,
• 47:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: The state is going to kick in hundreds and millions of dollars for public infrastructure, you know, for roads and sewer, and the things that things that government does, things that they would have done for anything that that went into that property in our elected heights, things that are probably already on their list of, you know, we need to fix this road in that road.
• 47:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, you know, I've been told that the bear's definition of infrastructure is a little bit different than the state of Illinois's.
• 48:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So they've done a little bit of haggling on that, but the end of the day that's not going to be a huge barrier like that's something that that'll get done.
• 48:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: The real thing is just is this property tax issue.
• 48:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, we saw a few models in the legislature, like I mentioned the pilot, that did not get enough support in the Illinois Senate specifically, you had a lot of legislators that were concerned about what the impact would be on future tax revenue, on impact on surrounding commercial and residential property taxpayers, would they be picking up the bill for, you know, for the Bayers having a lower,
• 48:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: property tax payment.
• 48:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then obviously the revenue going to local governments surrounding.
• 48:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And obviously this was not a very specific bill.
• 48:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: This would have been for mega projects across the state.
• 48:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you had people legislator like, well, I don't know if I necessarily want that in my community because
• 49:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: that's gonna have an impact on the taxpayers in my district.
• 49:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there are a lot of issues barriers getting that across the finish line.
• 49:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so the Senate pivoted and did this public ownership model that more similar to kind of what Indiana was offering and what you see across the country where basically the bears would, in this case,
• 49:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: stadium but it would be owned by the municipality and that way they could avoid paying property taxes which I guess is not all that different from what's happening out soldier fields although I think the theory is that they would probably get a better deal in terms of a lease since they're building the darn thing and you know we probably keep most of the revenue that would get made be generated by the building.
• 49:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there are a couple of different ways that could have went.
• 50:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can one pass the house, didn't pass the Senate.
• 50:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: One pass the Senate didn't get voted on in the house.
• 50:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: But that is really the thing that I think is holding this up is the.
• 50:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: is the property tax issue.
• 50:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's always been that and I just want to make that clear because sometimes I'm on social media and I see people are like, oh, Illinois refuses to pay for infrastructure and make no.
• 50:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Illinois, that's always been like everybody's in support and infrastructure.
• 50:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: The biggest issue is the property tax issue.
• 50:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: So when Pritzker talks about a bad deal for the Illinois taxpayers, and you're talking about the property tax issue, you brought up about potentially others in the surrounding area, footing the bill potentially for lower property taxes for the bears.
• 50:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is that what Pritzker's talking about is that if the bears get tax certainty in a lower tax rate for that property, that the surrounding area, whether it be residents, businesses,
• 50:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: they would float the bill in essence for the bears having lower costs.
• 51:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is that what he's getting it?
• 51:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he's more so talking about we're not going to directly fund stadium construction.
• 51:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like we're not in the business of building stadiums.
• 51:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to give.
• 51:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bears have said that they don't want Illinois to do that.
• 51:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: They'll float those costs, correct?
• 51:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right, so, but that was for Arlington Heights.
• 51:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, when they were trying to build on the lake front, that would have required Illinois sports facilities authority to issue bonds, state-back bonds, they would have been paid for by hotel tax revenue.
• 51:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: But obviously, as we've seen in recent years, the hotel tax doesn't always get the whole thing, so state and city taxpayers have been on the hook for anything that, like,
• 51:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: goes above that.
• 51:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's what he talks about because the governor, and again, he's catching a lot of flack because he's the governor of governor's own.
• 51:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're the ones that get the blame
• 52:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: go Aryan and but he's really been supported one of the big supporters of this mega projects bill he wants it not not necessarily for the bears he wants it for you know statewide to do you know attract these big economic development projects the issue has been in the legislature
• 52:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: where you have a lot of legislators that don't want to authorize that tool, they're concerned about what the impact is going to be on the local taxpayers and surrounding areas and on tax revenue being siphoned away.
• 52:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: We already have so many tools that siphoned away tax revenue tax increment financing is probably the biggest one when people are much familiar with where
• 52:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it kind of goes into a fund that helps spur development, but then that money doesn't go to schools, it doesn't go to services.
• 52:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, one thing that, you know, Senator Bill County and who's the lead sponsor of, is the main negotiator in the Senate on the stadium issue.
• 53:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, we asked him about, you know, why they went with the public model, the public stadium authority instead of voting on mega projects.
• 53:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: told him and they were kind of speaking for a lot of them that they felt that they voted for mega projects that that would be just a further breakdown of what's already a broken property tax system that you know it's another special deal that would have been for for wealthy property taxpayers another way for them to get around paying the full freight and everyone else picks up the cost.
• 53:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think
• 53:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, so when the governor talks about a bad deal for taxpayers, I think he's talking more about direct stadium construction, and that, you know, we're not going to give away the store, we're not going to give away taxpayer money to build a stadium, but, but he would argue, the legislature's the main impediment on the property tax thing, he would argue and others would argue that, you know,
• 54:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: you don't get any property tax revenue or basically you get nothing if there's nothing there, right?
• 54:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like right now the bears I think are paying maybe 4 million bucks a year on the land and you can't necessarily bank on anything being built there so you know it's like do you want to get you know maybe not the full property tax that you would get if it was just under the you know normal
• 54:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: parameters, or do you want to get something, you know, maybe not as much, but but if that ensures that something gets built, then, you know, that's going to create all these other benefits, you know, the economic development.
• 54:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, the sales tax revenue jobs, you know, housing, other things that benefit the surrounding area.
• 54:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's that be his argument, but again, you know, the property tax issue is it's a big one for a lot of legislators since Springfield.
• 54:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Gotcha.
• 54:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And before we wrap up here, I do want to ask you about Kevin Warren, because I think you had some interesting comments, others have had some interesting comments about Kevin Warren, and his approach to everything down in Springfield, because I'll start, I'm a White Sox fan.
• 55:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know you have in your profile that you're a White Sox fan.
• 55:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a Jerry Ryan Zorf guy.
• 55:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: I, I love a lot of things that have happened to my favorite baseball team, but even Jerry Ryan's dwarf knew like when he needed to work with the government, he was down in spring field.
• 55:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was getting his hands dirty, doing what he needed to do to try and get a deal across the finish line.
• 55:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Kevin Warren, from from all reports, you know, you're reporting included has been very standoffish has not been going down there as blown off meetings
• 55:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: a hired lobbyist lobbyist or telling them this is what you got to do.
• 55:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're not doing it anyway.
• 55:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And look, I know George McCaskey isn't a bulldog.
• 55:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's not the kind of guy that it's going to go down there and go hard for a deal.
• 55:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's part of the reason why Kevin Warren was brought in because Kevin Warren is that kind of bulldog.
• 56:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: He did a lot of bulldog things when he was running the big ten.
• 56:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, it feels like Kevin Warren is almost open.
• 56:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what's saying he's doing that, but it feels like Kevin Warren is openly sabotaging this, you know, talking to Chicago behind Illinois's back, not going down to Springfield.
• 56:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just, I don't understand the end game for Kevin Warren and what he's doing here unless it's just gross and competence.
• 56:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know, I guess what he's thinking in terms of the strategy and why he's acted the way that he has, but I get to say in general, just just, you know, kind of, I've been around long enough and I've talked to enough people down here.
• 56:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that the bears haven't been the model for how you get something done in the capital.
• 56:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think the big thing is that they, again, they've hired really good lobbyists, like some of the best that you can buy in Springfield.
• 57:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: People who know what they're doing, people know their way around, and oftentimes the bears' top leadership, and that would include Kevin Warren,
• 57:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: have ignored their advice and have not done the things that, you know, the people that know how to get things done down here are telling you to do in order to get what you want.
• 57:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, and I think some of that too, with some of these twists and turns, haven't helped like the rendezvous Chicago a few years ago didn't help the various pivots and, you know,
• 57:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that that is hurt and too.
• 57:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, people think about, oh, it's been Illinois three years make a deal, true.
• 57:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think there's blame to be spread around.
• 57:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: But for a lot of those years, the bears really weren't clear and what exactly they wanted or where they were going to end up being.
• 57:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, they, they, and, you know, and people point to Indiana coming into the picture and then all of a sudden that spurred.
• 58:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, folks into action.
• 58:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I know.
• 58:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean that that certainly was a part of it, but also the bearers started to get, you know, people viewed them to getting as getting more serious about, you know, like the details of, okay, this is what we need in our own kind of heights.
• 58:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is, you know, what we're like, what we need to get this project done and then, you know, they started to push the mega project spill.
• 58:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: But then, of course, in April, whether, whether, you know, I think most people would say that Mayor Johnson probably oversoul some of these talks with Chicago, but the fact that you're even having discussions, again, hurt them and it was not helpful to their cause.
• 58:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, um,
• 58:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I, I, I guess I don't know what necessarily what their path forward is in Illinois.
• 58:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think, they, they, they don't, there's not a lot of good will for, for, for top bears with leadership in the capital, but, you know, I, I, I, I think, I clearly, I think the bears still want to be in Illinois, and I, and I, and I, after all this, I, I, I, I, I think most legislatures, even the ones that have been very skeptical of giving the bears help don't want
• 59:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, I think despite everything, there's still a chance for Illinois, I think something can get done.
• 59:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know when and I don't know what it looks like, but I think that there is a path forward, but that will probably require, you know,
• 59:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: maybe the bears in Kevin Warren and maybe change their strategy a little bit and it might you take some buy-in from Illinois Legislators the governor may have to get more directly involved because he's kind of been you know he's been pushing for the mega projects bill but it's been more of a hands-off
• 59:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: approach and he may have to get more direct involved with legislators to twist some arms to get it done.
• 59:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think it can probably still get done.
• 59:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even after all this, even even after session, even with them not coming back for, you know, four or five months.
• 1:00:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, nothing with all the twists and turns, that nothing would surprise me quite frankly.
• 1:00:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, and last, last one for you here on this is, and you know, you talked a lot of it right there at the end of that answer about, you know, the next steps and where this could be.
• 1:00:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not going to ask him where they end up in Indiana, Illinois, who knows what this role or coaster, but if the bears still are kind of hard line that they won't wait until November that they would want a special session called, and I know you said some legislatures.
• 1:00:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: have been opposed to that.
• 1:00:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think there could be enough sway where that could potentially still happen that we could get a summer session to try and get this across the finish line?
• 1:00:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if enough, you know, deal making and conversations can be done before a special session.
• 1:00:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know exactly how all that works where they could meet because they basically know they can get it across the finish line if they do meet.
• 1:00:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that's a possibility
• 1:01:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: to try and get a deal done if they want to stay in Illinois.
• 1:01:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think they're probably going to have to wait till November.
• 1:01:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just I don't I don't I don't think they're going to call a special session.
• 1:01:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I I just don't there those are rare and usually they're for like very, very pressing issues and and honestly I know the bears are it's a pressing issue for for bear spans and and and folks that you know
• 1:01:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: want them to stay in Illinois.
• 1:01:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is not a priority in Springville.
• 1:01:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: It hasn't been.
• 1:01:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think we saw that when they let without taking action on it.
• 1:01:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I don't think they're going to cost special session.
• 1:01:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Again, they could.
• 1:01:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, anything can happen.
• 1:01:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: A bunch of them will be in Springfield in August for the State Fair.
• 1:01:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Democrats and Republicans both have their political days at the fair where they have fundraisers and they come down and they
• 1:01:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, so maybe they could, they could do something, then I get, I'm very, very skeptical.
• 1:02:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: But also, you know, and they call it a veto session in the fall in November.
• 1:02:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you can often do things that didn't get done in the spring.
• 1:02:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then nothing precludes the legislature from doing that.
• 1:02:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And oftentimes,
• 1:02:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's how it goes and then they get it done because they can have conversations over the summer like all the stakeholders can meet and they can work stuff out like, you know, at the end, I mean, I know, you know, you'd say, oh, it's been, you know, this proposal has been out there for years and that's true, but like,
• 1:02:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: literally at the end they ran out of time because like you know there's this change in the Senate came you know the language wasn't filed until a few hours before they voted on it at three in the morning and then the House and Energy Institute read it so I could see them having conversations and getting to a place where maybe everybody feels more comfortable and then you can have kind of that understanding that okay when we come back in November
• 1:03:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing is guaranteed, but I think that's probably more so what the route would be that you know the bears keep talking with the governor's office with the leaders in the the legislature try to hammer something out that they all think can
• 1:03:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: pass and then you hope that in the video session that you can just kind of see it up and that it can it can finally get across the finish line.
• 1:03:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: But but again, you're that that would require a lot of trust and require a lot of you know actually getting in the weeds and doing the work.
• 1:03:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, so it can be done, it can be done, it just, it just matter of all the parties wanted to get done.
• 1:03:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, that's the bears, that's the governor, that's the legislature.
• 1:03:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then obviously we'll see what happens with Indiana.
• 1:03:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, today today, you know, what more needs to be done in Indiana are they going to be?
• 1:04:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, are they actually going to try to get shovels on the ground this year?
• 1:04:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's the timeline there?
• 1:04:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think they left themselves enough space in that statement.
• 1:04:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: They were put out last week that, you know, I think again, they're still talking to Illinois.
• 1:04:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it can still happen, but I just don't think it's going to be in a special session.
• 1:04:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: interesting.
• 1:04:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: So just one follow up on that.
• 1:04:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: If the bears are willing to wait until November for a potential vote on, if it's the mega project spill, and you know, do you feel like at that point, the Illinois government might make it more of a priority because I feel like if the bears feel they're getting shoved to sight again, and again, like you said, it might take an Kevin Moore and George McCasky need to have a different approach here to to change that
• 1:04:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if can that add it to change because it does feel like to me with everything you're saying if there is no special session and the bears do wait until November and nothing can get done then that that feels like that is the end of the line that they would say all right we're going in the end Yeah, I mean, again, I don't know how much longer they're going to want to want to wait and want to try to figure something out
• 1:05:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think November's probably a good bet, but also one other thing I'll mention is that, so we have an election in November.
• 1:05:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: There will be a lot of legislators who are not gonna be coming back and whether it's during the veto session of November, or probably gonna have a lame duck session, which is in January right before they swear in the new general assembly.
• 1:05:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you'll have a bunch of legislators
• 1:05:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: again, are not going to be coming back and you know, that's often a time where you can take politically tough votes because if you have y'all have to face voters again, then you know, it becomes a little bit easier.
• 1:05:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like in the past, that's when like you would see maybe a vote on a tax increase or something like that where you try to get it, you try to sneak it through at the end.
• 1:06:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: So November is probably the time, but like I wouldn't shock me to see like if they can't get it down in November.
• 1:06:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: early January, because I mean, nobody's doing any construction in December anyways, right?
• 1:06:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: But maybe early January, you get that lame duck session, last day before the new General Assembly sworn in, you know, like I could see that happening.
• 1:06:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, these these folks are, I mean, they're creatures I have it, they're creatures at deadlines, like real deadlines, like you can't just set like an artificial deadline,
• 1:06:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: okay we don't do this today then you know then then this is what's going to happen so so I think you know perhaps if the bears are you know like instead of releasing some ambiguous statements and say okay we don't pass it by this day
• 1:06:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: we're leaving or like we're putting shovels in the ground in Indiana tomorrow.
• 1:07:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think that might kind of be at up the pressure if you will.
• 1:07:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: But so I could be at November or again January.
• 1:07:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I know that's pushing it off again.
• 1:07:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is Brendan Moore from Capitol News and again follow him on Twitter at Brendan Moore 13.
• 1:07:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Brendan, thank you so much.
• 1:07:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have enjoyed your
• 1:07:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Good evening with you, Bill.
• 1:07:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right.
• 1:07:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: There he is.
• 1:07:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Brendan Moore.
• 1:07:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: There it is.
• 1:07:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Chicago Bears Stadium in a nutshell.
• 1:07:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the thing I take away from more of the most is he does not think a special session is going to be called.
• 1:07:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: So he thinks if the bears want to go to Illinois or stay in Illinois, I should say.
• 1:07:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: he's saying it needs to come in November.
• 1:07:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought that was surprising.
• 1:07:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would assume bears could make some calls and sit down with people.
• 1:07:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Get a deal where they basically know it's going to get done.
• 1:08:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: They call the special session.
• 1:08:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: They vote and they get it through.
• 1:08:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't think so.
• 1:08:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, he knows more about it than me.
• 1:08:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: So,
• 1:08:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: If the bears are going to go to Illinois says November, he could say January.
• 1:08:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's 20, 27 folks.
• 1:08:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you think this stadium thing is done, it doesn't seem like it because the bears are focused on one thing, but they're not going to get an answer on the other until November or maybe January.
• 1:08:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bears want to go and stay in Illinois.
• 1:08:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are going to have to be patient.
• 1:08:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right.
• 1:08:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's wrap up this podcast.
• 1:08:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're doing a little differently.
• 1:08:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: What I'm doing, Mailbag, we're going to talk about a Chicago sports, I don't know if we can call them a legend.
• 1:08:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he is certainly one of the most popular personalities across the Chicago Sports Media landscape for the last couple decades.
• 1:08:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that is Stacy King, who died over the weekend.
• 1:08:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was only 59 years old, having gotten exactly what happened to him.
• 1:09:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: It sucks, it really sucks.
• 1:09:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stacey was a great guy.
• 1:09:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know him well.
• 1:09:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I got him to know some of the people in the Chicago media and national media pretty well, former players and some not over the years.
• 1:09:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I had met Stacey on a couple of occasions, he was always very cordial.
• 1:09:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: He wouldn't have been able to pick me out of a lineup I understand that, that's fine.
• 1:09:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But always a good guy and kind of a life of the party, always fun, always entertaining and just a really, really good guy and when he was drafted by the bears, I was about 11, 12 years old at the time.
• 1:09:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I was stoked that the bear's got Stacy King.
• 1:09:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was at now, maybe some of you know this, maybe you don't.
• 1:09:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we're gonna do a little Stacy King history here because Stacy King went to Oklahoma.
• 1:09:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stacy King was an animal at Oklahoma.
• 1:09:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Power Forward Center.
• 1:10:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was in,
• 1:10:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Redouble at Oklahoma led Oklahoma to the 1988 championship game played in the championship game against Danny Manning and Kansas Kansas won that, but he did it was one of the final two teams that was him and Mookie Blaylock.
• 1:10:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think Harvey Grant Horses, brother on that team, really good squad, came back the next year.
• 1:10:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: State's King was even better.
• 1:10:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: State's King led them to a number one seed.
• 1:10:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think they lost in the sweet 16 that year.
• 1:10:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: They got upset by a four or a five seed.
• 1:10:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna say for Virginia, but don't don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
• 1:10:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Don't say that is 100% accurate.
• 1:10:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was the year that Illinois made the final four with Michigan and seat in Hall and Michigan be at seat in Hall in the championship game that we're meal robins and free throws.
• 1:10:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: But
• 1:10:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: But Stacey King was a great player.
• 1:10:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: First team, all American, I know that I think, I don't think it was big 12, and I think it was big eight player of the year.
• 1:11:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was an animal.
• 1:11:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was a great, great college player.
• 1:11:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the bear select him in the top 10, six, seven, thick, overall, whatever it was in the 89 draft and I was stoked.
• 1:11:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought Stacey King was going to be awesome.
• 1:11:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: didn't quite pan out, right?
• 1:11:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: He never became that great player.
• 1:11:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Bears were obviously hoping he was going to become.
• 1:11:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: He became a role player.
• 1:11:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: He became Horus Grant's backup for the most part.
• 1:11:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was basically what his role became for the Chicago Bears.
• 1:11:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I think when they knew when Stacey King wasn't going to beat that elite big man that they needed to play next to Horus Grant, they went out and they got built up.
• 1:11:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, while, and here's what I would say about Stacey.
• 1:11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you know this is where he leaves a positive impact because I went, you know, after, you know, I saw the news, I went and I was looking at his stats.
• 1:12:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: And they were a lot worse than I remembered.
• 1:12:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't mean that to knock him.
• 1:12:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean that to say that Stacey's aura, what he left behind was more positive than what it actually was on the court.
• 1:12:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought Stacey average eight to 10 points a game in like six, seven rebounds a game as a backup.
• 1:12:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: He did not.
• 1:12:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was like five point six points in like four rebounds.
• 1:12:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: those those three championship years for the Bears and that's fine.
• 1:12:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Bears needed role players.
• 1:12:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was their big man off the bench.
• 1:12:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Him and Will Perdue back in a poorest grant and Bill Kurt Wright.
• 1:12:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But Stacey was a personality.
• 1:12:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: His legacy was not what he did on the court.
• 1:12:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's who he was off the court.
• 1:12:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't do it justice, but if you don't know the Stacy King fried chicken story and him missing the flight as a rookie, you can find it on YouTube, the fried chicken story is hilarious.
• 1:12:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there's always one thing that stuck with me about Stacy King.
• 1:13:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that was, you know, the bulls when they won their championships, they'd have their rallies in Grand Park.
• 1:13:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: They'd get the stage set up in Grand Park, all the bulls players would speak.
• 1:13:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And after the third championship, the third championship, the bears theme song, and if you don't know this, if you're younger, you're gonna laugh.
• 1:13:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bears theme song was boobed there it is.
• 1:13:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it was just, it was the hip hop song, it was out just then.
• 1:13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know the song, go find it.
• 1:13:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just, it's a fun, very 90 song.
• 1:13:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the bears are up there after they three peded.
• 1:13:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's talking, build cart right gets up there.
• 1:13:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And everyone knows, like if you know, build cart right, you know, that crabbling voice that he hit.
• 1:13:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like it sounded like he just swallowing some racer blades and then he started trying to talk.
• 1:13:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: So,
• 1:13:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cartwright gets up there and Cartwright has the gravelly low voice anyway, and then to boot he's losing his voice.
• 1:14:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: He can barely speak.
• 1:14:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Bill Cartwright is on the mic and you can barely hear him.
• 1:14:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's trying to do something serious about the journey and what they've traveled and how they've gotten here and all this time.
• 1:14:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: You could barely hear him.
• 1:14:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Stacy King gets up and it grabs the microphone from Bill and I'm going, this is going to be a horrible impression, but we're going to do it anyway.
• 1:14:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: He grabs a mic and he goes, hey, hey, hey, let me translate for Bill for those of you having a hard time here at him and he just puts on his bill card right in personation and he just goes, oh, there it is and like the crowd just erupts and everybody goes crazy and Stacy King just waving the card rights laughing and that was Stacy King.
• 1:14:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stacey King was a guy in that locker room.
• 1:14:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: He loosened up the other bears.
• 1:14:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: That bears.
• 1:14:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: He loosened up the bull's team.
• 1:14:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: He kept that team loose.
• 1:14:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: He kept that team laughing.
• 1:15:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: That led easy to do with Michael Jordan.
• 1:15:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, Michael Jordan was all business.
• 1:15:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Stacey King had an integral role.
• 1:15:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not just as Horace grants back up.
• 1:15:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: but as the guy that kept the team loose.
• 1:15:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: So then after his career, he becomes a broadcaster.
• 1:15:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's been part of Bulls' broadcast for years and years.
• 1:15:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know exactly when he started, but from Chuck Garfine to Jason Goff all the way to doing color analysts and I'm coming Elizabeth.
• 1:15:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not as funny now as it was when he did it because indeed he was coming.
• 1:15:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: But, man, I'm gonna miss Stacy King.
• 1:15:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And like I said, I don't know them.
• 1:15:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there are certain people I've gotten to know in the media and they die and it hurts because I feel like I'm losing.
• 1:15:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: It may not be a friend, but I'm at least losing in acquaintance.
• 1:15:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't know Stacy like that, but the personality and who he was and what he brought to the city of Chicago,
• 1:16:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we're all going to miss that.
• 1:16:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, rest in peace, Stacy King, you made an impact on many of us, including little 10 year old me watching March madness in 1988 and cheering for in Illinois, cheering for the Oklahoma suitors because I thought Stacy King and Mookie playlock was a badass basketball team and they were.
• 1:16:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I like Stacey King before he was on the balls, was thrilled he was there and love that he was part of the city of Chicago for 35 years.
• 1:16:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's really awesome and I think it just sucks that he was only 59 years old and that we should have had another 25 years of Stacey King another 10, 15 years of him broadcasting.
• 1:16:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I feel horrible for his family, for his friends, love ones,
• 1:16:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: rest in peace.
• 1:16:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are going to miss you as Chicago sports fans.
• 1:17:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's going to do it for Bayer's banter.
• 1:17:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: We will talk to you again soon.
• 1:17:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: We will do our usual, I don't know who the guest is going to be yet, but we will do our usual OTA mini camp wrap up kind of see where the team is at.
• 1:17:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then we will start looking ahead to training camp.
• 1:17:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: We will talk to you all