Last month, the White Sox announced plans for a potential new stadium on Chicago’s South Loop. Justin Laurence of Crain’s Chicago Business reported last week that the organization was seeking roughly $1 billion in public funding for the project.
Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf traveled to the Illinois capital to meet with state officials yesterday. Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson spoke with reporters this afternoon and sounded broadly open to the possibility of approving money for both the White Sox and NFL’s Bears.
“I’m grateful that both organizations are committed to having these conversations. As far as financing these projects, both organizations know that they have to put some skin in the game. They’re expressed a commitment to do that,” Johnson said (link via Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times). “As far as public dollars, we haven’t gotten into any of those specifics just yet. But I will say that we’re going to explore all options. But we have to make sure that we’re doing right by the people of Chicago. … Everything is on the table here. But again, I want to make sure there is a real commitment to public use and public benefit.”
It’s not clear how much the White Sox plan to invest in the project. They’ll surely continue discussions with both city and state officials as they look to drum up funding. The team’s lease at Guaranteed Rate Field runs through the 2029 season. The stadium opened in 1991, making it the eighth-oldest park in the majors.
Like a ball player:the wrong side of 30
Guaranteed Rate Field is one of the worst MLB ballparks in the country that I’ve visited, and I’ve visited many.
Coliseum and Tropicana are by far the worst
Tropicana is relaxing. Underrated imo. Maybe because it’s the only indoor I’ve been to, but I enjoyed it. Heard guaranteed rate has amazing food
Trop is relaxing? Pass it around.
This new stadium trend is getting out of hand.
reinsdorf doesn’t need a new stadium. He won’t be able to fill the one he’s got. He just wants a shiney new park so he can show off to his fellow billionaire owners. If he had the fans in mind, he’d spend some of that stadium money on the players that would make the Sox competitive instead of the laughingstock that they are. If he wants a new stadium he should put up his own money. Why should tax payers foot the bill for something most of them will never use?
He wants to inflate the value of the franchise before he croaks.
Although Im certain if owners could figure out a way to make it happen theyd be happy to have publicly funded payrolls. Might be the ultimate Big Thing in pro sports someday….Imagine this story: “The xyz legislature today approved 300 million in funding for xyz teams payroll for the upcoming season. Team officials criticized the funding level as inadequate.”
Avenger: It’s not about showing off, it’s about raping the Treasury to make himself and his cronies even more disgustingly rich.
My wife wants a new couch every 3 years, I don’t get it
@Brew88: have you considered asking the public to finance a new couch?
They ve confused the saying “my couch pulls out I dont”. You flip that backwards and it becomes spraying in anakward limited position, hence a mess…
I was going to say the exact same thing, Jim-Bob.
It’s not new.
How can you have a commitment to “public” use. The majority of Chicago residents can’t afford a ticket to the game … let alone bring your family.
Based on what? MLB has had the fewest new stadiums open in the last decade in it’s entire existence
Beings Chicago is being perfectly run, with zero crime and a great infrastructure, by all means build a ballpark.
If zero crime is your standard for a city having a ballpark, I guess MLB just needs to fold then?
If people are up in arms about the Vegas funding then there should be mass protests that public money is going to a ballpark vs fighting crime in the south side.
Zero crime? What country do you live in? There will never be zero crime in a city with 2.6 million people.
Ever hear of sarcasm? SMH
Let ’em leave…if they actually would.
Ok then. Free admission since it’s already a public park, tax dollars paid and fans can bring their own food and drink in. What a novel idea, Reinsdorf. I’m on board.
I bet you haven’t even considered economic theories from the 19th century backed by zero empirical proof suggesting that this is a great investment for the taxpayer?!?!?!?
I think he posted that comment with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
first of all, there is rarely such a thing as an “investment” for the taxpayers. we get robbed to fund expenditures, transfer payments, some genuinely essential services, and debt servicing – because government ineptitude is such that they have the ability to rob us to finance their boondoggles and still can’t manage to get their “revenues” to look anything like their expenditures. Looking for ROI on these expenditures is the wrong idea, due to both that ineptitude, as well as the fact that these government expenditures exist to fill in gaps to provide things that some people have deemed necessary, but are not able to get from the private sector. For the most part, if there was an ROI to be had in those areas, the private sector would invest in providing it and tax dollars wouldn’t have to. Stadiums are in a weird place where they obviously accrue massive ROI to the private owner, but it’s also wrong to suggest cities get nothing out of the deal even if it’s a mischaracterization to call it an investment. Having a major pro sports team is basically akin to having a public good. the tangible cost/benefit analysis isn’t always going to look great, because a fair amount of the benefit is intangible.
on one hand I hate the corporate welfare aspect of the bargain when it comes to financing stadiums – socialized cost for privatized gain is lame. But considering that governments are almost never willing to consider permanently reducing taxes meaning they’re going to take this money from me anyway and spend it on something, the pragmatist and sports fan in me would rather they throw the money away on something I’m going to enjoy, like a shiny new stadium. Bad ROI or not I find it preferable to any of the next thousand ways they’d propose appropriating those funds.
Well said.
The government boogyman canard. Government officials are elected by citizens, therefore government is us. Don’t like your elected officials? Elect new ones.
I dunno, lesser of two evils might be what got us into this whole mess.
Windowpane, that hasn’t been true since some time in the 19th century and you know it. Sure, we get to choose who is going to bend us over the barrel for the next couple of years; to suggest that’s actually capable of changing anything is a hilariously inept analysis of at least 130 years worth of politics. Between the cost of running for any important office, constantly having to worry about re-election over doing their job, special interest lobbying groups controlling everything with their money, and most of the actual governing these days being done by unelected career bureaucrats employed by state or federal agencies rather than the people actually elected to make decisions, no, there is not anything we average Joes can do other than sit and take it. At least if we keep convincing them to throw us a nice stadium every couple decades you can say the whole thing is ribbed for our pleasure.
You speak only for yourself. You don’t speak for me. That lack of clear-thinking and your outlandish cynicism is a large part of the problem. Wake up.
So how do you propose we change the status quo?
Or would you prefer to just keep blaming everyone else?
It’s literally impossible to elect new ones, WindowPane, because all—yes, all—elections are fake.
All nominees are agents of the elite: family members of the obscenely rich, or cronies of massive corporations, so it matters not which one…”wins”. The fake-elected’s serve only to do their masters’ bidding.
DirtyWater: Well said. P.S. Ribbed for our pleasure, LOL!!
Not entirely true these days. The establishment desperately tried to block Trump (the only candidate to actually defeat the party elites) but were ultimately delighted to learn that he preferred speaking tours and simply delegated everything to people that do their bidding. The establishment is also terrified of Bernie Sanders who comes very close to winning the primary but crashes and burns every time it veers into the deep south.
Bawahahahahahaha! Your tinfoil hat is askew.
Clueless.
Note that anyone who defames another person with the ancient “tinfoil” label is himself an agent, sent to deflect and misdirect.
“So how do you propose we change the status quo?
Or would you prefer to just keep blaming everyone else?”
First of all, if I had the answer, do you think I’d be having this conversation in a comment section right now? No, I’d be running for public office or some other kind of position where I could help influence policy in a way so that we can fix things.
Say American society is the Titanic, right, cruising along some calm north Atlantic waters, supposedly indestructible and without a care in the world. Some of us have a sober enough view of things to see we’ve sailed into a patch of icebergs, and not everyone has seemed to realize that yet. And here your thought is that no one should chime up that they’ve identified the problem if they don’t also have the solution – maybe it’s that kind of thinking that caused the Titanic to carry on as if all was normal for about two hours after shredding its hull open on an iceberg. Maybe if more people spoke up and rang some alarms sooner, less of that precious time would have been wasted and fewer lives would’ve been lost in that wreck. No, I don’t have a great answer for how we fix the present state of affairs, but maybe there’s someone smarter than me out there who does. We’ll never find that person if we can’t freely discuss the issues.
DW04: The Titanic story is as fake as all “elected” politicians.
I can’t believe the Sox are going to get 2 stadiums out of Chicago when the Cubs, literally the cities biggest tourist attraction, couldn’t get a dime.
That Wrigley remodel wasn’t free.
Yeah but Ricketts spent his own money not yours. We all know how much money Reinsdorf will kick in. Zero.
Cubs privately funded the Wrigley renovations, not only that but they had to pay the city of Chicago millions of addition dollars for public lighting, claiming an excess energy cost for the cities street lights.
The White Sox wants the city to pay for a new billion dollar stadium and they want the city to give them the land around it. The Cubs additional purchased the land around Wrigley, again, with their own money.
It’s very sad when you see billionaires on the street corner begging for money. Reinsdorf’s done it 3 times now if you count the United Center. Ricketts is actually a businessman. He’ll eventually get all his money back and much more I would imagine. You know, Like a businessman would.
Good luck to Reinsdorf, he must ve missed the Bears moving trucks heading towards suburbs.
It does show the hypocrisy in Chicagos government, they fought the Wrigley renovations every step along the way so they could extort the Ricketts family. Meanwhile there is serious consideration to gifting the White Sox a new stadium and for what? They don’t bring in nearly the money the Cubs do for the city.
I have to take your word on the hypocrisy l, I don’t know or haven’t read much on the details. I’m not surprised though whith Amy government, let alone Chicago’s.
I will say tho the Ricketts IF I recall correctly bought the team just after the recession and started to try and get local funding. Which obviously wasn’t an ideal time.
Overall though I just have a really hard time getting behind the vast majority of these publicly funded stadiums. Here in Detroit I’d say that Comerica Park was somewhat an exception as it was the first new one and kicked off revitalization. However Little Caesars Arena was largely public funded and came with promises that have yet to be fulfilled. One of the promises was a District Detroit project that has yet to materialize in any way. As long as numerous vacant plots or buildings sitting idle that Illitch family bought through shell companies in advance of stadium. They played a cat and mouse game buying properties with these shell companies with no rhyme or reason so that no one could pinpoint then future LCA location and hold their property for a better return. Now promises haven’t been kept and properties still sitting idle while development has exploded everywhere else around downtown. Just very shady and unethical.
Um, have you seen our current economy?
Every owner asks for public funding because it’s been the gold standard for cities and teams. The Cubs actually SHOULD have received public funding because Wrigley is a historic landmark. Maybe not should but definitely has more of case for public funding than the White Sox (who I may add had state funded renovations in 2004 as well)
Each owner is on a different side of the political spectrum, can you guess who’s on which side?
Historic landmark? Sure. But that means nothing to govt officials who move to tear down historic landmarks anyway. Ricketts probably asked for too much in the renovations in changing the character of the ballpark & in also buying up land & turning it into Disneyland.
Reading is a skill Citizen. Ricketts asked for ZERO money from Chicago. Zero means Nada, None Zilch, 0, . All he got was big bill from the City for the Extra electricity from which is used to light the neighborhood. Read Drascoo’s comment. Plus all he wanted was the ability to play more night games from the City Council which told him to stuff it. Real Champions the City of Chicago. A**holes all. Especially this new joke of a Mayor.
Reinsdorf and the Blackhawks owner paid for the United Center.
That’s another issue here. If the Gov and Mayor cave, then guess who is knocking on the door with their hand out next?
Free money…it ain’t much, but it’s honest work
No reason to do this. They wont draw, they wont spend. Let them go to “Nashville” or elsewhere
They aren’t moving to Nashville.
They draw fine when they’re decent. Also, why the quotes around “Nashville?” Are you skeptical of its existence?
“Nashville” is a conspiracy of cartographers.
Absolutely! Let them move!
“They wont draw, they won’t spend” Kenny, is that you?
It should be the other way around, and the real (long suffering) Sox fans know this. Let another sucker fan base buy that BS. BTW you are right about one thing, moving a few miles north is not going to change the attendance numbers, winning consistently and making good FA acquisitions of top players in their prime, not 5-10 years past it, does.
Rob Blagojevich: “I got this thing and it’s f****** golden, I’m not giving it up for nothing”
Stop Giving Cheapskate Billionaires Taxpayer Money Challenge
Level: Impossible
I rather give it them than some Ms-13 crossing the border looking for a handout
Now Im in no way a proponent of funding immigrants here illegally. But do you really think MS-13 members are coming here seeking handouts?? The last thing they’d want to do is voluntarily give info to the government or announce their arrival. Anonymity is kind of a huge advantage for someone engaging in criminal activities.
Lmao. You need to pay attention. They actually flaunt this fact and advertise that they get handouts in New York, commit crimes in New York and then vacation in Florida to spend the money and then go back to New York… rinse, repeat.
They don’t hide it, they are proud of it and use it to recruit more members to expand their criminal enterprise.
And liberal politicians fund it with OUR MONEY
I’m sure you already know this, but the people you heard this from are manipulating you in bad faith in an (apparently successful) attempt to weaponize you as a useful idiot for political purposes.
1) None of this is true.
2) Migrants commit crimes at *HALF* the rates of people born in America.
3) A bipartisan deal to address a spike in border crossings was sunk for political reasons by the same people complaining about them (i.e., so brain-poisoned people like yourself could keep being mad and casually othering people who don’t look like them as subhuman).
4) The people telling you this know all this, but their goal isn’t to solve problems, it is to manipulate you in bad faith so you’ll send them money to “fix” the problem, only to tank any possible solution presented.
5) They have written books on how to manipulate people and how to tell if it’s working. The main metric: “Do you feel more scared now than you did before?” If the answer is yes, their manipulative tactics are working.
I wish you future success in, one day, breaking away from this cult, otherwise, enjoy dying alone and unloved.
People that spend all their time trying to prove how virtuous they are typically have the most to hide. Guarantee you’ve got some massive skeletons in that closet, lil fella.
I spend most of my time sleeping, at work or with my wife and kids. But your vague, disparaging generalization while not refuting any of my points was cute, too.
As a general rule, people who try to “prove how virtuous they are” don’t sign off with “enjoy dying alone and unloved.”
Enjoy dying alone and unloved.
OKC Thunder in the NBA just got a new arena funded. $900 million. $850 million from taxpayers (from a fund that was used for the homeless in OKC), and $50 million from the billionaire owner.
OKC in the coming years has 3 players that are expected to get “Max” contracts in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. Each will get 5 years at north of $350 million.
Yet, they can’t finance their own arena for $900 million over 25 years???????
OKC had a fund for homelessness that supplied $850 million for an arena? I think you must have misunderstood something along the way.
Part of the revenue from the tax that was diverted to pay for the arena was used to service the homeless community in OKC. They are using the revenue from the tax to make the payments on the debt over the course of 25 years. Nothing misunderstood at all.
They could have just ended the tax, and deliver a billion $$$ in tax savings to residents over 25 years ….. Instead, the money is going to pay for a shiny new arena, with really high prices… for a billionaire owner.
Do the math on OKC Shai, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. 5 years for $350 is on average the same as 10 years for $700 million Ohtani got. OKC is gonna have 3 of these players. 3. Small market OKC with 3 Ohtani contracts. …. But can’t pay for their own arena over 25 years????
Have they really earned a new stadium?
If the taxpayers can come up with a billion Jerry will generously contribute the last 16 bucks necessary to complete the project.
But he will ensure that his rich buddies will own all the property around the Stadium (if he does not with his ownership group)
Tom: $15 of that $16 is deferred until after Shohei retires.
The ChiSox should leave Chicago. The Cubs own Chicago, You know it. I know it Everyone knows it.
Go to Montreal. Mexico. How about Nashville? Leave while you can leave that crime infested city., Chicago hasn’t been the same since Siskel and Ebert checked out along with Jake and Elwood.
Chicago always has had crime, Heck Wrigleyville was once one of the most dangerous spots in the city at one time. It was not a problem to people as long as the criminals stayed in ‘their neighborhoods’. Now that the criminals have strayed into the well to do areas of the city, NOW its a problem for everyone apparently.
Worry not, Nerd1138: the vast majority of released crime figures is fake.
Chicago is perfectly able to support two teams. The rest of your points don’t merit addressing.
Nashville per capita has more violent crime than Chicago, just fyi.
Yes, and everyone knows there’s no crime in Mexico??
Get your head out of Fox News. @drasco is stating facts! Look it up. Chicago is 3 times the size of Nashville. You see some wild events in Chicago. Folks are brazen. However, per capita … much lower ….
If you look at per capita stats for literally EVERYTHING bad …. It’s all the RED Southern States. You seen the education system in Mississippi or Tennessee???? Per capita gun deaths are worse! Poverty is worse!! Who exactly do you think pays for the free healthcare provided to the poor of the South in rural counties??? You seen the welfare stats in those rural counties???? There is a reason why ALL the stores accept food stamps in those poor rural counties!
Blue cities in red states.
ftfy
Barry, why slander Fox when all major media outlets are literally fake news?!
Fox takes “Fake” to a whole other level. They just paid a $750 million judgement for spreading election lies. They also DO NOT report things favorable to the left, and things unfavorable to the right.
With Republican governors and legislatures that could do something different. Like deploying the national guard. They don’t because it’s not that simple. All big cities have issues.
Barry, that $750 million was also fake news.
You have not yet figured out how this all works, have you?!
VB: As I said, you have not yet figured out how all of this “politics” and “media” stuff work, have you?!
A Billionaire asking the public for a Billion dollars from the tax payers.
Only in America. Right Akeem?
So, I googled “Akeem” to understand this comment and can report to anyone else who is curious, DO NOT. It’s the tale of a strange white wrestler whose schtick was being from Africa.
All I have to say is that curiosity can in fact, kill the cat.
“Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while, I was a suspect.” — Steven Wright
It’s pitiful that the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois will even consider spending $1 billion of taxpayer money on a new park while they still owe $50 million on the current park plus they want another $500 million for infrastructure for the neighborhood. Chicago and Illinois are misappropriating hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money currently. White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf will be 88 years old in a few days, seriously the odds of him seeing a new park are kinda slim aren’t they?
From another angle, I see it as a long-term business plan for the city/state that really helps the team and community in the short term. The government will win in the long run from all the taxes.
Joe Kerr is a government asset.
Yep, it sure helped the neighborhoods around the current stadium….oh wait…
All the studies ever conducted show that at best, stadiums are break even for cities.
Ref: What about the legitimate, non-fake studies?
…..Oh yeah: not one has ever existed.
Even as a White Sox fan, I hope Governor Pritzker doesn’t give Reinsdorf a dime. You’re not going to invest in the ball Club, then the city doesn’t need to invest in you. Continue to play in your current taxpayer funded stadium. Although I believe capitalism is the best economic model, corporate welfare should go the way of the dinosaur. If we have that much extra money to spend, I’d rather it go to people in need.
Yeah, THAT will make the Sox better and draw more fans…
Id laugh in ‘the Chairman’s’ face and tell him to put a consistently winning team on the field and we’ll talk again in 10 years.
Make no mistake, if he gets his new stadium on his terms HE wins more than anyone else, well except for those who he knows who would also happen to own all the real estate around the new park. Sure, the team likely does draw 1 m in its first season.. when the Sox likely also lose 90-100 games in that season, then the thrill is gone really quick and back to 10-15K per game, changing locations is not going to change this: a poorly run org is a poorly run org, These are not Cubs fans we are talking about, many who mainly want selfies in the stadium to brag about or are tourists. Sox fans want to reward good play, not a guy trying to scam for every penny he can get while putting a subpar product on the field.
Either that or give him a loan he has to pay back, OR a stipulation that the team has to hit 1M fans in actual attendance in each season for 30 years or they owe the City and state money every year they don’t, This would either guarantee that Reinsdorf:
-Stays in his current place which he already has for free (and is not a bad place to watch a game).
-Gets his new Stadium BUT actually has to invest in getting a GM in place that knows what he is doing and build a annually competitive team to attract fans year in and out..
-Gets his new Stadium does nothing to improve the club per the Miser’s code but the city and state get a whopping discount every year when the miserably run Sox are pathetic year in and out.
IMO, if you’re an owner of a sports team and you want a new stadium then you can pay for it yourself. I’m getting tired of billionaires asking for handouts.
I guess we get new stadiums every 20-30 years now. Seems a waste.
I’ve been a Sox fan for over 30 years. I will not attend another game of this franchise so long as Reinsdorf owns this team. A cheap a$$ billionaire, who has never taken winning seriously and has been quoted as saying second place is where he wants to be. He’s looking to compete for public funding against an NFL franchise for an astronomically high amount in a city that can’t really afford it. This $h!t-for-brains owner has the audacity to say the Sox will never win at their current stadium. No, they don’t win because you put career flameouts on the team and try to catch lightning in bottle every single year in RF, DH and anywhere else one of these failed prospects decides to vacate. You laugh and openly admit you have no interest in top Free Agents, you refuse to actually pay for any starting pitching, you encourage rampant dysfunction in the front office, which meticulates down into the locker room. AND YOU HAVE DONE THIS WITH TWO DIFFERENT FRNACHISES IN TWO DIFFERENT SPORTS. And this 2 BILLION dollars he is looking to secure in public funding? Its all so the current valuation of yoir team skyrockets before you sell. He is so tranparent you can see through him. So you know what? Go to Nashville. Get the eff out of this city. So long as he draws breathe this team will never succeed. Not because of the stadium, or the fans or any other horse$h!t that drips from his mouth. It’s because he is a $h!tty, greedy, cheap owner that has never cared about the people that would ultimately pay for that stadium. full stop.
Tiffany Henyard may be able to help.
Shiny new retractable dome stadium????
Dolton White Sox???
If her situation wasn’t so “hot” in a bad way right now …. I am certain she would have been willing to bid.
Illinois is handing out money to illegals by the billions and the state and city of Chicago are bankrupt. Where do the White Sox’s think the money is coming from?
They are NOT “illegals” …. They have been trained to come over the border ask seek “asylum” …. When you seek asylum it is a whole different set of rules.
Have you wondered how people with know money can make it from Venezuela to cities like Chicago??? With their infant children??? They get rounded up in Venezuela, and told what they can get in USA if they declare asylum. They are then provided transportation from Venezuela to USA/Mexico border. Once they cross border they are rounded up by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and then sent by car, bus, boat, train or plane to “Sanctuary Cities” like Chicago, New York, etc. They are NOT organically just showing up. Same way buses and transportation were provided to the capital from all over the country on January 6th. Same money $$$ paying for it. This is how you attempt to manufacture a coup.
Mexico is now the 12th largest economy in the world. The United States is now doing more trade with Mexico than China. We started moving jobs from China to Mexico recently. This is why all of the “asylum” seekers are from “Venezuela”.
Oh, so you do understand how it all works, Barry.
@skullbreathe – How about you do a little bit of research before you rant???
The money is coming from the state of Illinois floating bonds for a billion+ $$$$. A special district is created within the area with a tax freeze and collection occurring …. This is where the revenue comes from …. State of Illinois takes on all of the risk of the bonds if the revenue doesn’t line up with debt service over the course of the deal.
Seems like a lot to spend on keeping a minor league baseball team
Ladies and Gentlemen, your… Temecula White Sox!
Reinsdorf is in a great spot. Build nice new stadium closer to downtown with lots of taxpayer money or move team to Nashville, it’s that simple. Going to Nashville makes so much sense since there’s better weather, less taxes, less crime and an actual growing population. Many Sox minor league affiliates are close by in North Carolina and Alabama. Titans ironically have their lease up either a year before or after Sox too. I’ve told friends look for combined use Titans/White Sox stadium called Amazon Field! You heard it here first
NBC news last night reported that King Reinsdorf said he wants this new stadium before he dies because when he dies the New owners will move the ball club. So-either way it looks like the stadium will be empty . Maybe MJ will buy this team!
Its just another lame excuse, the ownership team will do whatever they want when he kicks the bucket, thats what lawyers are for. Im sure that ownership group will add some stipulation that any deals made by ‘the Chairman’ are null and void once he is gone.
Just say no to Uncle Jerry.
The new park will be free for everyone if the White Sox just take out a student loan to pay for it.
More like NoBrainWilliams.
Haven’t you heard? Joe has the power to forgive loan debts.
Sell the team.
That stadium is only 30 years old when Wrigley is over 90 years old. No reason the Sox need a new stadium unless Jerry wants to pay the cost.