White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is willing to contribute financially to the team’s stadium project. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, Reinsdorf is proposing to help finance a new stadium on “The 78”, a vacant 62-acre plot in the South Loop, just south of downtown Chicago.
Rendering of Sox stadium in The 78 via Related Midwest
Rendering of Sox stadium in The 78 via Related Midwest
Site plan of Sox stadium in The 78 via Related Midwest
Earlier in February, Reinsdorf was seeking approximately $1 billion in public funding from the city and state for the new ballpark at “The 78”, potentially Chicago’s 78th neighborhood. However, a recent report suggests that the White Sox are open to investing in the potential development. The team has been in discussions since January about building a new ballpark at “The 78”.
Rendering of Sox stadium in The 78 via Related Midwest
The White Sox lease at Guaranteed Rate Field, their home since 1991, is set to expire after the 2029 season. Reinsdorf and Related Midwest proposed funding the new stadium using various tax revenues, including a 2% hotel occupancy tax, allowing the White Sox to secure roughly $1.2 billion in assistance to build the ballpark and settle the current ISFA debt as reported by WGN9.
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I’m so sick of staunch free market capitalist billionaires who suddenly discover their inner socialist anytime they need money for their personal vanity projects. Sorry, Reinsdorf, pay for the ballpark yourself. You can take Chicago’s fifth favorite sports team to the suburbs or Nashville. Good luck.
Well said, couldn’t agree more.
I think this offer is really about negotiating their 2029 lease on Comiskey. I don’t think they have any real interest in moving anywhere – I think they just want to get a stronger negotiating position with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (who owns GRF.)
Correct. Like the Bears are doing with Arlington Heights where they still own a large parcel of land they paid $197M for and tore down all the buildings.
this should be the gov response to Bears and Sox “The SoFi stadium was all private money, go find a sponsor like they did.”
Sox fan here. Reinsdorf can pay for any ballpark by himself, like he and the Wirtz family did with the UC. Could easily develop some of the lots around GRF (like they’re apparently gearing up to around the UC) and make renovations to the current ballpark…not like there’s many people parking there now anyway. No need to go to the South Loop on a public subsidy. If they wanna leave, then leave. Plenty of other sports to watch/things to do in the summer than baseball nowadays. The only shame would be them leaving just as Bridgeport is starting to come up.
This comment shows You are no TRUE Sox fan.
Reinsdorf should cough up the dough on this one. He’s got a real chance, and maybe his last, at redeeming his infamous reputation in Chicago.
I like this website but the this article feels like it was copy/pasted from a Jerry Reinsdorf press release.
Reinsdorf is “willing to contribute financially”? He’s “proposing to help finance”?
WOW! How generous of a billionaire to offer to fund a small portion of his own vanity project, which he will own once complete. We Chicagoans sure are lucky to have such a helpful guy around!
I think this article is largely copy/pasted from the Crain’s article, which itself was largely copy/pasted from a Reinsdorf press release.
Yay
How about Reinsdorf plan a new stadium on the empty lots and have it face toward the Loop, which should have been dobe in the first place, then redevelop all that parking into an entertainment Transit Oriented destination. The South Side could certainly use it (West side around Blue/Green Stations and UC, too) more than a wedged in South Loop space could. Either way, he sat on those development opportunities for decades when the national tends clearly indicated he shouldn’t have. Now, he should pay 95%, or more, of it.
Agreed with comments above. I’m totally open to public financing as long as the public has an appropriate stake in the financial success of the project. If the public pays 50% of the cost, the the public gets 50% of the benefit, whether that’s by charging a rent appropriate to service the debt and recoup the investment, and/or having a stake in all ticket sales and concessions.
As of 2017 per Crain The state has given them $600 million and never paid the rent due every year. Did not renovate the neighborhood it went to Jim Thompson and his friends, and still no fans. Wake up! Been fleeced enough
This Stadium will never, ever be built. At least not in Chicago. Reinsdorf is so out of touch it as embarrassing as his team’s play on the field this season.
Reinsdorf and Einhorn bought the team in 1980 after Steinbrenner and Selig killed the DeBartolo deal, and they immediately began alienating the Sox fan base, e.g., moving to pay TV, firing Harry Caray. Reinsdorf doesn’t have a clue about running a baseball team (or the Bulls either), he doesn’t know how to hire good baseball people (bringing Larussa back was a joke), he has completely gutted this once solid franchise. I’ve been a Sox fan since 1951, and I loved them, but if he wants to leave, at this point, I say good riddance, it just hurts too much trying to watch that product he has put on the field, and I (and many other Sox fans) so no hope for the future with him at the helm of this sinking ship.
Don’t play Reinsdorf short, he’s a clever business man especially real estate. In fact some are saying he probably get his stadium deal quicker than the Bears. So don’t count him and the Sox out.
This report provides evidence of the White Sox owners acknowledgement that the public ask is complex. Meanwhile, Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) is assessing their Public Participation Plan if how best to approach this grand proposal. Chicago 78 Development is very important to communities south of 47th Street.
How does it do a thing for anyone south of 47th? It does nothing for anyone south of 18th. While the rendering is beautiful, they could build it on lots a, b, c and armour square park, and give the current stadium plus lots d, e, f, g and l to the city/state for parkland or development. And not one nickel of taxpayer finance. The crone owns the bulls and Sox, he has the financial ability to finance his own stadium. Preferably he drops ded or sells before ’29.
Some of the worst owners in sports want billions. Nope the free ride is over. Maybe 1 million for every Sox win is fine 40 million. Give the bears 5 a win 50 million is fair. Now take 3 billion moves some mills build new advanced steel mills inland 20 miles and make lake Michigan a tourist destination. They don’t call them great lakes for nothing and down here at the tip we treat it as a toilet. Billionair should carry a mortgage like regular people. Not the people of a city or state.
We need new ownership not a new stadium.
The White Sox should really move out to Arlington Heights with the Bears. There is more than enough land for two stadiums and all the fan related stuff. There should be some synergies like parking and such. Find one big sponsor to cover the rest of the cost and boom, done deal.
Eat a bag, north side
Reinsdorf is 87 years old. He doesn’t have anymore tomorrows. All he has is yesterday. He is the worst owner the Sox have ever had. Nothing good will happen with the White Sox until he is gone.
JR, like every other pro sports franchise owner, has other interests other than the White Sox/Bulls. For JR those interests are real estate. This power play to get a new stadium is primarily a real estate development deal. JR’s proclamation to use his own $$$, takes US back to the same statement made by the Bear’s owners when the negotiation for the Soldier Field renovation was conceived. That portion of the financing quickly became the introduction of PSLs to the Bears season ticket holders. The amount that those season ticket holders had to pay, in order to purchase the season tickets that had been in families for decades, strangely equalled the amount of $$$ that the Bears owners had dedicated to the building of the New Soldier Field….soon to be demolished and ‘given’ back to the City, to be used as….? !! Not doubt, that the ‘gift’ will have long term tax avoidance implications.