OMG:
On Wednesday, the White Sox confirmed that team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who is in Nashville for baseball’s winter meetings, met with Mayor Freddie O’Connell. That news had first been reported by Politico’s Shia Kapos earlier Wednesday.
The team did not confirm what the two had discussed during the meeting, but there have been rumblings this year about the White Sox, as well as other MLB teams, looking at Nashville as a potential option for a stadium.
This is hilarious for several reasons — the relative metro area sizes of Chicago (9.4 million) and Nashville (2.1 million) being just one — but mostly because this is Jerry Reinsdorf here, the man who essentially admitted to having visited St. Petersburg, Florida in 1988 just to throw a scare into Illinois politicians to approve spending on a new stadium for his team, later explaining, “a savvy negotiator creates leverage.” Reinsdorf previously dropped hints that he was looking around at other stadium and/or city options once his lease on his 32-year-old stadium expires in 2029, but stopping by to meet the mayor of Nashville while in town for the yearly winter meetings is an especially on-brand touch. (Also on-brand: MLB holding its winter meetings in the city that half the league’s owners appear to be intent on threatening to move to in order to extract stadium money back home, well played, MLB.)
All this without even a stadium funding ask yet from Reinsdorf, though USA Today’s Bob Nightengale did file a completely unsourced report in August that the White Sox owner was looking at “a retractable-roof stadium” on one of three sites: near the Bulls‘ United Center, at the Bears‘ Soldier Field, or in Arlington Heights, which the Bears owners are also considering for a stadium. But hey, better to scare the populace (and the legislators) before the funding bill is introduced, the better to get more public cash, that’s the lesson from Milwaukee, right? And if anybody’s going to learn those lessons well, it’s the guy who wrote the syllabus on move threats.
As the Bears saga has shown, there are no shortage of Chicago suburbs looking to throw money at a stadium development. As Neil points out, it seems foolish to give up the Chicago media market (even sharing it with the Cubs). Therefore, my prediction is they stay in “Chicagoland” but do move out of Chicago.
But whatever decision gets made, none of it will make the White Sox a good team until Reinsdorf is no longer the owner
However there is a shortage of Chicago suburbs that can feasibly pay for a stadium.
It’s the reason why the Bears are at a complete stalemate with Arlington Heights and threatening to look at Chicago again.
I know they won a World Series- but their most significant cultural contribution during the Reinsdorf era was that scene in My Best Friends Wedding where Julia Roberts takes in a White Sox game.
I was going to mention the franchise’s second apex point (after the black sox – who were not alone in throwing games and even seasons in that era) – disco demolition night.
But that was pre Reinsdorf, so I can’t argue with your selection (despite having never seen the film). Third largest city and his team is all but invisible. The only thing his mlb tenure can be remembered for is blackmailing a city.
Maybe he’s completely fine with that, how would we know?
Remembered for blackmailing a city?
Hell, even THAT places him on a very crowded list.
I don’t know what’s worse- the scummy owners/leagues or the idiot fans who keep falling for this schtick ENDLESSLY…
The average Chicago suburb has a population of 18,000 and obviously can’t afford to subsidize a billion dollar stadium. The State of Illinois isn’t going to throw a billion at a suburban stadium, Chicago and downstate would unite to kill that. I also doubt if the teachers union is eager to see property taxes diverted to a stadium development. Both Soldier Field and Comiskey Park or whatever are a pain to get to from the suburbs, at least da Bears only play on 8 Sundays.
I don’t know. He’s pretty old.
He’s scheming for a future he doesn’t have…..
True….but once he’s dead he might find politicians no longer take his calls or meeting requests. Maybe less strike while the iron is hot and more strike while the iron is still just technically iron at all.
He’s setting his kids up for a windfall if they actually do sell the team when he croaks.
Mayor Johnson should volunteer to help pack the moving vans himself to see if Reinsdorf really thinks he’ll make more money in Nashville than in Chicago when he’s already backed down from one move threat. Call his bluff now.
Sox park is now controlled by Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which is a state agency, not city. Gov Pritzker is all set to build a new airport in Peotone, 43 miles south of Chicago. No airlines will use that except for cargo shipments, so it will need to offer lower fees than Rockford and Gary, IN, making the whole project unprofitable. This leads me to believe Pritzker is willing to make bad financial decisions just to announce he is doing something. I expect Reinsdorf to get the money he wants.
ISFA isn’t under the control of the Governor. He does pick part of the board, but so does the Mayor. And they have access to certain financing tools where they don’t have to directly get him to approve funding.
I’m convinced Jerry is doing this to extend the current sweetheart deal he has for the stadium because the entire value of his franchise is the stadium deal and the TV deal. It certainly is not the product he puts out on the field. I might be a delusional White Sox fan, but that’s my theory.
I would agree. I think he’d like to extend and improve the deal… you know:
“give me $125m to renovate this dump that is more or less the same as it was when I built it (with your money) 30 years ago and I might spend some of that on the stadium and then pocket the rest or spend it on a yacht or a vintage Lincoln or Duesy or something. But if you don’t give me money to keep playing at the stadium you built for me for free, I will take my pathetic loser franchise and head off to a larger centre like, um, Nashville, or Portland (I mean Maine, not…) or Greensboro or Tulsa and don’t think I won’t because I totally will.
Also we didn’t get Ohtani. See what this dump stadium cost us? Sure, we didn’t bid. Even a stink bid. But still.
That’s exactly it. The current deal allows to sox to get reduced (or free) rent is attendance drops to certain levels, and the sox are not responsible for maintenance or upgrades. And what they DO spend is typically reimbursed.
The one big they they had to pay for was the team store, but that included the state paying for the restaurant and overall infrastructure to the gate 5 plaza!
My guess is they use the naming rights(which expire in 2030, and revert back to the state) as a means for “financing” future renovations. They did this in 2003 with the US Cellular deal(The guaranteed rate deal is actually the same contract, as GR bought out USC’s commitment and the sox added 3 years to the lease.) The Sox got 68 million for 26 years of naming rights, which is roughly 2.6 million a year. Seeing the marlins get $10 million a year from Loan Depot suggests the Sox will do the same move with an even bigger kitty.
If Uncle Jerry is smart(and i doubt that), he starts having serious talks NOW with ISFA to extend his current lease, which is arguably the most favorable in North American sports.