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Chicago White Sox president Jerry Reinsdorf listens as Chris Getz speaks at a news conference for … (+)
Jerry Reinsdorf has issued a veiled threat about the possibility of the White Sox moving from Chicago, their American League home since 1901.
In a one-on-one interview with Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business, Reinsdorf, 87, said a new stadium is needed to keep the franchise viable. He said other members of the team’s ownership group would be motivated to sell it to a relocation group after his death if it remains at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Reinsdorf has long said he would advise his heirs to keep the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and sell the White Sox, citing his son Michael’s involvement as the Bulls’ president and chief operating officer. Reinsdorf bought the Sox with the late Eddie Einhorn and his partners in 1981.
Details of the partnership have been kept private, but Forbes reports that Reinsdorf currently owns about 19 percent of his baseball team. He told Hinz that “the big money” is represented by people who are not from Chicago and would look for the highest return on any sale, which would likely lead them to move to Nashville or another city in search of a team.
“When I’m gone, (Michael) will have an obligation to do what’s best (for other investors),” Reinsdorf said. “That probably means putting the team up for sale… The team will be worth more outside the city.”
Reinsdorf and Einhorn orchestrated a dramatic process that had the White Sox on the verge of leaving Chicago for St. Petersburg, Florida, before the state of Illinois agreed to finance a new stadium in 1988. The owners had deemed Comiskey Park unsuitable. be renovated and have now come to a similar conclusion about Guaranteed Rate Field, which opened in 1991.
The team’s stadium lease expires after 2029, but Reinsdorf told Hinz that before then he would like to be in a new stadium somewhere closer to downtown. He visited the Illinois capital earlier this week to explain his vision for the stadium to lawmakers.
Guaranteed Rate Field, built next to Comiskey on 35th Street, is located more in a sea of parking lots than in a neighborhood with nearby restaurants and hotels. It hasn’t proven popular with some fans, and Reinsdorf believes it limits the revenue the franchise can generate.
The White Sox and Oakland Athletics are the only teams to have never signed a player to a $100 million contract. The White Sox ranked seventh in the majors with an Opening Day payroll of $193.4 million in 2022, according to Cots Contracts, but they currently project to spend about $126 million for their 26-player roster.
“The economics of baseball have completely changed,” Reinsdorf said. “In the location we are in now, we cannot generate the revenue necessary to pay those salaries.”
The White Sox won the 2005 World Series, but have made the playoffs only three times in the last 18 seasons and have never won a postseason series. He fired the team’s veteran front-office leaders, Ken Williams and Rick Hahn, midseason a year ago, promoting Chris Getz to general manager and senior vice president.
A vocal group of fans believe Reinsdorf, and not Guaranteed Rate Field, is the team’s biggest problem. They have made their feelings known since failing to follow up a 93-win season under Hall of Fame coach Tony La Russa in 2021, going 81-81 in 2022 and 61-101 last season.
Reinsdorf has pinned his hope for the team’s future on the dream of a development south of downtown, on the east side of the Chicago River. But he told Crain’s that $1.1 billion in subsidies from an existing tax on hotel rooms will be needed to fund construction of HOK’s stadium design.
The project on a 60-acre parcel owned by developer Related Midwest would also require another $900 million in infrastructure work that has been authorized but not funded by a tax increment financing district that covers The 78. Architecture firm Gensler has produced renderings showing skyscrapers including residences, hotels and bars adjacent to an upscale baseball stadium.
“At the end of the day, the benefits to the city and state will outweigh the cost,” Reinsdorf said. “This is not (just) a baseball stadium. “This is a development of which the stadium is the anchor.”