Chicago White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf listens as Chris Getz speaks at a press conference to… [+] announces his promotion to Senior Vice President and General Manager on August 31, 2023 at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
TNS
Jerry Reinsdorf has made a veiled threat that the White Sox may move out of 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 was needed to keep the franchise alive. He said other members of the team's ownership group would be motivated to sell the company to a relocation group after his death if it continued to be based at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Reinsdorf has long said he would advise his heirs to hold on to 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 purchased the Sox in 1981 along with the late Eddie Einhorn and their partners.
Details of the partnership have been kept secret, but Forbes reports that Reinsdorf currently owns about 19 percent of its baseball team. He told Hinz that “the big money” is represented by non-Chicagoans who would seek maximum return on any sale, which would likely result in a 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 the other investors),” Reinsdorf said. “That probably means the team will be put up for sale…Out of town the team will be worth more.”
Reinsdorf and Einhorn orchestrated a dramatic process that resulted in the White Sox being 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 no longer in need of renovation and were now ready to 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 he would like to live in a new stadium on a site closer to downtown before then. He visited the Illinois capitol earlier this week to explain his stadium vision to lawmakers.
Guaranteed Rate Field, built next to Comiskey on 35th Street, sits in a sea of parking lots rather than 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 that 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 currently expect to spend about $126 million on their 26 players.
“The economics of baseball have completely changed,” Reinsdorf said. “In the location where we are now, we cannot generate the revenue needed to pay these salaries.”
The White Sox won the 2005 World Series but have made the playoffs just three times in the last 18 seasons and never won a postseason series. He fired the team's longtime front office heads, Ken Williams and Rick Hahn, in the middle of the season a year ago and promoted Chris Getz to general manager and senior vice president.
A vocal group of fans believe Reinsdorf, 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 manager Tony La Russa in 2021, going 81-81 in 2022 and 61-101 last season.
Reinsdorf has placed his hope for the team's future in the dream of a development south of downtown, on the east side of the Chicago River. But he told Crain's that HOK will need $1.1 billion in subsidies from an existing tax on hotel rooms to finance construction of the stadium design.
The project, on a 60-acre site owned by development company Related Midwest, would also require another $900 million in infrastructure work that was approved but not funded by a tax increment financing district that includes The 78. Architectural firm Gensler created renderings that show high-rises with apartment buildings, hotels and bars next to an all-baseball stadium.
“Ultimately, the benefits for the city and state will outweigh the costs,” said Reinsdorf. “This is not (just) a baseball stadium. This is a development anchored by the ballpark.”