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30th anniversary of the clocks running backwards


southsider2k5

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If it wasn't for Illinois Governor Jim Thompson the White Sox would have moved to Florida.  Former sports writer Jerome Holtzman said JR took  a vote of the White Sox investors and half of them wanted to go to Florida. Eddie Einhorn was walking around with Florida White Sox shirts and he definitely wanted to go to Florida. JR and Einhorn had airline reservations July 1 to sign the official papers to move to Florida. One of the positives of the whole situation was that when the team stayed in Chicago Einhorn sold most of his shares of the White Sox to JR and "Fast Eddie " disappeared from the Chicago scene.  I'm looking forward to the day when JR is no longer the owner of the White Sox.  I'm just hoping its sooner rather than later.

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14 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Our attendance figures and make me wonder if they’ll ever move to another state, even though I bet it would still be better to stay in the Chicagoland area. The Sox should rebound with attendance if their rebuild puts them in contention year after year.

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37 minutes ago, The Beast said:

Our attendance figures and make me wonder if they’ll ever move to another state, even though I bet it would still be better to stay in the Chicagoland area. The Sox should rebound with attendance if their rebuild puts them in contention year after year.

Depends on what the definition of "rebound" is.  Since 2000 the White Sox finished in the top ten in attendance figures one time, in 2006 when they finished 9th, still behind the lowly Cubs.  Even in the World Series year of 2005 they finished 17th.  I'm not sure they would or would not fare better in another city without a baseball team, Indianapolis for example.

 

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13 minutes ago, Juschill said:

Depends on what the definition of "rebound" is.  Since 2000 the White Sox finished in the top ten in attendance figures one time, in 2006 when they finished 9th, still behind the lowly Cubs.  Even in the World Series year of 2005 they finished 17th.  I'm not sure they would or would not fare better in another city without a baseball team, Indianapolis for example.

 

According to Forbes magazine the White Sox are 14th in MLB revenue. If they moved elsewhere I don't think the revenue would match what they're making in Chicago.

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4 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Realistically, they wouldn't.  I mean where? 

Believe it or not but I had someone who works for the White Sox tell me a few years ago that the one place where they would make more money would be Mexico City.

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2 minutes ago, WBWSF said:

Believe it or not but I had someone who works for the White Sox tell me a few years ago that the one place where they would make more money would be Mexico City.

With the value of the peso, and the poverty rate at around 50%?  Seems a bit crazy to me.

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This article brings up some interesting thoughts.  I think there’re is about a dozen odd years remaining on the current park lease with the ISFA. That will be an interesting side show as well. You don’t really know about state finances that far out but this is Illinois so probably not good. Im not a JR hater and I don’t wish him ill will, but he’ll be in his 90s at that point if nothing happens to him. JR has the longest ownership tenure in MLB at this point I believe since the passing of George Steinbrenner.

I would wager for the majority of soxtalk posters, JR is the only owner of the sox they have ever known. The Sox have made some serious mistakes to the point where they are mostly irrelevant outside of their local fan base. Obviously a consistent winning team would do wonders, but the Sox have failed to place back to back teams in the playoffs in JRs tenure. Unfortunately they also have lost public perception on the ball park. This is exacerbated in this market because Wrigley is the supposed cool park, and the Rate is an afterthought. The rate is actually a nice place to watch a game after the improvements. But at this point the perception has been set in people’s minds. There is also losing Harry Carray to the Cubs, JR being a labor hawk in 94, and a few more self inflicted wounds.

Inevitably given JRs age and if something does happen and the family sells, I hope the new owners put a strong emphasis  at rebuilding the Sox brand as well.  In someways I really feel the Sox are an undervalued franchise if not monetarily at this point, but  as a brand going forward.  Of course a Giants type run of multiple world titles in a competitive window changes the whole dynamic.

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4 hours ago, WBWSF said:

If it wasn't for Illinois Governor Jim Thompson the White Sox would have moved to Florida.  Former sports writer Jerome Holtzman said JR took  a vote of the White Sox investors and half of them wanted to go to Florida. Eddie Einhorn was walking around with Florida White Sox shirts and he definitely wanted to go to Florida. JR and Einhorn had airline reservations July 1 to sign the official papers to move to Florida. One of the positives of the whole situation was that when the team stayed in Chicago Einhorn sold most of his shares of the White Sox to JR and "Fast Eddie " disappeared from the Chicago scene.  I'm looking forward to the day when JR is no longer the owner of the White Sox.  I'm just hoping its sooner rather than later.

I thought you & JR were buddies?  Are you harboring resentment now because he wouldn’t let you interview for the GM job?

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3 hours ago, Replacement Level Poster said:

This article brings up some interesting thoughts.  I think there’re is about a dozen odd years remaining on the current park lease with the ISFA. That will be an interesting side show as well. You don’t really know about state finances that far out but this is Illinois so probably not good. Im not a JR hater and I don’t wish him ill will, but he’ll be in his 90s at that point if nothing happens to him. JR has the longest ownership tenure in MLB at this point I believe since the passing of George Steinbrenner.

I would wager for the majority of soxtalk posters, JR is the only owner of the sox they have ever known. The Sox have made some serious mistakes to the point where they are mostly irrelevant outside of their local fan base. Obviously a consistent winning team would do wonders, but the Sox have failed to place back to back teams in the playoffs in JRs tenure. Unfortunately they also have lost public perception on the ball park. This is exacerbated in this market because Wrigley is the supposed cool park, and the Rate is an afterthought. The rate is actually a nice place to watch a game after the improvements. But at this point the perception has been set in people’s minds. There is also losing Harry Carray to the Cubs, JR being a labor hawk in 94, and a few more self inflicted wounds.

Inevitably given JRs age and if something does happen and the family sells, I hope the new owners put a strong emphasis  at rebuilding the Sox brand as well.  In someways I really feel the Sox are an undervalued franchise if not monetarily at this point, but  as a brand going forward.  Of course a Giants type run of multiple world titles in a competitive window changes the whole dynamic.

This is definitely replacement level posting. 

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8 hours ago, WBWSF said:

Believe it or not but I had someone who works for the White Sox tell me a few years ago that the one place where they would make more money would be Mexico City.

Didn't MLB just ban any dealings with the Independent Mexican leagues? I would think corruption would be very much a concern too.

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