Reinsdorf considers moving White Sox out of Guaranteed Rate Field or selling team

[Chicago White Sox]

6 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

The score talked about this in the 7:00 hour and there was a lot of really good call ins and opinions, in case anyone wants to check it out when they post it 

What was said if you don’t mind summarizing?

[Dick Allen]

For all those worried the Sox may move to Nashville, it isn't going to happen in JR's time. If it was so easy to move, a couple of teams would have been there for years, and there is no way the AL will abandon Chicago like they would Oakland or Tampa. 

[CWSpalehoseCWS]

1 minute ago, Dick Allen said:

For all those worried the Sox may move to Nashville, it isn't going to happen in JR's time. If it was so easy to move, a couple of teams would have been there for years, and there is no way the AL will abandon Chicago like they would Oakland or Tampa. 

I don’t think MLB would allow it anyways. Manfred wants to expand, not move a 124 yr franchise out of a huge market. It would be more beneficial to just add a team and keep Chicago. I totally think them leaving for the west suburbs could be a real thing though. Just look at all the cities vying for the Bears.

[Chicago White Sox]

If Jerry ever moved the Sox out of Chicago, then baseball would officially be dead to me. I would not give the league a single second of my time or a penny of my money.  As someone who is addicted to this god-forsaken franchise, being away from it when I lived in Nashville was impossibly tough.  And while my fandom stayed strong through MLBTV, Soxtalk, blogs, Fegan, etc., not being a part of the live experience was hard.  And that experience is all about Chicago, our fans, and our culture.  There is something unique about this franchise that has kept me loyal through all these down years and that can’t be replaced with a bunch of Nashville assholes.  I know many fans here aren’t local, but the White Sox that we all love only exist within the confines of Chicago and no one should be cool with Jerry taking that away from us.

[Squirmin' for Yermin]

It's a scare tactic for the City.  No one would move a team out of Chicago.

[nrockway]

This is a few years earlier than expected but not surprising. There is no willpower to build a new park for the Sox anywhere in city limits but I also don't think they're out of GRF in 6 years. 

That being said, if there could be a site for a new ballpark I bet there is actual willpower to redevelop large swathes of land around the Michael Reese hospital site and that the city would facilitate the process. The ongoing project is very stupid and a giant waste of money, but part of a larger strategy to yuppify the land between McCormick Place and Hyde Park. If they could figure out how to make a ballpark "inclusive" and "equitable" and "sustainable" and "innovative" maybe there could be a new South Side Park. 

[nrockway]

1 minute ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

It's a scare tactic for the City.  No one would move a team out of Chicago.

Who would move a team out of the East Bay?

[Bob Sacamano]

9 minutes ago, CWSpalehoseCWS said:

I don’t think MLB would allow it anyways. Manfred wants to expand, not move a 124 yr franchise out of a huge market. It would be more beneficial to just add a team and keep Chicago. I totally think them leaving for the west suburbs could be a real thing though. Just look at all the cities vying for the Bears.

This. It’s already been talked about as an expansion site and there is legs to that happening.

[South Side Hit Men]

1 hour ago, TheFutureIsNear said:

Im no expert, but moving a bad team to a new city in Tennessee seems like a sure fire disaster. Maybe you’ll get more fans in the beginning out of novelty, but no way that’s a sustainable market.

 

Jerry should try this really crazy money making idea…put effort into having a winning team. Really out there idea, I know. And since he has shown that he has zero interest in doing that for a decade plus, the obvious answer is sell the team. Take your billions and move on Jerry.

Being a fan of the city of Vegas I really want a new team, not Oakland to move there. Even if I had no interest, the City of Oakland gave them more than fair offers, and the people there deserve to have their own team just like us.

5 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

For all those worried the Sox may move to Nashville, it isn't going to happen in JR's time. If it was so easy to move, a couple of teams would have been there for years, and there is no way the AL will abandon Chicago like they would Oakland or Tampa. 

I believe Baltimore will beat everyone to Nashville, and unlike the Sox will actually be in a better long term situation in their new city.

MLB owners in general want to keep Nashville and Las Vegas available for moving stadium extortion leverage and expansion possibilities. They made a poor decision to not hit Oakland with a maximum relocation fee as they have viable options to stay in Oakland or a nearby city not controlled by San Francisco.

[Bob Sacamano]

And if they were to move “out of Chicago,” I think it would be a move like the Bears where they are in the suburbs of Chicago. Not a completely different state.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Bob Sacamano

[Kyyle23]

20 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

What was said if you don’t mind summarizing?

There was a lot of good calls from people who were around in the 80s when he showed up, they drew a lot of parallels.  The hosts mentioned possibly moving to soldier field, seems like everyone thinks Nashville is a red herring 

[Quin]

Vinnie and Herb on CHGO basically blow up the reasoning for a Nashville stadium due to market size, which is fairly obvious for anyone that doesn't want to be a doom and gloomer.

Even with the Cubs, it'd be asinine. It'd be like the Mets moving to Orlando or Portland.

[Quin]

Also, let's think with dollars for a second.

The Sox just released a whole as documentary about the brand connection with hip hop. It's one of the most popular hats in the baseball because of that.

You think that's selling in fucking Nashville? Nah, welcome to the rebrand.

[Balta1701]

13 minutes ago, Quin said:

Vinnie and Herb on CHGO basically blow up the reasoning for a Nashville stadium due to market size, which is fairly obvious for anyone that doesn't want to be a doom and gloomer.

Even with the Cubs, it'd be asinine. It'd be like the Mets moving to Orlando or Portland.

Or the SuperSonics moving somewhere tiny in the middle of no where like Oklahoma City.

[Kyyle23]

Love to say sports are all the same 

[35thstreetswarm]

43 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

For all those worried the Sox may move to Nashville, it isn't going to happen in JR's time. If it was so easy to move, a couple of teams would have been there for years, and there is no way the AL will abandon Chicago like they would Oakland or Tampa. 

I tend to agree, though I'll note that abandoning Oakland is no small deal, and not like abandoning a place like Tampa.  The Bay Area is a top 10 tv market, and the ease with which it was abandoned gives me a little angst.

[Kyyle23]

Just now, 35thstreetswarm said:

I tend to agree, though I'll note that abandoning Oakland is no small deal, and not like abandoning a place like Tampa.  The Bay Area is a top 10 tv market, and the ease with which it was abandoned gives me a little angst.

Those owners have made Jerry look like the most benevolent god over the last couple decades.  God forbid if Beane actually pulled off a WS title, what would they have actually done?  Probably the exact same thing, which is nothing, collect the money, and wait until the MLB says it’s ok to move now.  It really sucks that they allowed this to happen but Manfred sucks ass and has allowed many bad things to happen under his watch

[Balta1701]

43 minutes ago, nrockway said:

This is a few years earlier than expected but not surprising. There is no willpower to build a new park for the Sox anywhere in city limits but I also don't think they're out of GRF in 6 years. 

Regardless of what else happens I do expect this to drag through one or two single year extensions. The ballpark will still be usable in 2031 and movement won’t happen until there is actually a threat of one side or the other walking away.

I think the biggest issue however remains the deal from last time. The terms that the White Sox got were so obscene, so incredibly team friendly that even in 1 year extensions, the political side will want some of those clauses to go away. This will not only motivate things to happen as a deadline approaches, it will likely complicate things next time because if the White Sox try to use the last deal as a starting point, the political side will politely leave the room. Compared to the last deal, the White Sox will have to make serious concessions that cost them money. That may potentially poison the well in negotiations and it will make them fully consider relocation options.

[Tnetennba]

Unless Jerry really wants to abandon the city for the burbs and cut off access to half of the fandom, there isn’t a better spot than 35th & Shields.  Retrofitting Soldier Field for baseball wouldn’t be cheap, on top of the traffic nightmare 81 games would be.  The 78 and Michael Reese sites are spoken for. JR is just sabre rattling for public money again, same as MKE and Baltimore are right now.  The billionaire class loves making noise when they think it’s time for someone else to foot the bill.  

[Quin]

Even not being a top tier team and mired in mediocrity, the Sox are #15 most valuable team in baseball.

A's are 29th.

Give the Sox a consistently good team and they'd skyrocket.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2023/03/23/baseballs-most-valuable-teams-2023-price-tags-are-up-12-despite-regional-tv-woes/

[Dick Allen]

6 minutes ago, Tnetennba said:

Unless Jerry really wants to abandon the city for the burbs and cut off access to half of the fandom, there isn’t a better spot than 35th & Shields.  Retrofitting Soldier Field for baseball wouldn’t be cheap, on top of the traffic nightmare 81 games would be.  The 78 and Michael Reese sites are spoken for. JR is just sabre rattling for public money again, same as MKE and Baltimore are right now.  The billionaire class loves making noise when they think it’s time for someone else to foot the bill.  

I don't understand the fascination people have with placing a baseball team at Soldier Field. It's a nightmare to get to. The CTA stop is literally a mile a while. LSD is always crowded. The Bears do it less than 10 times a season. For the White Sox, it would be horrible.

[FloydBannister1983]

14 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I was talking with my good friend recently who is a diehard Cubs and we were trying to come up with an owner worse than Jerry.  Ultimately we settled on Donald Sterling and maybe the Pirates owner.  It’s definitely short company and Jordan is definitely camouflage that hides how bad he’s been.

Sterling at least had the decency to sell, although he was dragged kicking and screaming.

[Kyyle23]

1 minute ago, Dick Allen said:

I don't understand the fascination people have with placing a baseball team at Soldier Field. It's a nightmare to get to. The CTA stop is literally a mile a while. LSD is always crowded. The Bears do it less than 10 times a season. For the White Sox, it would be horrible.

They just want a lakefront stadium downtown, and unfortunately we can’t really move back time to do it right anymore and the infrastructure just doesn’t support it like we want.  I get the fascination but the reality of it just never sinks in for some

[oldsox]

39 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Or the SuperSonics moving somewhere tiny in the middle of no where like Oklahoma City.

The old Seattle arena was a nightmare.  

[Kyyle23]

Just now, FloydBannister1983 said:

Sterling at least had the decency to sell, although he was dragged kicking and screaming.

He had no choice lol, he was banned by his fellow owners.  This was more straight jacket with a gag, rolled in like Lecter