New pickleball courts and baseball and soccer fields are visible along South Wells Street in The 78, a largely vacant 62-acre former rail yard site in the South Loop, on June 1, 2025, in Chicago. The Chicago Fire plan to build a 22,000-seat stadium on the north end of the development. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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More than a year and a half have passed since Jerry Reinsdorf went public with his belief the White Sox cannot remain viable at Rate Field. Little progress has been made on finding a new home in Chicago.
The Sox were dealt a blow when Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto elbowed past Reinsdorf to put in a claim on a 62-acre tract of land in the South Loop known by its developer as The 78. Unlike the White Sox, Chicago’s MLS franchise is prepared to build its stadium without seeking public funding.
“It is my belief that these stadiums should be privately financed,” Mansueto said in June at a news conference. “Most of the value accrues to the sports team. So it’s only fair that the sports team shoulders the cost of its construction.”
Reinsdorf and his partners threatened a move to Florida before the state of Illinois approved funding for a stadium to replace Comiskey Park. Rate Field — formerly known as the new Comisky Park, U.S. Cellular Field and Guaranteed Rate Field — was completed in 1991 at a cost of $131 million.
The White Sox have been seeking a public-private mix of funding for a new stadium at The 78, with reports placing the request from the state of Illinois at about $1 billion. Governor JB Pritzker has been opposed to public funding on stadium projects, including one for the Chicago Bears, but recently said the state could discuss funding if the Bears paid off remaining debt from a 2001-02 renovation of Soldier Field.
It’s unclear if The 78 remains an option for the White Sox, as the Fire and The 78’s developer, Related Midwest, have received approval for a 22,000-seat stadium from the Chicago Plan Commission, moving the proposal along to the City Council.
Related Midwest CEO Curt Bailey has said he believes the site can accommodate both a soccer and a baseball stadium but seemed to back away from that position last week. At a virtual meeting of the plan commission he said his company is “solely focused on the Fire stadium.” The two-stadium concept was opposed by many residents of the neighborhood as well as the Pat Dowell, who has served as alderman in the 3rd Ward since 2007.
Dowell is supporting the Fire’s project but is opposed to having both a soccer and baseball stadium at the site. Crain’s Chicago Business reported last week that Reinsdorf has not given up hopes to build on the site but the the White Sox have not publicly reacted to recent developments.
Mansueto originally estimated a soccer stadium could be build for $650 million but the team’s president of business operations, Dave Baldwin, told the plan commission the cost is now estimated at $750 million. The team is seeking public funding on infrastructure around the site.
Mansueto would like to break ground this year, with a goal of moving into the new stadium in 2028. The Fire currently share Soldier Field with the Bears after leaving Toyota Park in suburban Bridgeview in 2020.
The White Sox’s lease at Rate Field runs through 2029 but Reinsdorf told Crain’s Chicago last year he’d like to be in a new stadium before the lease expires. Rate Field, which has been upgraded aesthetically through the years, is surrounded by parking lots and is easily accessed by Chicago Transit Authority’s trains and buses.
Rate Field has 100-plus suites located on two different levels and includes most of the amenities available at other MLB parks. Yet the struggling White Sox have been unable to consistently attract large crowds, with their season-ticket base shrinking in the years after they won the 2005 World Series. The franchise had its lowest season attendance since 1999 last year, when the team lost an MLB-record 121 games, and currently ranks 27th in attendance.
With a record of 58-98 entering the last week of the season, the White Sox are poised to lose 100 games for a third consecutive season. They also lost 100 games in 2018 and have a .431 winning percentage since 2013.
While 10 MLB franchises have signed players to contracts of at least $300 million, the White Sox have never signed a player for more than $75 million (Andrew Benintendi). They opened this season with a $74.1 million payroll, ranking ahead of only Miami, and have only $35.7 million in guaranteed salaries on the books in future seasons.
General Manager Chris Getz is focused on building a roster around young players like shortstop Colson Montgomery and catchers Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero. But the team will need to supplement the roster with productive veterans at some point, acquiring them their through trades or free agency.
The 89-year-old Reinsdorf, who rarely speaks to reporters, has not gone in detail about the team’s challenges but told Crain’s Greg Hinz the team needs a new stadium to regain its ability to compete.
“The economics of baseball have completely changed,” Reinsdorf said in February, 2024. “At the location we’re at now, we cannot generate the revenue needed to pay those salaries.”
Reinsdorf has agreed to a long-term investment agreement to potentially sell the team to Phoenix Suns co-owner Justin Ishbia but that transaction isn’t timed to take place before a window that extends from 2029 to ’34.
It’s unclear how the agreement with Ishbia will impact the team’s long-term stability in Chicago. Reinsdorf had told Hinz that his heirs would potentially shop the team to “out of town” interests after his death, seeking the best return for investors.
Ishbia has a net worth of about $4.3 billion, according to Forbes. He was raised in suburban Detroit but moved to Chicago to found the private equity firm Shore Capital Partners.
The 78 seems like an ideal site for the White Sox, with Ishbia’s involvement possibly making it easier for the team to bridge the funding gap it has faced under Reinsdorf, but the team appears back to exploring all its options.
Several suburbs pitched the Bears on potential stadium sites before team president Kevin Warren began putting all his efforts on land the team owns in Arlington Heights. The White Sox could look in those directions if they can’t persuade the city to consider a two-team option in The 78.
One way or another, the ball is back in Reinsdorf’s court.
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