Lawmakers look at public funding after White Sox PR cruise
Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday said they would not move on the prospect of public funding for a new White Sox stadium a day after the team and real estate developers hosted an event that included a cruise of the Chicago River to the proposed site for a new ballpark.
The public relations operation by the Sox and developer Related Midwest gave a handful of lawmakers in attendance a chance to see renderings of a ballpark on property 78 along the river south of Roosevelt Road and hobnob with former Sox stars Ozzie Guillen, Bo Jackson, Harold. Baines and Ron Kittle.
While some lawmakers admitted to being impressed by the presentation and the site, where team goalkeeper Roger Bossard’s crew carved an impromptu diamond, many said they remained skeptical about the use of public money for a such a project.
“We’re saying ‘no’ because we all want a shiny new car,” said state Rep. Marcus Evans, a Democrat from Chicago’s South Side who is part of House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s leadership team. “Shiny new cars don’t move me. It’s all about finance.”
The White Sox’s bid for taxpayer dollars is a tall order for a team that has lost 100 games for the second straight season, and it comes as the Chicago Bears also appealed for help from lawmakers to pay for a new football stadium that would have cost more than $3 billion before infrastructure costs.
Also, some lawmakers said any conversation about public funding for pro sports stadiums should include funding for women’s teams, such as the Red Stars, which lease space at Bridgeview’s publicly funded SeatGeek Stadium. And lawmakers said several budget issues in 2025, including public pension reform and school and mass transit funding, need to be addressed first.
“What I hear here when I talk to people is that they’re worried about their grocery bill. They’re worried about paying their mortgage. They’re talking about the things that impact people at their kitchen tables. They’re not talking about stadiums,” Welch, a Hillside Democrat, said during a City Club of Chicago event Tuesday at a downtown restaurant. “It was a nice baseball field with a nice view. But again, that doesn’t change the conversation about who pays for it.”
Welch, who played baseball at Northwestern University, acknowledged that a new Sox stadium at the 78 site would be great for economic development in the city, but said developers need to spend more time considering what the private investment options will appear for the location.
“It was a great showing on their part,” Welch said of the White Sox. “But the reality is that we still represent the taxpayers of the state of Illinois. And they have to change the environment to convince the taxpayers of the state of Illinois that it is a good idea that the taxpayers pay for a new stadium. And nothing yesterday that I am aware of has changed that environment.”
It’s been seven months since White Sox president Jerry Reinsdorf traveled to Springfield to make his pitch to lawmakers for a new baseball stadium, with the goal of securing more than $1 billion in public funding for the ballpark.
State Rep. Bob Rita, a Blue Island Democrat who was at Monday’s event, said the pitch from the Sox and Related Midwest was compelling, but did not move the ball to convince him to grant public funds for the new ballpark.
“I think we’re still in the same place. But it puts perspective when you’re actually physically seeing something,” said Rita, also part of Welch’s leadership team. “They put a lot of effort into lobbying on one end. The taxpayers are on the other end. And we have to look after the taxpayers.”
Earlier this year, Related Midwest released drawings of a stadium that included a picnic lawn in center field and a promenade with views of downtown. The developer also offered ambitious but publicly unsubstantiated projections for its economic impact, saying the new ballpark would generate a $9 billion investment, $4 billion in annual economic impact and $200 million in annual tax revenue. Funding sources have not been identified.
The plan also called for the development of 1,300 new housing units at the current home of the Sox near Bridgeport, while acknowledging that the future of that site would be a long community process since the property around the park is owned of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.
In 1988, Reinsdorf convinced lawmakers to approve a last-minute deal that led to the construction of Guaranteed Rate Field, where the team has a lease that runs through 2029. The sports facilities authority must still $50 million on the Sox stadium, which opened in 1988. 1991, and $589 million on the 2002 renovation of Soldier Field.
Those bonds are supposed to be repaid with a 2% city hotel tax and annual contributions of $5 million from the city and state. But those funds weren’t enough to cover the debt over the past two years, forcing the city to pay an extra $36 million to cover the difference.
State Sen. Steve McClure, a Springfield Republican, said he wasn’t sure why the White Sox wanted a new stadium before attending Monday’s event. But he said those reasons became clear once he saw the site and “we just have to see what their plan is to pay for it and where it goes from there.”
“It would be a great place. There’s no question about it,” he said of 78. “It would be a destination kind of ballpark with that kind of view.”
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