The Chicago White Sox and mega-developer Related Midwest put on a South Loop fantasy camp Monday in their latest pitch to state lawmakers who so far aren’t swinging on public funding for a new stadium.
Legislators, business leaders and other VIPs were invited on a downtown riverboat tour that docked at the undeveloped parcel known as The 78, near Roosevelt Road and Clark Street, where longtime Sox groundskeeper Roger Bossard has manicured a pop-up field of the team’s future dreams.
Attendees then got to “round the bases and shag ground balls on The Diamond with White Sox Greats and Hall of Famers,” according to an invitation for the event, which was closed to press and billed to “celebrate the spirit of America’s pastime, and embrace the future of Chicago’s legacy.”
The team quietly started sketching out the field last month “to showcase how a baseball field could enhance and fit in with the greater plans for the neighborhood.”
A Related Midwest spokesperson wouldn’t say how many lawmakers were invited Monday, who made the trip or which Sox greats were enlisted for the cause.
One suburban state representative told the Sun-Times they passed on the invite “because I don’t need a tour to know it would be awesome with that outfield skyline.”
“Everyone knows this would be awesome. That doesn’t mean taxpayers should put up a dime for it,” the representative said, asking not to be named.
Lawmakers across the state have uniformly bristled at White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s push for about $1 billion in public funding for the project, including a tax-increment financing district, an extension of the 2% hotel tax increase used to renovate Soldier Field and a new sales tax overlay district around The 78. The team Reinsdorf is currently fielding at Guaranteed Rate Field is closing in on the modern-day Major League Baseball record for most losses in a season.
The Chicago Bears are eyeing the same pot of money for a new lakefront stadium, as are the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women’s Soccer League.
“People have been really clear on where they stand about the broader idea,” said downtown state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, who missed the tour as he campaigns in Georgia this week for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
“We want to hear what all these teams have in mind for economic development in the region, but we have yet to see anything on paper about what specifically they’re asking for. Till that happens, this is all just really conversation,” Buckner said.
Gov. JB Pritzker and the leaders of Democratic super majorities in Springfield have all but rejected the prospect of stadium legislation moving during the fall veto session.
West Side state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, couldn’t fit the 78 tour into his schedule either, but he wasn’t calling the stadium funding game just yet.
“I think anything is possible in politics and business if both sides can claim victory,” Ford said. “That’s how deals are made.”