White Sox reportedly seeking $1 billion from Illinois to fund new stadium

The Chicago White Sox's desired price for their new stadium is coming into focus, and it is not small.

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is preparing to ask Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other state leaders for roughly $1 billion in public money to fund the construction of the team's proposed stadium in the South Loop, according to Justin Laurence of Crain's Chicago Business.

For perspective, that amount of money would cover the majority of the purchase price of an entire MLB team, as the Baltimore Orioles recently sold at a valuation of $1.75 billion. The White Sox were estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.05 billion last year.

Earlier this month, the club unveiled its plans to move to the currently unoccupied 78 South Loop development near Clark Street and Roosevelt Road. The stadium would replace Guaranteed Rate Field, which was opened as Comiskey Park in 1991, the last field of the era before Camden Yards transformed the aesthetics of modern ballparks.

Reinsdorf and Curt Bailey, president of the Related Midwest real estate firm, will reportedly seek the public funds by making the long-disputed argument that the state's investment in a stadium will bring in billions more in private investment in the surrounding area. (Economists have not been fond of the idea that stadium revenues cover the public investment.)

The Crain's article goes into considerable detail about the financial and political dynamics at play here and should be read in full for the complete view of the obstacles, but even the basics paint a messy picture for the White Sox.

Essentially, the White Sox are seeking to claim the revenue of a preexisting 2% hotel occupancy tax and extend it decades beyond 2034, when the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority's outstanding bonds were on track to be paid off. The ISFA currently exists to pay off the 2003 renovation of the Chicago Bears' Soldier Field.

That hotel tax revenue was already struggling to cover the debt service for the Soldier Field bonds due to the drop in hotel revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic. You might remember the Bears are navigating the public fund game in search of their own new stadium to replace Soldier Field. They are reportedly in direct competition with the White Sox for Illinois' money.

Reinsdorf would also reportedly like Illinois to create a tax-overlay district for The 78 property that would turn over the state's portion of sales taxes generated in the area, estimated to be around $400 million over an undisclosed period of time.

Finally, this project apparently needs a total of $551 million in funds for infrastructure to support the stadium (CTA Red Line stop, street improvements, etc.), which Related Midwest would cover upfront and be repaid by the city of Chicago.

The White Sox reportedly declined to comment on all of this, but the game being played here is clear. Reinsdorf did the same thing a few years after he bought the team for $19 million in 1981, threatening to move it to Tampa unless Illinois paid up for the stadium he is now planning to leave.

Reinsdorf succeeded then. Whether he does now will depend on how desperate Illinois is to stop Chicago's second-biggest MLB team from leaving.