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Sox fans are a weird bunch. Practically my whole life, people bitched about the current stadium. Now, they are planning to build a ballpark that looks like it would be one of the premier sports venues in the entire country and a large segment of Sox fans suddenly fell in love with the current park. Today on the radio, Laurence Holmes was making a huge deal that it only takes him 8 minutes to get to the Sox game now. The new park will take him 18 minutes he said. This was supposed to be damning evidence against having a beautiful new stadium. The new site is near all the major highways. It will have access to a metra, red, green, orange CTA lines. It will be accessible by water taxi. It will be walkable for a whole bunch of people who live and work nearby. And yes... it will have parking. It will be built in an up and coming area. It will have great views. It will be near a ton of bars and restaurants. It will include a super cool park/green space for people to hang out. The park will undoubtedly have better seating. It will have better bathrooms. It will have better food options. It will also end the "Will the Sox move to [insert mid-market city]?" discussions that pop up here every once in a while. It should inject some life into the organization and allow them to invest more money into the club in the future. Most importantly, it will most likely be a much more enjoyable place for fans to go for a game. I love going to New Comiskey... but come on, this is going to be so much better.

Honestly amazing hearing and reading some of these takes. Especially with the proposed project in it's entirety, the population density within a mile of the ball park is going to go up 2-3 times. The location is great, they're going to be in the heart of sky scrapers closeish to the lake and and on the river. Some people were crying about no roof? Why would you want a roof to block the view? It's one of the coolest parts of the proposal. I actually didn't hate CF either because it looked open to people across the way at restaurants or condos (whatever it was) and walking by in some parts it looked like. Obviously these designs more conceptual, but the entire thing is organization changing. And while I don't like Jerry as much as the next guy as an owner. This is in his wheel house, and it really could be a win for the city with the major development in that area which they've wanted to develop forever. Only reason I'm hesitant to believe anything is going to actually happen (even though it feels like this is literally the ONLY plan and they seem pretty far along honestly) is because we're Sox fans and we really can't have nice things usually.

I'm shocked I keep seeing guys on twitter upset that this doesn't have a roof. Who the hell wants a roof?

Anyone complaining about this is too far gone. This would be the best thing to happen to the White Sox ever. The stadium is cool too. Nothing wrong with it.

Cause we have been fans of this franchise for longer than 15 minutes?

Just gonna throw out there that investing in a large real estate development may not be the same thing to Jerry as signing labor to a large contract he thinks they will decline with.

I saw this writeup and thought it was worth sharing. Lots of stuff I didn't know about Related Reality, what has already been secured in terms of funding, and most importantly why it makes sense financially for the Sox to do this.

Agreed. Don't settle. Getz needs to keep a framed photo of Blake Rutherford on his desk to look at every time the Yankees call.

I'm walking distance from GRF and I'm freaking ecstatic! I'm not upset in the least that I'll have to hop on the L to go to games again. The positives outweigh everything else IMO.

Yup.. the increase in time to get to the new site isn't significant. I live near the new site and if I jump on an el or take an uber, I can get there door to door in 10 minutes or less most of the time. Here's another thing. I imagine a ton of Sox fans live along the orange line route. I had a paralegal who worked for me and she would go to like 10-15 games a year with her family and friends and roll like 25 deep each time. People like that are going to be able to easily jump on the train instead of being forced to drive. The only thing this park wont have is the tailgating, which essentially became popular because there was nothing else to do near the current park. If you gave Cub fans the choice of wrigleyville or tailgating, do you think they'd prefer tailgating? Last time I went to get drinks after a game I was just standing on the sidewalk outside of Turtles/Cork and it was pathetic. We ended up just taking an uber to Weathermark Tavern, which is kind of near the new site.

Anyone, including myself, coming from the southside or Indiana is going to see their commute go up by 10-15 minutes. Guess what, this is still a huge net positive.

I'm just salty this didn't happen when I was younger and going to more games. God damnit ha Will be ecstatic if happens though.

He's a Boras client

If you are someone who would require parking I recommend looking at how US Bank stadium (Vikings) handles parking. There is very little visible parking at the stadium, yet it has about 20k spots available in the near radius. That's for something with 73k capacity. What that should mean will be a) certainly any families with accessibility needs are likely still going to be able to have some parking under or close to stadium. B) many of the rest will be accommodated in mixtures of garages in the immediate area, though not all right next to the stadium. That's not a particularly dense area. 20k is certainly less than the capacity now, when you think about "well if you don't need a car I'm sure you don't care" is also that many of the people that are in between (like me) will probably choose public transit, lowering the amount of cars that need to be there. WHile there was public transportation prior (that I still mostly take when by myself), it also funneled everyone to two lines. North/South taken care of by Red. West/South by Green. Adding Red/Orange/Blue and Green will all be served within close walking distance. A 192 bus can run to Ogilvie/Union station. You had like the state street bus before. Just a lot more options.

The team never did. It was crappy reporting. JR met with the Nashville folks on behalf of the TLR group who wants an expansion team there, and not the White Sox.

At this point, I don't care that the team is going to suck. This has been a long-ass winter, and I'm ready for baseball. Up until the past few years, I didn't pay much attention to spring training. Now that the Sox have some potentially exciting prospects, it will be interesting to follow what goes on in ST.

Personally, as a fan who would enjoy going there instead of the current stadium, who cares. Just do it.

Anyone else remember after the ballpark shooting when he was tweeting the name of the poor accountant that set up the LLC associated with ballpark security because he was listed as agent on the Secretary of State website? After implying that guy bore responsibility for security, he had to backtrack once someone told him that being listed as agent of an LLC doesn't mean what he thought. He's constantly jumping the gun and pretending to be an expert in things he knows nothing about. There is no way these professionals and the city have gotten this far and just forgot to account for parking or traffic. A few cool renderings with no further context don't tell the whole story. Will parking ultimately be adequate? Who knows... but any freakout is premature.

Cheap minor league invites like these show why you don’t even waste a few million on some of the bums that Getz did. Save it up for one impact player.

Boras will absolutely "allow" his clients to sign extensions. One signed an extension literally yesterday. He will encourage them to only sign extensions if they get their full value. Dylan Cease is a guy who Boras can genuinely say was a 2nd place Cy Young finisher 2 years ago, much like Getz clearly tried to do while marketing him in Trades. If he were to do that the next 2 years, he could be looking at a $300 million contract. Boras's push with a guy like that would be to make sure he didn't give up a stupid discount in exchange for an extension. It's not unreasonable to think that it would take $250 million+ to get him to commit to an extension right now. That's why it won't happen, because teams aren't going to put up that kind of money for him yet.

I haven't seen this posted yet, but for those worried about parking apparently they have a 4,000 car parking garage planned. https://www.chicagobusiness.com/sports/white-sox-stadium-plans-78-revealed-architect-renderings

LMAO I have to say I’ll kinda miss just grabbing two tall boys at that state street Walgreens after work and drinking them at the edge of the parking lot before heading inside. Like drinking in an alley, it has its charms. But also everything else is better.

My question for you is why shouldn’t they be excited?

No way

When people were comparing Fletcher to Eaton, I figured he was small and probably the same size as Eaton. Eaton is 3 inches taller, Madrigal 2 inches taller lol Altuve is listed at the same height (5'6") and he's hit for some power in his career.

Tell me you’re new around here or this team without telling me.

Not to be pedantic, but “follow the money” originated with “All the President’s Men.”

It’s kind of relieving that there are zero expectations. Even the losses, they can’t pick earlier than 10 next year so you don’t even have to stress on that side of things either. Literally just watch baseball and hope to see improvement and prospects succeed.

Honestly the renderings didn't blow me away. Location is very cool and love the backdrop, but the stadium itself is very vanilla, lacks any sort of personality.

Jerry will. Jerry has private investors lined up and it's not going to cost the gov anything more than what they're paying now. They did basic renderings of how they could fill the land, but no actual stadium pictures. For all things Lorri did wrong, she did render some images of a new Soldier Field land. A domed stadium on the lake would be awesome to be honest, but it would cost crazy money to pull off. My thoughts is doing something similar to SoFi, but also have retractable windows to open it up to the lake during the summer time. You would be looking at a 5 billion dollar stadium, however, and that's without figuring out how to navigate "Friends of the Park" as well as the rest of the development (train station being a major one). In addition, one of the main reasons why the Bears wanted their own stadium is so they could generate their own revenue. They wanted a sportsbook. They wanted Bears land and they wanted control of it. You build anywhere near Soldier Field and FOTP is going to cancel 80% of your vision, hence why JR doesn't go through them. He's many bad things as an owner, the one thing he isn't is a bad business man. JR has been kind to people. He has not been a good owner. But he does have a soft spot. Bingo. In addition, the sale of the team with the new downtown stadium, along with owning the real estate and owning the stadium land with Stephen Ross will be enough. JR is going to gain tons of money from this. 50 million is a non-cited parking ticket for him. It doesn't even register for him.

If you think Jerry is going to tank a deal that could be worth billions between the stadium, the franchise value, plus the real estate developments over something less (and maybe nothing by the time this starts) than $50 million that is laughable. That's a down payment.

I don't know if it's possible, but getting the following to happen would be wild: Sox build South Loop Stadium Bears shift from Arlington Heights to lakefront, which Crain's just did a report on Spaceship is removed by Soldier Field, converted to public parks/athletic fields (suggested in Crain's) Fire move to the converted GRF, some parking lots converted to housing That'd be such a crazy, positive turn of events from the Arlington Heights + Nashville narrative

That $50 million is also still being actively paid off. These funds wouldn't be required until the process for the stadium began. At worst, someone has to cut a check for the balance. Even if they had to pay it today, $50 million isn't going to be the thing that breaks a deal here. That's absurd. Part 2 is that you are confligrating an 8 billion dollar development with the cost of the stadium happening somewhere between $500 million and a billion dollars, probably on the lower end of that guess due to no roof. The cost the Stadium Authority would be dealing with is the stadium itself. The rest of that cost would be separate projects (whether it is one large other project, or many smaller ones within a larger product) legally unrelated to this one. Even if JR is in this other project, it also allows him to still pass this on to his kids while selling off the White Sox. It would totally be separate financing and everything.

$15 million for a front line pitcher is like half price.

https://www.mlb.com/news/angel-padron-throws-no-hitter-for-venezuela-in-caribbean-series Ozzie's Venezuelan team to semifinals. Venezuela's manager, former MLB shortstop and manager Ozzie Guillen, managed two no-hitters in the Majors, and his pitching coach for Venezuela, Carlos Zambrano, threw a no-hitter for the Cubs against the Astros on Sept. 14, 2008.

I think it’s a legitimate thing to consider. I drive in for games currently (about 45 min to 1 hr) and I’ve definitely thought about what I’d do. I go to games with my father who requires handicap parking because he has trouble walking with diabetes and his heart, but is not immobile. I’m not entirely sure how I’d get him there if the only options are public transit. I’m not gonna sit there and cry about it, but it certainly makes it tougher.

Cease struggling to hit 94 in bullpens is a big yikes.

https://x.com/whitesox/status/1755709606783787442?s=46&t=JzxlP-5WAau6tv45z5GU7g

Virtually every good idea that is depicted in that conceptual 78 drawing can be bested by a new park at the site of the original Comiskey park. I have mentioned some of those. There are enormous practical and financial advantages of building across the street on 35th Street. As far as any plan that substantially diminishes the enormous parking lot capacity and the revenue generated from it, that would be a large gamble. Tailgating? Sox and Bear fans have loved tailgating for generations. Why pay a premium for drinks and beer inside the park or at a restaurant or bar prior to game ? It is a blast to meet up friends in the park lots, grill your own food and enjoy your own drinks. The 78 plan eliminates that entirely. Hanging at bars late night after weekday games is a Wrigleyville thing. The Sox fan base that attend night games is largely different. Many of us live in far West/SW even NW suburbs or NW Indiana, and bring our sons/daughters to games in cars. Most of us will never sacrifice security for our families to ride mass transit into the City. I don't care how much is spent on armed security and who pays for it. And if we arrive early we have to take everyone into a bar or restaurant ( adding to the cost of the outing) or wait in long lines at the gate? The depiction of this 78 plan is understandably devoid of detail, including scale/dimensions, parking, pedestrian and vehicular access routes and specificity regarding the use/scale of surrounding buildings. While GRF has many things that are lacking, it does have a few attributes that are often taken for granted and if replaced, should be considered in any new plan. One that I like is the ability of everyone to seek shelter from rain under the stands in wide corridors. Also, one can walk all around the stadium or hang out at a very large outfield concourse where there is a large food court and many rest rooms (although never enough men's rooms). Any development company can requisition impressive artistic renderings which are often out of scale and contain unrealistic details in an effort to woo banks, financiers, potential tenants, etc. to buy in. This would not be the first one that this Related development company and their predecessors have done over the last few decades. I'm not buying in. Having said that, I'm not entirely against Area 78 primarily because, as noted in this thread, many, mostly younger Sox fans would welcome it. Trust me....I get it.. out with the old, in with the new. I just think it is the wrong way to go, just like did when JR, Einhorn and Savarise approved a ridiculous looking new park covered with awful brown dryvit , a steep upper deck, powder blue seats, and white erector set metal truss work. I hated it. Based on my own professional and life experiences, and my history as a Sox fan, I am more inclined to stop and think about every possible alternative rather than jumping aboard any proposal let alone one made by an overly aggressive development company under artificial deadlines and veiled threats about moving team. Often patience yields some of life's best rewards. I can envision a great new Sox park on the site of the original Comiskey...one that incorporates the best ideas of the original Comiskey and Wrigley fields and avoids most of the mistakes caused by greed, oversight, and failure to incorporate good ideas by architects and the fan base. Instead what I see here is old rectangular shaped vacant lot with any number of inherent issues with a new stadium shoehorned in while maximizing the remaining space for mainly unRelated commercial development.

I am glad Getz is insisting on him as the main piece. If he isn't included, then there's nothing to discuss with NYY.

I'm a bit confused. When you refer to "Oakland" rejecting, you mean the Athletics, right?

A few things Anyone thinking the $50M is an issue needs to leave the conversation The government will fund infrastructure upgrades that they would for any development. This will be viewed as the taxpayers handing money to JR but they would be wrong. The White Sox and Bears are in a race for ISFA bond issuance Not seen in this message - who own Related Midwest ----- the Miami Dolphins----- who could position themself to buy all this up when JR visits his ancestors ---- Stephen Ross ---- as we learned in the movie JFK ---- follow the money The way JR runs his sports teams has zero correlation with this project. The yelling at the cloud crowd need to understand this. This was proven with the UC deal. The Metra schedule is not that conducive currently. I can walk to it but I still drive and park for free. Make the experience better (schedule wise) and I'm on the train. I also would drag my boat home from Michigan for a ride up the River.

I know what you were going for, but you meant descendants man

The bump in franchise value might actually pay for the entire stadium, potentially, though to be fair paper value is not cash in a bank account. But it does go to if you view paying off the old stadium as an investment in the new stadium, it is a no brainer. Again, also keep in mind that the ISFA is functioning as we speak, so every month that goes by means another payment gets made. The thought is that to get a stadium done for opening day 2030, you need 3 years of construction means that we have at least 3 more years of payments to make until someone needs to be paid to put a shovel into the ground for the first time. Also keep in mind that this scary $50 million number being thrown around also exists because of the remodels which have been done there over the years, and not simply because of original construction. There is a pretty fair chance that this payment structure is directly related to the expiration of the lease too. The ISFA probably took into consideration that there could be no stadium occupant after this lease was completed when they agreed to a payment schedule.

By the time they got that entire development built, the Sox would be crying about needing a new stadium.

Sox don't have enough fans to fill those seats but they might draw some tourists. Half of us will never see first pitch.

For the city, the other big part of this is that if this isn’t done, there’s a good chance this site is undeveloped 50 years from now. It’s already sat there for 60, and small projects won’t raise enough money to justify redeveloping it. On the other hand. The land in Bridgeport could be turned back into low to moderate density development or even turned into a new big project at lower cost.

The sox may have no other choice but to leave if the bears get the funding instead of the Sox. That funding is the key to everything. Without it the Sox are not viable here for the long run. Why stay?

You are panicking over a bullpen in February, a week before pitchers and catchers have even reported to camp. Call the folks at Guinness, as I think we have a new world's record.