Lightly Folded

Steve Stone previously made an astute point. A new franchise would pay a $3 Billion new franchise fee to mlb which would be evenly distributed to each mlb team. Therefore the owners would prefer this payment as opposed to an established team moving to Nashville or Vegas or anywhere else whereby they get nothing.

9-14-23 Crains

Low attendance at White Sox games has resulted in the team “paying no ticket fees for over a decade to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority,” the state agency that owns taxpayer-funded Guaranteed Rate Field, according to Sophie Rodgers of CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS. The management agreement between ISFA and the White Sox “requires the team to pay a base rent per season, plus net ticket fees if paid attendance exceeds 1.93 million tickets," with that "excluding 'comp' tickets." The team “hasn’t paid ticket fees since 2010,” when it drew nearly 2.2 million fans. Last year, the franchise brought in their highest attendance since then, 1.92 million fans -- “just missing the threshold needed to pay ISFA.” While ISFA does "not heavily rely on revenue from ticket fees to meet its bond obligations,” the “glaring issue is the White Sox’s ability to bring in fans” (CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS, 9/13).

Real Sox fans don’t want them to move. Anyone who claims they are a Sox fan but don’t care if the leave Illinois should cease following them completely and move on.

Strategically alienating Jason to prod his leaving, yearly cancelling sox fest, hiring Tony as manager, fielding an abhorrent team etc. etc. are all part of Jerry’s plan to deflate the fan base which deflates attendance and deflates overall fan interest which will be Jerry’s reason for moving…….”Chicago doesn’t support us so we have to leave” etc. etc.