77 Hitmen

No doubt about it. And guess which ballpark Brewers and Cardinals fans are going to want to visit when their team comes to Chicago? Plus, thanks to their WGN superstation history, the Cubs have a huge following in the Midwest outside of Chicagoland and the Sox most certainly do not. Maybe if Ishbia decides to bankroll a new stadium at the 78, the Sox will have a fighting chance to draw well during times that they aren't winning pennants and to build a broader fan base, but we have a whole other thread discussing that. Regardless, I'm very strongly against abolishing the AL and NL and lumping the Cubs and Sox into the same division.

I don't see MLB clustering both expansion teams in the Southeast. Perhaps one of Charlotte OR Nashville, but not both. Also, for all the breathless talk about Nashville, it's very questionable they'd provide a lot of public money to a MLB stadium after they just spent a fortune on the new Titans stadium. As far as I know, only two cities/states are committing lots of money toward a MLB stadium: Salt Lake City and Portland. Plus, I'd imagine MLB would want one of the expansion teams to go out west in either the Pacific or Mountain time zones and a place with some proximity to the west coast teams. If they put a team in Portland, that would be 8 MLB teams in the Pacific time zone, enough to fill a 4-team NL West and AL West.

I like the idea of the Cubs and Sox (as well as Yankees/Mets and Dodgers/Angels) having their own set of regional rivals and not just sharing the same two other teams as rivals. Group us with Milwaukee and St. Louis and that leaves Detroit and Minnesota out in the cold. Long-term, one concern is that having both Chicago teams lumped in the same division would make the White Sox seem superfluous to the Cubs as far has having a MLB presence in Chicago. Chicago is not a 2-team city like NY or LA (which have 2 teams in each of the major sports). We have 2 MLB teams only because it's relic of a bygone era. To make matters worse, we have one MLB team that always draws well through good seasons and bad and another team that always seems to struggle to draw fans unless they win the World Series.

There sure seems to be a lot of things that the White Sox are ranked around 27th on compared to other teams. That's a Reinsdorf-run organization for you.

and the MLB Players Union will never agree to it in a million years. No way in hell they'd agree to jettison 30 starting lineup positions (DH).

If Manfred & Co. come to their senses and keep the AL and NL and they expand to 32, here's one possible idea of how to create 4-team divisions that have reasonable geography: American League West: Seattle, LA Angels, Las Vegas, Portland (expansion) South Central(?): Texas, Houston, KC, Colorado (moved to AL) Central: Sox, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland East: NYY, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore National League West: SF, LAD, SD, AZ South: TB (moved to NL), Miami, Atlanta, Nashville/Charlotte (expansion) Central: Cubs, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincy East: NYM, Philly, Washington, Pittsburgh

I'd agree, but tell that to Manfred. He'll take their $900M stadium and run - subsequent attendance problems be damned. Remember, this is the guy who wants to totally eliminate the National League and American League just because he's worried that people won't tune into Peacock to watch a Boston vs. Anaheim wild card series. If they're going to add one expansion team out west, I'd like to see Portland get it. They're offering public money for a stadium, too - though not as much as SLC. Those Portland ballpark renderings look fantastic.

As far as a western expansion team, there's also Portland since the State of Oregon has approved $800M in funding for a new MLB stadium. Their renderings of a waterfront stadium look pretty cool IMO. https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/17/oregon-lawmakers-pass-dollar800-million-bill-for-portland-mlb-stadium/ Portland geographically would help with Seattle's isolation from the next closest major league city (San Francisco?) and could create an entire 4-team division within the Pacific time zone along with the Angels and A's if the whole concept of the AL isn't being nuked. I'd imagine Austin or San Antonio are being considered since each metro areas have a decent number of people and are booming. But like you said, two teams in the 3rd most populous state (Florida) isn't working.

I expect him to put an expansion team in Salt Lake City since Utah is offering $900M in public funding for a new stadium, even though it's only the 46th largest metro area in the US.

I hope there never comes a day when MLB totally destroys the National League and American League as entities. It would be such a Manfred move, though. Welcome to World Series match ups between the Western Conference and Eastern Conference champs! Please, Dear God, no. I'd also be very surprised if MLB decides to make their 2 expansion teams in Charlotte AND Nashville. Too close to each other and they'd both carve up the Braves' existing fan base area.

Yeah, 15th and Clark is not far from the existing Red Line stops at Roosevelt to the NE and Cermak to the south and it's not like mass transit is going to get any extra federal funding for at least another 3 1/2 years. Good question about an Orange Line stop just south of the 78. If the Sox build a stadium at the 78 (and that's a huge IF), at least an L stop could always be revisited in the future if it ever is determined to be beneficial to the community.

But, unlike Soldier Field, the ISFA debt for Rate Field is being paid down. Why isn't it zero yet? Perhaps ongoing building maintenance and improvements for a 35 year old structure while Jerry's sweetheart lease cuts out rent payments as attendance plummets? I have no idea, but what's owed for Sox Park is less than 1/10th of what is still owed for Soldier Field. If the new owners decide they'll privately finance a new stadium, paying off the $50M debt on the current park will be a relative drop in the bucket compared to what a new stadium costs.

This article answers that question. Nobody took the money borrowed for the Soldier Field renovation for other expenses, the payment structure was totally backloaded and the debt owed has accrued $250M in interest over the last 20+ years. https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/taxpayers-still-owe-640m-on-2002-soldier-field-renovation/2981068/

And the Bears aren't the only NFL team that has hit a roadblock to getting a new domed stadium built: https://www.cleveland19.com/2025/08/15/odot-denies-aviation-permit-browns-stadium-brook-park/

Legislators say the Bears need to do more to get their votes on the property tax legislation. Several examples are given, including paying off the debt on Solider Field. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/08/18/chicago-bears-tax-break-build-new-stadium/

Wow - 7 minutes of yelling and not even a pause to catch his breath! The guy was totally spot-on. Nothing he said was even close to being hyperbolic. He worried about them promoting Getz to replace KW and RH, too. He'd probably be right about having to say the same thing all over again in 2038 if Jerry weren't going to be 102 by then. If he was that worked up in 2023, I hope he's been taking his blood pressure meds considering what has happened to this team since then.

And I doubt Ishbia's cash infusion over the next couple of years is going to be used to throw money at A/B tier free agents when the entire organization is still a money-losing mess that is bad at evaluating and developing talent. Even with the sweetheart stadium lease that Jerry has, the team simply isn't brining in a lot of money. The TV money is significantly less than in the past, fan interest has tanked, I'd imagine sponsorship money is down big time, and the stadium does nothing to bring in more fans or generate more revenue other than parking.

This current front office has not proven to me that they can draft, develop players, or trade for players competently. And Getz has had terrible results so far in the latter two. Maybe the Crochet deal will work out well for us, but last I saw, we don't have any other Garret Crochets sitting around to be traded for a decent haul. "Well, the [name some other MLB team] went from 100+ losses to the playoffs in a couple of years, therefore so can we" is terrible game plan for a MLB franchise.

To make the playoffs? 2030 at the earliest even with the expanded wild card format. Ain't gonna happen next year for sure. Getz hasn't proven anything to me that he has what it takes to put together a winning team. Barring any huge scandal or the sudden passing of Jerry Reinsdorf, I figure he has the GM job locked up until at least until 2029. Until 2029, Jerry will be in full control. In the meantime, Ishbia's infusion of cash will be used to pay down the team's debts and shore up operational needs. He's not handing money to JR to land free agents and will not be involved in the day to day operations of this franchise.

It makes me wonder how many teams are that deep in debt. I believe it's been reported that the Sox have something like $200M in debt. I'm guessing they're not the only two teams with 9-figure debts. Covid was a huge, but one-off event. On the other hand, the collapse of the RSN money stream is having a huge impact on the economics in MLB. For example, the Cardinals old RSN deal with Fox Sports Midwest was for something like $1B before that network filed for bankruptcy.

but how many games up on Marcia and Jan?😉

They can go 37-3 from here on out to end the year at .500!

What is the future of Soldier Field if the Bears move to Arlington Heights? https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears-stadium/2025/08/15/soldier-field-future-chicago-bears-arlington-heights-stadium-brandon-johnson

I wonder what residents would think about 2 stadiums at the site...especially with a baseball stadium with 81 home dates. Of course, we don't know if the Ishbias would actually pay to have such a thing built there. I'm not sure how they're going to address pedestrian access at the south end of the site unless they at least lower the Metra tracks to below grade. The Red Line station at 15th and Clark is probably not necessary or worth the expense if they're only going to build a soccer stadium with 17 home dates and develop the rest of the property as residential since there are other L stops a few blocks away. But if the Sox and their additional 81 games decide to build there, it would be great to have a subway stop right at the site.

Burying Sunday Night Baseball on a streaming service that most people don't have. That would be such a Manfred move. And I realize that not everyone has ESPN, but until cord-cutting took off, a vast majority of households did.