3 minutes ago, WBWSF said:

I saw an interview with Josh Nelson of Sox Machine.He claims that if the present Amtrack railyard is not moved the South Loop Stadium is dead. If that happens what would the new owner do. Look for another stadium site, stay at the Rate or move the team out of state?

Dude, would you just stop. It’s just nonsense and you know it is

8 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

Dude, would you just stop. It’s just nonsense and you know it is

Usually Lip leads this charge. 🤣

Edited Wednesday at 03:32 PM4 days by Sleepy Harold

Why is the dad from Happy Days in that picture

Josh Nelson is trying so hard to whip up opposition to this deal. He must be a homeowner directly next to the tracks. Gonna have to stop listening to his silly podcast.

6 minutes ago, Green Line said:

Josh Nelson is trying so hard to whip up opposition to this deal. He must be a homeowner directly next to the tracks. Gonna have to stop listening to his silly podcast.

He is pretty close to the park

36 minutes ago, WBWSF said:

I saw an interview with Josh Nelson of Sox Machine.He claims that if the present Amtrack railyard is not moved the South Loop Stadium is dead. If that happens what would the new owner do. Look for another stadium site, stay at the Rate or move the team out of state?

Here's the interview in question. It's quite logical and not some earth shattering revelation - if Amtrak isn't able to relocate their maintenance facility out of 14th St, Ishbia won't be able to build a stadium on that site.

This is a pretty good discussion. Nelson suggests, as @Mouthsider suggested earlier in this tread, if Amtrak agrees to conduct/release their environmental impact analysis, that would probably be enough to overcome threats to block this project. Seems like a no-brainer given that this site has already been functioning as a rail yard as recently as 2019. He also discusses the financing part of the stadium and how the low interest rate from the feds would help get this privately financed. They also mention who needs to approve any redevelopment of the Rate Field parking lots.

In the end, I think this is the biggest threat to getting a South Loop stadium built. I'd say the chances of this failing are not zero, but at some point, Amtrak does want/need to upgrade their facility in a way that they claim can't be done at 14th St. Odds are good that something gets worked out somehow. Also, despite outrage from Bridgeport residents, it seems like overall reaction to the ballpark proposal has been very positive. But this is still Chicago, like I said, the chances that they'd kill a project that offers billions in private and federal investment are not zero. Look at how effectively Chicago politicians have (probably) killed a chance for a privately-financed Bears stadium in Cook County because "it's not Chicago."

15 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

Why is the dad from Happy Days in that picture

Ayyyyy, Mr. C !!!

7 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

He is pretty close to the park

So he’s likely biased a bit.

5 minutes ago, 77 Hitmen said:

Ayyyyy, Mr. C !!!

19 minutes ago, Green Line said:

Josh Nelson is trying so hard to whip up opposition to this deal. He must be a homeowner directly next to the tracks. Gonna have to stop listening to his silly podcast.

How about we just stop destroying perfectly fine and functional entertainment complexes so that a billionaire can make slightly more money by developing a redundant entertainment complex?

What a massive waste of resources and limited urban land, I’m surprised the perspective of this forum is so gung-ho about building yet another pointless stadium. Like have you guys been to Sox Park lately? It’s perfectly fine. They don’t need a new one. If they want to do something on the parking lots they already own, wonderful. This 78 s%*# is so annoying they should’ve just planted some trees 20 years ago and been done with it.

4 minutes ago, nrockway said:

How about we just stop destroying perfectly fine and functional entertainment complexes so that a billionaire can make slightly more money by developing a redundant entertainment complex?

What a massive waste of resources and limited urban land, I’m surprised the perspective of this forum is so gung-ho about building yet another pointless stadium. Like have you guys been to Sox Park lately? It’s perfectly fine. They don’t need a new one. If they want to do something on the parking lots they already own, wonderful. This 78 s%*# is so annoying they should’ve just planted some trees 20 years ago and been done with it.

I have good news for you! They're moving to a different lot than the 78.

9 minutes ago, Quin said:

I have good news for you! They're moving to a different lot than the 78.

Problem solved!

22 minutes ago, 77 Hitmen said:

Ayyyyy, Mr. C !!!

As a matter of fact Tom Bosley was a native Chicagoan and a diehard Cubs fan

20 minutes ago, nrockway said:

How about we just stop destroying perfectly fine and functional entertainment complexes so that a billionaire can make slightly more money by developing a redundant entertainment complex?

What a massive waste of resources and limited urban land, I’m surprised the perspective of this forum is so gung-ho about building yet another pointless stadium. Like have you guys been to Sox Park lately? It’s perfectly fine. They don’t need a new one. If they want to do something on the parking lots they already own, wonderful. This 78 s%*# is so annoying they should’ve just planted some trees 20 years ago and been done with it.

"It's perfectly fine"

This should go on Comiskey II's tombstone.

1 hour ago, WBWSF said:

I saw an interview with Josh Nelson of Sox Machine.He claims that if the present Amtrack railyard is not moved the South Loop Stadium is dead. If that happens what would the new owner do. Look for another stadium site, stay at the Rate or move the team out of state?

Good God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It never ends with you does it?

1 hour ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Usually Lip leads this charge. 🤣

This is what I love about Soxtalk, if one man falls, the next picks up his sword and advances. Such teamwork.

1 hour ago, WBWSF said:

I saw an interview with Josh Nelson of Sox Machine.He claims that if the present Amtrack railyard is not moved the South Loop Stadium is dead. If that happens what would the new owner do. Look for another stadium site, stay at the Rate or move the team out of state?

Three points:

#1, The White Sox are not leaving Chicago.

#2, See point #1.

#3 Repeat points 1-2.

2 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

"It's perfectly fine"

This should go on Comiskey II's tombstone.

It's a fuckin place to watch some guys throw a ball around for a couple hours. It's not dilapidated or anything close to it. Very American logic to just throw away your things that are perfectly fine and replace them with something that will be obsolete whenever the next shiny thing comes out. It's a logic that will destroy the planet and the human race.

The only reason to move closer to the Loop is so the billionaire nepo baby can score some of those tourist bucks. You guys act like Ishbia is gonna cut you a check when the reality is he's going to demand even more of your money to watch them play in the little league stadium they're allegedly going to build (they won't build it) and he will, almost certainly, not spend more money than Reinsdork. Check out what Boobenstein is doing in Baltimore and convince me that Ishbia won't be exactly the same. The grass is not always greener when it comes to these people, it's going to be the exact same shitty unkempt, brown overgrown lawn.

3 minutes ago, nrockway said:

It's a fuckin place to watch some guys throw a ball around for a couple hours. It's not dilapidated or anything close to it. Very American logic to just throw away your things that are perfectly fine and replace them with something that will be obsolete whenever the next shiny thing comes out. It's a logic that will destroy the planet and the human race.

The only reason to move closer to the Loop is so the billionaire nepo baby can score some of those tourist bucks. You guys act like Ishbia is gonna cut you a check when the reality is he's going to demand even more of your money to watch them play in the little league stadium they're allegedly going to build (they won't build it) and he will, almost certainly, not spend more money than Reinsdork. Check out what Boobenstein is doing in Baltimore and convince me that Ishbia won't be exactly the same. The grass is not always greener when it comes to these people, it's going to be the exact same shitty unkempt, brown overgrown lawn.

No literally, the description of "it's perfectly fine" is so incrediblely perfect for the park. It is one of the lowest regarded parks in professional sports, and it does what it needs to do, and not much more. What a perfect description of both the park, and the Sox existence for the last half century, and we should shut up and be happy about it. The most unironic five star review.

1 hour ago, Melton1972 said:

As a matter of fact Tom Bosley was a native Chicagoan and a diehard Cubs fan

then maybe it's time to get Chachi involved instead.

9 minutes ago, 77 Hitmen said:

then maybe it's time to get Chachi involved instead.

You have to watch the spinoff for that kind of hot action…

As someone with no memories of Comiskey Park I, I love the current park on an emotional level. All the changes since they lopped off the top of the upper deck have made it better and better, then add all the little things (some added over time): The statues, "The Catch," the pope seat, the two blue seats, Thome's plaque, the murals, the outfield shower, the Fundamentals Deck, the rain rooms. The exploding scoreboard most of all.

And a lot of that can be carried over.

• All of the statues can be placed in the CF concourse / social space in The Railyards rendering. Make statues of Lyons and Appling and now you've got the coolest retired number display in the majors.

• Leo seat and Blue Seats can go in some sort of historical display.

• The exploding scoreboard, outfield shower and rain rooms are so easy to add to a new stadium. Obviously the exploding scoreboard and shower were already copy/pastes.

• Paint new murals! The old ones can also be carved out so as to not lose original art --- but they're also not worth holding up an entire stadium.

So ultimately you're losing: Thome's plaque, "The Catch," and the Fundamentals Deck (and a new kids area will surely be built)

2 hours ago, Sleepy Harold said:

I recommend people take the time to read this article. It really shoots down the idea that stopping the Amtrak project would mean this land would remain an unused railyard forever. In fact, what Union Pacific decides to do with those parcels after their merger goes through could be worse......and they wouldn't need any approvals to do it. It also gives a good background of what these railyards were used for until 2019.

From the article:

Three likely outcomes if Amtrak walks away

1. Union Pacific keeps it, and uses it more. This is the default and the most probable. UP continues to park empties and containers on the viaduct, and once its merger with Norfolk Southern closes — the Surface Transportation Board accepted the application for review in May, and the carriers are targeting mid-2027 — the combined railroad will for the first time own both the yard and the freight rights on the line that serves it. 

Today those are split between UP and NS, an awkward arrangement that helps explain why the yard has been a backwater.

also in the article:

What is not on the list: parks and residential

....

The opposition's case has been argued as though the alternative to an Amtrak facility is the status quo of a mostly idle storage yard. The status quo is not on offer. Union Pacific idled the yard as a business decision in 2019; it can reverse that decision as a business decision at any time, and the arrival of a merger partner that already runs the freight on this line makes reversal more likely, not less.

Can only guess Ishbia thinks he has the Mojo and connevctions to see this through. Not my concern. I am done obsessing over stadium deals.