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Ishbia taking control by 2029?


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1 hour ago, tray said:

Maybe purchasing more minority shares is just part and parcel of a typical private equity investment strategy.

It's hard to guess what is going on though when so little has been disclosed.

Nashville is still hoping to get an mlb team down there and maybe Ish-bye-a does as well. In addition to a minority stake in the WSox he already has a similar minority stake in the Nashville SC soccer franchise. 

 

There's no public money left in TN for a baseball stadium.

Too close to ATL.

All the one you goes to the Titans and UT football.

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22 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

There's no public money left in TN for a baseball stadium.

Too close to ATL.

All the one you goes to the Titans and UT football.

No money in the Chicago or Illinois budgets for the Bears or the WSox to build new stadiums but there is always that creative long term TIF financing to help the billionaire owners out.  Then again, TIF districts can increase real estate tax rates while at the same time diminishing funds for public schools, police, fire and other public services. Then there is the fact that a lot of people just don't give a fvk about professional sports and have no desire to fund private businesses.

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5 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

I give a fivick about professional sports 

Now there's apparently not enough Bears positivity in the NFL thread lol...and another week of Greg arguing Arlington Heights and Tray against anything to do with private equity.

Wonder what Tray thinks of Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox...?

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5 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

There's no public money left in TN for a baseball stadium.

Too close to ATL.

All the one you goes to the Titans and UT football.

I wonder if Nashville is such a shoe-in for an expansion team anymore just because of this.  They're spending a TON of public money on that new Titans stadium.

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On 9/20/2025 at 8:42 PM, southsider2k5 said:

If they took on so much operations debt they had to bring in the buyer early, that's enough of a red flag to me.  I didn't really buy it before hand, but seeing this plus what happened with the Twins, it checks out.  They have been bleeding cash for years now.

It'll be very interesting to see how the new labor contract and the TV deals eventually shake out in a few years.  Seems like the disparity between the haves and the have not franchises has gotten worse in the last 5 years or so.  

 

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7 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Tray against anything to do with private equity.

Wonder what Tray thinks of Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox...?

Cauli:

Private Equity firms often leave lot of bones from small businesses in their wake. Their prevalence reminds me of growing monopolies in our country in the early twentieth century. Of course, do your own reading but let me give you this link that provides some of the reasons I am skeptical of PEI. (It is a Guardian article but you can click into it w/o signing up).

Reinsdorf's decision to even deal with a PEI is self-serving and in some sense, maddening.  Moreover, JR's attempt to create a hybrid form of a life estate in the WSox is just weird and has caused confusion and uncertainty for the fan base. IMO, he should have done what many Sox fans have asked him to do for some time now, just sell the fvking team. And for Billionaire Ishbia, same thought. You are worth  billions. If you want to buy the WSox just get a deal done so it becomes clear who is running the show and what the future plans might be. 

Really I am not comfortable with a situation where someone looks to increase their minority stake to possibly leverage a takeover and meanwhile has access to the books of the company. 

Edited by tray
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8 hours ago, 77 Hitmen said:

It'll be very interesting to see how the new labor contract and the TV deals eventually shake out in a few years.  Seems like the disparity between the haves and the have not franchises has gotten worse in the last 5 years or so.  

 

The bottom 18 or so media deals are just a drop in the bucket compared to that Top 12 list...the White Sox used to at least be in the #11-15 range (peak was 8-10 range) but now way down in the 20s for the foreseeable future.

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It’s amazing to me that Jerry is about to throw out a roster with a payroll of around 50M and we are getting lectured by tray about the dangers of Private Equity Firms like they aren’t already all over professional sports.  OH NO I DONT WANT THE SOX TO BE LIKE THE DODGERS!  
 

let’s all keep wishing the perfect multibillionaire walks in that door and gives us all what we want 

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23 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

It’s amazing to me that Jerry is about to throw out a roster with a payroll of around 50M and we are getting lectured by tray about the dangers of Private Equity Firms like they aren’t already all over professional sports.  OH NO I DONT WANT THE SOX TO BE LIKE THE DODGERS!  
 

let’s all keep wishing the perfect multibillionaire walks in that door and gives us all what we want 

Especially because Jerry got rich by the 1970s and 1980s version of private equity.  

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9 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

It’s amazing to me that Jerry is about to throw out a roster with a payroll of around 50M and we are getting lectured by tray about the dangers of Private Equity Firms like they aren’t already all over professional sports.  OH NO I DONT WANT THE SOX TO BE LIKE THE DODGERS!  
 

let’s all keep wishing the perfect multibillionaire walks in that door and gives us all what we want 

As I have told you several times....Speak for yourself.  Stop pretending because you are a moderator (one of several) , that you speak for anyone else.  Your opinions are your own. Run for office if you want to get on the salt box and speak for a constituency. 

Second, I am not lecturing you or anyone.  Really, I respect you but I could care less what your opinions are. My opinions about the general benefits and risks associated with PEI are my own. If you feel you are informed enough to state your own opinion about PEI, go ahead.

The gist of my post is clear and I stand behind my opinions.  Feel free to disagree but don't claim I am lecturing you. Stop your reflexive responses to my posts.

Edited by tray
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12 minutes ago, tray said:

As I have told you several times....Speak for yourself.  Stop pretending because you are a moderator (one of several) , that you speak for anyone else.  Your opinions are your own. Run for office if you want to get on the salt box and speak for a constituency. 

Second, I am not lecturing you or anyone.  Really, I respect you but I could care less what your opinions are. My opinions about the general benefits and risks associated with PEI are my own. If you feel you are informed enough to state your own opinion about PEI, go ahead.

The gist of my post is clear and I stand behind my opinions.  Feel free to disagree but don't claim I am lecturing you. Stop your reflexive responses to my posts.

You just gave a lecture stating you don’t lecture.

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Private Equity ownership mlb

Arctos Partners: Boston Red Sox*, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants

Avenue Sports Fund: Baltimore Orioles

RedBird Capital: Boston Red Sox*

Steve Cohen/Mets 

 

6/8 seems like a pretty good success rate for getting teams into the post season.

Maybe the Red Sox or Astros don't make it...

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31 minutes ago, tray said:

As I have told you several times....Speak for yourself.  Stop pretending because you are a moderator (one of several) , that you speak for anyone else.  Your opinions are your own. Run for office if you want to get on the salt box and speak for a constituency. 

Second, I am not lecturing you or anyone.  Really, I respect you but I could care less what your opinions are. My opinions about the general benefits and risks associated with PEI are my own. If you feel you are informed enough to state your own opinion about PEI, go ahead.

The gist of my post is clear and I stand behind my opinions.  Feel free to disagree but don't claim I am lecturing you. Stop your reflexive responses to my posts.

You can hold whatever opinions you like, but you insult everyone's intelligence by pretending like that this isn't exactly how Jerry and company got rich themselves.   Hell he even used OPM for 80% of the purchase price of the White Sox, not in a corporation or loan,  but quite literally private equity from unidentified and undisclosed private investors on behalf of which he acts to this day.

It's a duck bro.  You are quacking at a duck to protect another duck.

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44 minutes ago, tray said:

As I have told you several times....Speak for yourself.  Stop pretending because you are a moderator (one of several) , that you speak for anyone else.  Your opinions are your own. Run for office if you want to get on the salt box and speak for a constituency. 

Second, I am not lecturing you or anyone.  Really, I respect you but I could care less what your opinions are. My opinions about the general benefits and risks associated with PEI are my own. If you feel you are informed enough to state your own opinion about PEI, go ahead.

The gist of my post is clear and I stand behind my opinions.  Feel free to disagree but don't claim I am lecturing you. Stop your reflexive responses to my posts.

Lmao I speak for the board when I say, with sincerity, this is fvking hilarious.  So fvking funny

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1 hour ago, tray said:

As I have told you several times....Speak for yourself.  Stop pretending because you are a moderator (one of several) , that you speak for anyone else.  Your opinions are your own. Run for office if you want to get on the salt box and speak for a constituency. 

Second, I am not lecturing you or anyone.  Really, I respect you but I could care less what your opinions are. My opinions about the general benefits and risks associated with PEI are my own. If you feel you are informed enough to state your own opinion about PEI, go ahead.

The gist of my post is clear and I stand behind my opinions.  Feel free to disagree but don't claim I am lecturing you. Stop your reflexive responses to my posts.

We have a current owner who is about to run a $50 million dollar payroll after three straight 100+ loss seasons.  After watching an owner who hasn’t tried winning in numerous seasons of his ownership, most reasonable Sox fans think the idea of any other owner will be an improvement.  Afterall, how could it get any worse?  The White Sox are a joke, the AL’s version of the Rockies.

Edited by WhiteSox2023
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1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

 

Private Equity ownership mlb

Arctos Partners: Boston Red Sox*, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants

Avenue Sports Fund: Baltimore Orioles

RedBird Capital: Boston Red Sox*

Steve Cohen/Mets 

 

6/8 seems like a pretty good success rate for getting teams into the post season.

Maybe the Red Sox or Astros don't make it...

Definitely wouldn’t want to have any success like those other private equity owned teams.  Let’s instead see how many 100 loss seasons Jerry can land in a row before Ishbia takes over.

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1 minute ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Definitely wouldn’t want to have any success like those other private equity owned teams.  Let’s instead see how many 100 loss seasons Jerry can land in a row before Ishbia takes over.

There are 18 teams in the majors who have ties to Private Equity Firms.  62 US pro teams. 

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Jul 11, 2025 · "Private Equity Now Owns More Than 40 Minor League Baseball Teams, And The Number Keeps Growing..."
 
This is the much more troubling trend if you're a fan of value-based minor league pricing/experiences.
 
Diamond Sports now owns around 45/120 full season MiLB teams.
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3 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

There are 18 teams in the majors who have ties to Private Equity Firms.  62 US pro teams. 

Good Googling, However, I never questioned the prevalence of Private Equity in pro sports or anywhere throughout the world. Just the opposite, to wit:

"Private Equity firms often leave lot of bones from small businesses in their wake. Their prevalence reminds me of growing monopolies in our country in the early twentieth century." To take the analogy further, one might ask where big private equity / big money in baseball is going ?   Excuse the rhetorical sarcasm but how about monopolizing everything in America?  You know all too well that we have been on that road for some time now. I guess that raises political issues so I need not tread any further down that road.

There are many reasons why private equity creates concerns over the short and long term, but I am not going to engage much further on the subject.  Hopefully, anyone can see that there are issues of transparency when PE money comes in ...just like the nebulous 5 year Ishbia option presents.   Ask yourself some questions about how this option was structured. What has been Ishbias role in 2025, and what will it be in 2026, 2027, 2028 ? Will Ishbia even exercise the option he has in 2029? It really is an option correct? Does he have any role in negotiating a new Lease with the ISFA beyond his voice at Board meetings as a minority shareholder?  Forget that. This deal was and is all behind closed doors with Sox fans on the outside.

The uncertainty of this 5 year plan has been created by Reinsdorf  alone.  He wants to own the Sox for years to come rather than selling the team outright and he found a willing suitor in Ishbia who knows how to play the long game. That's his business. 

 

 

Edited by tray
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"This deal was and is all behind closed doors with Sox fans on the outside."

 

When have White Sox fans' interests ever been prioritized (or even listened to?) over the last 45 years?

Seems like JR always will do the exact opposite "just to prove he is right" or that it's HIS team and nobody ekse's.

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I am a GREAT googler tyvm

 

tell me tray, are Sox fans supposed to have a seat at the table for this negotiation?   Are we to be privy to the deal?  Is this common with other organizations?  Seems like you believe that this “behind closed doors negotiation” is nefarious and because you weren’t called to approve it, it’s now to be doubted.  Jerry made this deal, no?  
 

maybe you should be mad at him 

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