White Sox “need” new stadium to compete?

We’ve heard this song and dance before

Haven’t we heard this story before?

Jerry Reinsdorf is again making specious and unsubstantiated claims that the ballpark his White Sox play in inhibits them from competing with other big-market clubs, and that he needs new digs or will be forced to seek greener pastures. The soft cushion, in JR’s mind, is that public financing that benefits him the most is somehow in the public good.

The last stadium showdown between Reinsdorf vs. the city and state came in the mid- 1980s. Infamously, Illinois Governor “Big Jim” Thompson stopped the clock in Springfield to rally votes past the funding deadline. Perhaps that chain of events could be forgiven, as the fable that sports teams bring economic windfalls to cities and communities was still widely believed at the time.

But now, not 40 years later, the same billionaire owner, who cares more about profit than winning baseball games, is again crowing about not being able to compete or survive in the current market simply because he wants someone else to pay for his team’s shiny new playground ... a playground with a $1 billion price tag (at least), I might add.

Not two days into spring training, and fresh off of returning from Springfield seemingly with his tail between his legs, Reinsdorf took his appeal for public funds to the pages of Crain’s Chicago Business.

The chairman’s contention that his baseball team needs a new ballpark to survive in Chicago rings hollow, as do his not-so-veiled threats that the team would leave the third largest market in the country if he doesn’t secure funds for his new stadium plans. The sudden claims that the Armour Square home of the Pale Hose since 1991 is no longer adequate, and the newfound desperate need for a new park in order to survive, seem awfully reminiscent of they dying days of Old Comiskey. And at least then, Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn could at least scapegoat the age and condition of then 75-year-old Comiskey Park as cause for a new ballpark.

The South Side baseball team has played in this city for 124 years, yet now they can’t survive where they are? Color me skeptical.

The White Sox drew nearly 3 million fans after winning the World Series in 2005 and had 10 straight seasons of at least 1.9 million fans (and seven consecutive two million-plus seasons) before the current and endless rebuild(s), so the notion that the Sox can’t survive any longer on 35th Street is a stretch. The manner in which fans consume baseball has certainly changed over the past 20 years, and ballpark villages with “entertainment experiences” are all the rave today, but JR has no one to blame but himself for the sorry state of affairs at 35th & Shields. Twenty years after last winning a title, his team is nearly irrelevant in this town thanks to his bumbling mismanagement, inept yes-men, and refusal to invest wisely in both in the team and in the fan experience outside of Guaranteed Rate Field. I’m sorry that your obscene parking revenue doesn’t keep you as warm anymore, Jerry.

It was probably safe to expect some saber-rattling from JR over the financing of his South Loop ballpark plans, but to jump immediately to “can’t compete without new park” and threats to leave is still a bit shocking. And for the old man to try the same tactic expecting it to work again? That’s the most insulting part.

Sorry Jerry, we have 40 years of history to show how shitty of an owner you are, and we are all too familiar with how you operate. No one is going to fall for it this time.