White Sox, Related Midwest build temporary baseball diamond at South Loop stadium site

If they build it, The 78 is where White Sox fans will come.

And they’d have a great view.

The Sox and developer Related Midwest brought their flashy renderings of a potential new South Loop stadium partially to life this week, creating a baseball diamond where players could eventually take the field if the team lands public financing for a ballpark in the vacant parcel known as The 78.

The makeshift South Loop sandlot — which faces northeast, toward a skyline-spanning view, with the Willis Tower looming over left field — solidifies some of the vision released earlier this year in renderings of the park that Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf wants.

It’s situated between Clark Street and the Chicago River south of Roosevelt Road in what the developer has touted as the next addition to Chicago’s roster of 77 official community areas.

While state lawmakers have all but rejected the possibility of dedicating any public money to a stadium — either for the Sox or the Bears, who want a new home of their own — a Related Midwest spokesperson said the developer is having some “fun” with the tantalizing home plate view.

They enlisted longtime White Sox groundskeeper Roger Bossard, known as “The Sodfather,” to make the temporary diamond and “showcase how a baseball field could enhance and fit in with the greater plans for the neighborhood.”

“With a site this large that’s been sitting vacant for decades, it can be hard to imagine the future 78, so this mockup is both helpful from a planning standpoint and fun to see with the beautiful city skyline as a backdrop,” according to Related Midwest. “There is a lot happening at The 78, and we are very excited about the prospect of what could be with the White Sox as an anchor and the key to unlocking billions of dollars of private investment to create Chicago’s next great neighborhood.”

The Sun-Times first reported in January that Reinsdorf and Related Midwest president Curt Bailey were swinging for the fences on a new stadium, seeking about $1 billion in public funding to help pay for a project they say could pump more than $4 billion annually into the city economy.

The public money would come from:

• A tax-increment financing district created to bankroll the infrastructure improvements needed to ready the site for development.
• The 2% hotel tax increase used to renovate Soldier Field.
• And a new sales tax overlay district that would require the city and state to forgo sales tax revenue generated within the boundaries of the project.

The plan relies on borrowing from new bonds being issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which was created by state lawmakers in 1987 to publicly finance the team’s current ballpark, Guaranteed Rate Field, amid threats by Reinsdorf to move the team to St. Petersburg, Florida.

Taxpayers are still paying off those bonds as well as hundreds of millions more for the 2002 renovation of Soldier Field.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has been receptive to both teams’ stadium proposals, even leaving the door open to the city helping to subsidize the Sox project as long as the team and the developer “put some skin in the game.”

Reinsdorf, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes magazine at $2.1 billion, has said he’ll put some of his own money into the project.

But Gov. JB Pritzker and state legislative leaders have said there’s zero political will in Springfield to help Reinsdorf or the McCaskeys, who want $900 million from taxpayers for a new lakefront stadium. Both proposals are considered long shots to make any progress during the fall veto session.

Related Midwest says the plan would provide more than just a new home for Reinsdorf’s team, which is playing out the string on one of the worst seasons in baseball history. They say they’ll extend the Riverwalk while adding green space, restaurants, retail and affordable housing to create a booming neighborhood.

The developer previously pitched The 78 as a potential site for the Chicago casino, which is now being built in River West.

The only confirmed development for the parcel is the Discovery Partner’s Institute, a research facility led by the University of Illinois, which is expected to break ground this fall.