Sports

Greenberg: The Jerry Reinsdorf White Sox era takes another turn with new stadium push

Published

2 years ago

February 24, 2024

Greenberg: The Jerry Reinsdorf White Sox era takes another turn with new stadium push

For all his mishegas and misdirection, Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is right on one thing: It’s either now or later.

Either he’s asking the city and state for more than a billion bucks of public money for a new stadium right now or someone else is going to be asking for it down the road.

The prospects of the White Sox leaving town have been rumored for months, from the rumors of a Nashville interest to Reinsdorf’s more direct insinuation in a recent interview with Crain’s Chicago that someone will buy the team and want to move it.

With his 88th birthday coming up, Reinsdorf’s focus right now isn’t on the team’s improved defensive outlook or the Bulls’ march to the Play-In Tournament. He’s all about a new stadium.

This rare media interview with Crain’s immediately followed his trip to Springfield, Ill., to schmooze with state legislators in his quest for a new stadium that would be funded by someone other than him.

Few people outside of Reinsdorf’s immediate orbit are enthused about the idea of funding another ballpark for him. But in Reinsdorf’s world, Chicagoans are all downwind of his cigar smoke, forever looking for a breath of fresh air.

These days, it’s offensive to our more educated sensibilities when sports franchise owners ask for public money. It’s wildly offensive when it’s coming from Reinsdorf, a rich owner of two teams with his hand out for the second time.

It’s not surprising that Jerry is seeking “free” money, of course. He’s an owner. It’s what they do.

Reinsdorf still has his defenders who are loyal to him, but even they can’t argue that the White Sox are not a perennial disappointment under his leadership. Sure, you can shift the blame to the front office or the players or even the fans, but you can’t argue the facts. Jerry is the boss and his business is bad.

In happier days, Jerry Reinsdorf shows off the ball from the last out of the 2005 World Series. (Ron Vesely / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Just a few years ago, the Sox were the darlings of the city, a 93-win team with strong personalities and a bright future. Now, after a series of calamities, they’re entrenched again in the AL Central bunker — the big-city losers in a small-market division.

And Reinsdorf is back to his late-’80s tricks, trying to convince everyone that a new ballpark will not only be some kind of competitive panacea for his club but also a boon to Chicago and the state of Illinois. And if he doesn’t get what he wants, well, the team might not be playing in Chicago in the near future. He’s just trying to help.

Back in the day, he used Tampa-St. Petersburg to get his new park in Chicago. Nowadays, he’s not going to realistically threaten to move the team himself. In that interview with Crain’s, he’s threatening that the prospective owners who will one day buy the Sox, likely after his passing, will probably threaten to move the team. So just give him the money now to prevent that from happening.

I’m here to say that in that regard, he’s not wrong.

Whoever buys the Sox, whether it’s in a few years or a decade from now, will probably want a new stadium if the team is still playing at Guaranteed Rate Field. Now, there are some potential owners who might see the value in keeping the Sox where they are and doing the things to fix up the park and the surrounding area that Reinsdorf is unwilling to do. But I can see it playing out like it did when Tom Ricketts and his family bought the Cubs. Ricketts waited until after his first season as the owner to unveil a plan that would have taken control of existing tax dollars to fund money-making improvements for his private business.

Ricketts was unsuccessful at getting hundreds of millions of dollars (though he did get some help) to renovate Wrigley Field and its campus. But he got it done just in time for the Cubs to finally win a World Series.

The reason the Cubs didn’t move to Rosemont or anywhere else is because Wrigley Field is a cash cow. Guaranteed Rate Field is not.

The White Sox have a smaller fan base than the Cubs, and their stadium is not a tourist attraction. So the owners could threaten to move. But that’s in the future. Right now, the state and city have more pressing issues, financial or otherwise. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he’s not looking to give money to team owners for new stadiums. Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, who ran as a progressive, is under pressure from two teams now looking to move.

From a public relations standpoint, unknown owners would get more support for asking for tax dollars than Reinsdorf. For all the philanthropic work the Sox have done in the community, for all the loyalty he’s shown to his employees and for all the genuine love he has for baseball, Reinsdorf has squandered all the goodwill he’s ever had.

Reinsdorf has said for years he wants his sons to sell the team when he passes. The partners in his ownership group, some of whom have been with him since he bought the team in 1981, will demand it. But the Reinsdorf family will make out very well when it happens.

In 2021, Michael and Jonathan Reinsdorf offered to buy ownership stakes from the team’s limited partners, albeit at a low valuation. Some partners did take them up on it, which has added to the family’s stake in the franchise. Jerry Reinsdorf told Crain’s he owns more than the 19 percent of the team that Forbes has reported.

An agreed-upon deal for public money for a new stadium will add significant value to the franchise, which is already estimated to be worth around $2 billion. So it makes sense he’s trying to square that away now. Think of this as estate planning.

If the White Sox’s days in Bridgeport are numbered, it’s a shame. For all the whining you hear about it, it’s actually a pretty good South Side location, just off the highway and near a Red Line stop.

The stadium is facing the wrong way and the area surrounding it has the ambience of the Woodfield Mall parking lot, but the Armour Square neighborhood has been the home of the team since 1910, so there’s some history there. The Sox never did enough to create a “ballpark village” type of environment, nor did they market the stadium and surrounding neighborhood well enough to convince tourists to check it out.

If the team were good, year after year, attendance would reflect it. But don’t tell Reinsdorf that. He’s in excuse mode. It’s a PR strategy and a way of life.

In one of the more galling parts of his Crain’s interview, Reinsdorf told Crain’s reporter Greg Hinz that the team’s attendance issues were solely because of the ballpark’s location and not the result of his decades of poor decision-making.

Reinsdorf says Sox need a new stadium to compete — and stay in Chicago https://t.co/TUgWGJGGU6
— Crain’s Chicago Business (@CrainsChicago) February 21, 2024

Reinsdorf pointed out that after the team’s World Series victory in 2005, “we didn’t crack the 3 million (attendance) mark” in 2006.

In that season, the Sox “only” drew 2.96 million, which remains the franchise’s high mark and proves the opposite of his point. That showed what happens when the Sox’s success pushes people to buy season tickets. It was an increase of more than a million fans from 2004, the year before the World Series.

After the ballpark opened to big crowds, attendance cratered in the mid-1990s after the strike canceled the Sox’s chance to win a World Series. Reinsdorf was a labor hawk and a public villain in that fiasco.

After the Sox won the World Series a decade later, the team couldn’t build on that momentum and attendance then declined for eight consecutive seasons, going as low as 1.65 million in 2014.

In that span, the team had five losing seasons and made the playoffs just once. After winning the division in thrilling fashion in 2008, the Sox embarked on an 11-year run of missing the postseason.

The team drew 2 million again in 2022, the year after it won its division. In that 2021 season, ballpark attendance was curtailed by pandemic regulations. But after they were lifted, the Sox were drawing weekend crowds of more than 30,000 fans a game. The Cubs were down and the Sox were up.

Last year, the Sox had the largest attendance decrease in baseball (minus-339,731, according to Baseball-Reference) and it wasn’t because it’s a schlep to get to Bridgeport. Basically, all of baseball saw an attendance increase or stayed relatively flat except the Nationals and White Sox. Washington was down 1,982 fans per game and the Sox lost 4,194. The fans have turned against this team and these attendance patterns show, again, if you win, the fans will come to the South Side. And if you don’t, they won’t.

Sox fans are tired of being disappointed, and after a 101-loss season, it’ll be a struggle for the Sox to draw 1.6 million in 2024. Also, the team’s well-liked TV broadcaster Jason Benetti left for a job with the Detroit Tigers.

Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays, who are still trying to escape the dome built for Reinsdorf’s team and draw like a minor-league team, make the playoffs nearly every year against the stiff competition of the AL East. Of course, they are a progressive, savvy organization that has figured out how to win consistently on a shoestring budget. Reinsdorf, meanwhile, waxes poetic about how much he loved David Eckstein because he tried hard.

A South Loop ballpark in the midst of a newly developed neighborhood along the river is certainly intriguing. The renderings look fantastic, as renderings always do. The idea of a new stadium, a restart, sounds great, but is it worth well over a billion dollars in tax money?

A rendering of a potential new ballpark for the White Sox in the South Loop. (Courtesy of Related Midwest)

I was one of the people lampooning Ricketts for asking for public money to renovate Wrigley Field more than a dozen years ago, but he, at least, had a point.

The Cubs are the only team in town that brings in a significant amount of new money to the city because of Wrigley Field. People will visit Chicago to go to Cubs games and then spend money around the city. Now it’s not as much money as the team’s research would have you believe, but it’s not nothing.

The Sox have a smaller fan base than the Cubs and they don’t have the benefit of being in a bustling North Side neighborhood and a tourist attraction of a ballpark. With local support, they’re a team that should be drawing around 2 million to 2.5 million a year. But they need to win.

Reinsdorf had enough of the failed rebuild (and its high payrolls) last season, firing his most trusted executive, Kenny Williams, and general manager Rick Hahn. In rare public comments, Reinsdorf said he was in a hurry to get better so he promoted the team’s farm director, Chris Getz, to GM. Getz is rebuilding the team on the cheap, focusing on sure-handed defenders and clubhouse guys. Projected 2024 win totals vary, from 65.6 (PECOTA) to 67 (FanGraphs).

GO DEEPER

Greenberg: White Sox GM Chris Getz and his team have a lot to prove in 2024

With the team’s baseball present looking grim, why not look to the future?

With the Bears also fishing for help for a new stadium, either in the city or on their land in Arlington Heights, Reinsdorf is trying to be proactive for his own slice of the pie.

The financing structures for a new park, as discussed by Reinsdorf and the developers Related Midwest, involve an existing city hotel tax and possibly taking on and extending the debt for the Sox’s current park and for Soldier Field over the next few decades or so. They also want a special taxing district and to use the money the city has already pledged to help with infrastructure improvements in the area. They want a lot and they’re promising a lot.

But of course, these kinds of stadium plans always rely on rosy tax projections and promises that don’t often come true. But it won’t be Jerry’s problem.

It’s been 33 years since New Comiskey Park opened after the governor and state leaders stopped the clock (literally) to help Reinsdorf.

Where will this franchise be in another 33 years?

Reinsdorf will be long gone. The politicians will have moved on. The White Sox could be playing in the South Loop or Nashville or Portland.

Maybe by then, the team will have finally signed a free agent to a $100 million contract. Maybe by then, the White Sox, and their fans, will be happy with their lot in life and in baseball. Maybe the Sox will have added another World Series trophy to their case.

The word “maybe” allows for all kinds of possibilities without any guarantees. Kind of like when an owner tells you how perfect a new stadium will be for everyone.

GO DEEPER

Which teams, front offices and managers are feeling the most pressure? Insiders weigh in

(Top rendering: Courtesy of Related Midwest)

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Sports

Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card

Published

2 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card

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Mixed martial arts legend Jon Jones ended his retirement from UFC simply because he wanted a spot on the “Freedom 250” fight card at the White House in June.

But, when UFC CEO Dana White announced the card during UFC 326 this past weekend, Jones wasn’t among the fighters. As a result, he has requested a release from his UFC contract.

White was candid when asked about Jones following the UFC 326 card.

Jon Jones of the United States of America reacts after his TKO victory against Stipe Miocic of the United States of America in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 2024 in New York City. ((Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images))

“Never, ever, ever, which I told you guys a hundred thousands times, was Jon Jones ever even remotely in my mind to fight at the White House,” White explained, per CBS Sports. “Some guy with Meta Glasses filmed him talking about his hips – that his hips are so bad. And I don’t know if you guys saw that flag football game where he can barely run. Jon Jones retired because of his hips. He’s got arthritis in his hips. Apparently, doctors say he should have a hip replacement.”

White added that “the Jon Jones thing is bulls—,” saying that he texted the fighter’s lawyer saying he would never be on the White House card despite Jones saying he was in negotiations for it.

UFC ANNOUNCES CARD FOR WHITE HOUSE EVENT

The Meta Glasses incident White is referring to came from a viral video, where Jones, unaware he was being filmed, discussed issues with his hips to a fan.

On Monday, Jones composed a thorough response to White’s comments about him and the White House Card. He previously posted and deleted social media explanations, but Monday’s appeared to be his final statement on the matter.

UFC President Dana White speaks after UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center on Feb. 21, 2026. (Troy Taormina/Imagn Images)

“Yes, I have arthritis in my hip and it’s painful, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight,” Jones, who retired a heavyweight champion in 2025, said. “So let me get this straight, if I had accepted the lowball offer, suddenly my hip would be fine and I’d be on the White House card? That doesn’t make sense. I even received stem cell treatment last week to get ready for the White House card, and training camp was scheduled to start today. I was preparing to be ready.

“I understand business deals fall through sometimes, but going out publicly and saying things that aren’t true isn’t right. After everything I’ve given to the UFC, the years, the title defenses, the fights, hearing that I’m ‘done’ is disappointing. Especially when as recently as Friday UFC was calling me trying to get me on that White House card for a much lower number.”

Jones finished his statement by saying he “respectfully” asks to be released from his UFC contract.

Jon Jones enters the ring before facing Stipe Miocic in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City, New York. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

“No more spins, no more games. Thank you to the real fans who know what’s up,” he wrote.

The UFC did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.

Jones is considered one of the best UFC fighters of all time, owning a 28-1-1 record, which includes his last bout with Stipe Miocic, knocking him out to take the heavyweight title belt. He is also a two-time light heavyweight champion.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.

Sports

With U.S. at war with Iran, political upheaval could engulf World Cup

Published

3 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

With U.S. at war with Iran, political upheaval could engulf World Cup

Twelve days ago the U.S., a World Cup host country, launched a full-scale bombing campaign against Iran, a country that has qualified to play in the tournament. That’s never happened before.

Five days later, that same World Cup host began military operations inside the borders of Ecuador, another World Cup qualifier, half a world away. That’s never happened before either.

With the tournament scheduled to kick off in three months, those events have soccer scholar Jonathan Wilson questioning whether it’s wise for the World Cup to go on at all.

“It seems to me, for each passing day, it’s less and less likely that the World Cup can happen,” he said.

That take seems unduly alarmist said David Goldblatt, a British sportswriter and sociologist who is a visiting professor at Pitzer College in Claremont. Anything short of a full-scale war inside the U.S. would not be enough to pull the plug on the tournament now, he said. Especially with FIFA expecting revenues of as much as $11 billion.

“I mean, it’s not a good look,” Goldblatt conceded. “And certainly when set against FIFA’s official pronouncements on its role in encouraging world peace and cosmopolitan celebrations of a universal humanity, none of that sits terribly easily.

“But in terms of actually running the World Cup, I don’t think it’s going to make very much difference at all.”

However, with the Trump administration open to engaging in more international conflicts, there’s little doubt this World Cup, the largest and most complex in history, will also be the most political in history as well.

Complicating things further is the fact the current conflict in the Middle East hasn’t been limited to just the U.S. and Iran. Iranian missiles have hit both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, among other countries, and Jordan has fired on U.S. assets.

Those three countries are World Cup qualifiers as well.

The fate of a soccer tournament pales in importance to the death and destruction the conflagration in the Middle East has produced, of course. But the need for unity is the very reason there’s a World Cup in the first place.

When French soccer administrator Jules Rimet founded the tournament 96 years ago, he believed soccer could be a tool for international peace. And in the early years of the tournament, Rimet, FIFA’s longest-serving president and a talented diplomat, was able to limit the impact of geopolitics on the World Cup, watering down Mussolini’s influence on the 1934 World Cup, for example, and steering the 1938 tournament away from Hitler’s Germany.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has taken a far different approach, courting President Donald Trump’s support despite his growing number of global conflicts.

A week before bombs began falling on Iran, Infantino appeared at the inaugural meeting of Trump’s Board of Peace wearing a red cap with ‘USA’ on the front and the numbers ‘45-47’ — a reference to Trump’s non-consecutive presidencies. That act was so blatantly partisan, IOC president Kirsty Coventry said her organization would investigate whether Infantino, an IOC member, breached the terms of the group’s charter, which requires members to act independent of political interests.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino holds up a USA hat as he attends the inaugural meeting for the Board of Peace at the Institute of Peace in Washington on Feb. 19.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

“Infantino has absolutely breached every FIFA protocol on neutrality,” said Wilson, author of “The Power and Glory: The History of the World Cup.”

“Absolute neutrality is always impossible and not desirable, but it has clearly gone way, way, way beyond. The peace prize looked grotesque at the time. It looks even worse now. And I can’t see how the future will look kindly on Infantino. I think Infantino has to some extent legitimized Trump.”

This is hardly new behavior from Infantino, who had close relationships with Vladimir Putin ahead of the 2018 tournament played in Russia and Qatar’s leaders ahead of the 2022 tournament despite their well-known human rights violations.

The list of countries Infantino is asking to overlook poor relations with the country hosting the majority of World Cup games this summer is growing.

Consider that Denmark, which administers Greenland, an autonomous territory Trump has also threatened to invade, can qualify for the tournament in a European playoff that will take place later this month. Then there’s World Cup qualifiers Haiti, Ivory Coast and Senegal, who aren’t at war with the U.S. but whose citizens have been banned from entering the country to cheer for their teams. That completely contradicts a promise from Infantino, who said “everybody will be welcome” at the 2026 World Cup.

“If I had a crystal ball I could tell you now what is going to happen,” Heimo Schirgi, the World Cup chief operating officer for FIFA, said Monday. “But obviously the situation is developing. It’s changing day by day and we are monitoring closely. [But] the World Cup will go on right? The World Cup is too big and we hope that everyone can participate that has qualified.”

Goldblatt, the Pitzer professor, said Infantino’s action are understandable since he has few cards to play against Trump.

President Trump speaks as he receives the FIFA Peace Prize while FIFA president Gianni Infantino applauds Friday.

“What’s Infantino going to do? What levers can you pull?” he asked. “You can threaten to take it away. That’s not happening. Moral admonishment? Who’s going to take that from FIFA? It is a farcical idea that anybody thinks that the president of FIFA has any kind of collective moral authority or any role as a spokesperson for the progressive part of the world.

“They may fantasize that this is the case. But it is morally and politically absurd that any of us should expect that of these people. So if you are Infantino and that is the case, you know what works with Trump? What works is flattery. So of course he’s gone down that path.”

The games, Goldblatt said, will go on even if bombs are still falling. And that may not be an entirely bad thing.

“Football’s a great distraction. That’s partly why it’s so popular,” he said. “It will be virtually impossible, if the war continues, for that not to be a central element of like, the meaning and the purpose of what we’re all doing here.

“How we’ll feel and what it will look like, I don’t know. It will be very strange. Football is unpredictable and extraordinary. Something will happen that will warm our souls.”

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

Sports

Australia grants asylum to 5 Iranian women’s soccer players amid Iran conflict

Published

15 hours ago

March 10, 2026

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Australia grants asylum to 5 Iranian women’s soccer players amid Iran conflict

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Australia granted asylum to five players from the Iranian women’s soccer team who were visiting for a tournament when the U.S.-Israeli attacks against Iran began.

Australian federal police officers on Tuesday transported the five women from their hotel in Gold Coast, Australia, to a “safe location” after they made asylum requests to meet with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and to finalize the processing of their humanitarian visas.

“Last night I was able to tell five women from the Iranian Women’s Soccer team that they are welcome to stay in Australia, to be safe and have a home here,” Burke said on X.

The move comes after the team refused to sing the Iranian anthem before their first Women’s Asian Cup match early last week against South Korea, although they later sang and saluted the anthem in two subsequent matches, including ahead of their final match, when they were eliminated by the Philippines.

IRANIAN WOMEN’S SOCCER FANS SHOW SUPPORT FOR TRUMP AS TEAM APPEARS TO PIVOT ON NATIONAL ANTHEM STANCE

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke poses with five Iranian women soccer players who have been granted asylum in Australia, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (Australia Ministry of Home Affairs)

“I don’t want to begin to imagine how difficult that decision is for each of the individual women, but certainly last night it was joy, it was relief,” Burke told reporters after signing the documents. “People were very excited about embarking on a life in Australia.”

The five women said they were happy for their names and pictures to be published, according to Burke, who emphasized that the players wanted to make clear that they were not political activists.

The Iranian team arrived in Australia for the tournament before the war against Iran began on Feb. 28.

After the team was eliminated from the tournament over the weekend, they faced potentially returning to a country still under bombardment. The team’s head coach, Marziyeh Jafari, said on Sunday the players “want to come back to Iran as soon as we can.”

An official squad list named 26 players, as well as Jafari and other coaches.

While only five players were granted asylum, Burke said the offer was given to everyone on the team.

IRAN FLAG REMOVED FROM PARALYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY AFTER SOLE ATHLETE WITHDRAWS OVER TRAVEL SAFETY CONCERNS

Iran players during their national anthem ahead of the Women’s Asian Cup soccer match between Iran and the Philippines in Robina, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAPImage via AP)

“These women are tremendously popular in Australia, but we realize they are in a terribly difficult situation with the decisions that they’re making,” Burke said. “The opportunity will continue to be there for them to talk to Australian officials if they wish to.”

It remains unclear when the remaining players will leave Australia.

“Australians have been moved by the plight of these brave women,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters. “They’re safe here and they should feel at home here.”

“They then had to consider that and do it in a way that did not present any danger to them or to their families and friends back home in Iran,” he continued.

The asylum offer came after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday called on Australia to grant asylum to any team member who wanted it.

Trump had blasted Australia on social media, saying Australia was “making a terrible humanitarian mistake” by allowing the team to be “forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.”

Supporters react towards a bus transporting Iranian woman players following their Women’s Asian Cup soccer match against the Philippines on the Gold Coast, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAP Image via AP)

“The U.S. will take them if you won’t,” Trump said, despite his administration’s efforts to limit the number of immigrants in the U.S. who can receive asylum for political purposes.

Just hours later, Trump praised Albanese in another post.

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“He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way,” Trump wrote.

Albanese said Trump had called him for “a very positive conversation,” about the issue. The prime minister said he explained “the action that we’d undertaken over the previous 48 hours” to support the women.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.