Would a New Stadium Sanitize Jerry Reinsdorf's Legacy?

I think not.

White Sox ball parkPhoto byCreative Commons: Ken Lund

After some chatter about Jerry Reinsdorf moving the White Sox to Memphis, it seems the team has pivoted to building a new stadium in the South Loop area of Chicago.

The 62-acre site at Roosevelt and Clark is called The 78. Depending on the configuration of the stadium, fans could have a view of the Chicago Skyline. And that doesn’t mean squat if Sox ownership doesn’t invest more in the on the field product. Jerry Reinsdorf’s reluctance to invest in on field talent recently was recently brought into sharper focus.

Even the Kansas City Royals have a $100 million guy

The Royals recently signed their shortstop, Bobby Witt Jr., to an 11 year, $288.7 million extension. That leaves the White Sox and A’s as the only teams in MLB who haven’t had a contract of $100 million. When it comes to ownership of an MLB team, that’s the neighborhood Jerry Reinsdorf lives in.

Will the Sox get tax payers money for their stadium?

The current report says that developers will ask the Illinois Sports Authority to "rearrange existing bonds.” Generally speaking, bond money for sports stadiums is considered unpopular in Chicago. Asking for money to help ownership that is decidedly tone deaf towards its fans would figure to be an extremely tough sell.

White Sox fans really don’t care for Jerry Reinsdorf, but he’s earned it. The Sox would probably find it easier to get support for a new stadium if Jerry Reinsdorf wasn’t their owner.

Other old owners actually tried to win before they died

Former Detroit Tigers owner, Mike Ilich and former Angels owner, Gene Autry come to mind. Both spent a ton of money, even on bad contracts in an effort to win a championship.

I’m not advocating Reinsdorf give out bad money, but it would be nice if he acted like he cared about the fans and wanted to win.

The White Sox have been in the weakest division in baseball for some time now. With the assets the White Sox have, they should have dominated said division. But Reinsdorf’s cheapness, ineptitude and misplaced sense of loyalty have doomed the Sox to futility. That will be Reinsdorf’s legacy.

Buy the way, if the Sox do get a new stadium in Chicago, they should call it Cut-Rate Stadium. It’s the White Sox and Jerry Reinsdorf’s way.