NOTE: The video above is from a previous report on the stadium project.
While there hasn’t been much progress on a proposed Chicago White Sox stadium in the South Loop, the team is building a baseball field there to show exactly what it could look like if the vision becomes reality.
In late August, NBC Chicago’s Mike Lorber observed the beginnings of a baseball field at the site of “The 78” development near 31st Street, and on Tuesday I saw that they were installing grass on the site.
The diamond is tilted with a view of the iconic Chicago skyline in the background, which is a departure from the positioning of Guaranteed Rate Field.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the field was built with the help of renowned groundskeeper Roger Bossard to “show how a baseball field could fit in with the neighborhood’s larger projects.”
The proposed stadium project would be located in a development known as “The 78,” an area of Chicago’s South Loop bounded by Roosevelt Road to the north, the Chicago River to the west, Clark Street to the east and railroad tracks near Ping Tom Park to the south.
Officials said the proposed site would include access to public transportation via three CTA lines that stop at Roosevelt and State, as well as numerous bus lines.
Although team owner Jerry Reinsdorf has indicated he would seek public funding to help build the stadium, the idea has received a frosty reception in Springfield, with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker saying such a stadium proposal “is not a priority” for Springfield lawmakers.
As Chicago sports fans face great uncertainty over the future home of two of their teams, renderings of a proposed riverfront stadium in Chicago’s “78” in the South Loop have been released.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been more receptive to the idea, but the project has yet to take concrete action since renderings were released earlier this year. The team has also floated the idea of using hotel taxes to help fund the project, but those funds are currently being used to pay down debt from the 2002 Soldier Field renovation.
The White Sox are currently set to continue playing at Guaranteed Rate Field through the end of the 2028 season, when their lease expires.
Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the White Sox are reportedly considering leaving the stadium at the end of their lease, with the possibility of them leaving Chicago on the table.
