The lead developer for a proposed stadium for the Chicago White Sox was mum when asked about the cost of the new pop-up field in Chicago’s South Loop, which was used to help provide a glimpse of what a new ballpark could bring to the area.
“It was expensive. Let’s just leave it at that,” said Curt Bailey, the CEO and president of Related Midwest.
“Half-a-million-dollar expensive?” asked NBC 5 Political Reporter Mary Ann Ahern in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
“I think you’re in the range,” Bailey replied.
What he wasn’t mum about? What he believes the $10 billion project could do for the city.
“It’s not just about a ballpark. This is a $10 billion investment in Chicago. It’s a thousand affordable units. It’s the Riverwalk extending all the way from downtown to Ping Tom Park. It’s a reason for people to come back downtown and work in Chicago. It’s 81 games a year of people forming around this,” he said.
However, Bailey has a lot of convincing to do. The price tag for taxpayers has been estimated around $1 billion.
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“The numbers are not set on how much is going to come from public and private, as you’re well aware,” Bailey added.
With the skyline highlighted behind it, the new pop-up field is just south of Roosevelt Road in a spot called “The 78,” meaning the 78th neighborhood of the city, in the spot where Bailey hopes more a new stadium will be built.
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The vision for the field was executed by Guaranteed Rate Field’s head groundskeeper Roger Bossard, nicknamed “The Sodfather.” This week, Bailey treated lawmakers to a river cruise and invited them to see the field for themselves, allowing them to imagine the neighborhood it could become.
Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, who played baseball at Northwestern University, called it “a beautiful baseball field with a great view” during an event Tuesday with the City Club of Chicago.
White Sox Owner Jerry Reinsdorf has been to Springfield to meet with the four top leaders. So, what are the chances Welch and other state lawmakers will sign off?
Right now, the Magic 8 ball would say “outlook not so good.”
“I’m not aware that anything has changed the environment or the appetite for taxpayer-funded stadiums. What I'm hearing out there when I talk to people is they're worried about their grocery bill, or they're worried about paying their mortgage. They're talking about the things that impact folks at their kitchen tables. They're not talking about stadiums,” Welch said.
State. Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, represented the Senate Republican Caucus during the tour of the proposed stadium site.
“I have yet to see any compelling reason as to why taxpayers should pay any funds towards any new stadium, and this is despite the fact that the stadium is really, really beautiful if it's completed,” McClure said.
Other teams, including the Bears and the Red Stars, are also looking for new stadiums, so Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is also noncommittal.
“There's a limited opportunity to help those stadium builds, but to come at us in a serial fashion – one after another after another – makes it a little bit hard,” Pritzker said.
The White Sox still owe $50 million on Guaranteed Rate Field, while the Bears will owe $590 million after a 2002 renovation at Soldier Field. But despite the high cost of a new stadium, Related Midwest is not about to give up on its vision.
“If you look at our Hudson Yards project in New York, that was an $18 billion development that we delivered on. Some people may put pretty pictures down, and some can actually deliver. We will deliver on this $10 billion project, but we need an engine to start it. And the engine is this ballpark and the White Sox in downtown Chicago,” Bailey said.
The land where the project has been proposed, which has been vacant for more than 90 years, was a finalist for the Chicago casino. The developer’s project spans 62 acres of former railroad property.
Related Midwest is also donating approximately an acre of land on the site to the University of Illinois for the construction of the Discovery Partners Institute, a new research and innovation center.
