South Loop alderman throws support behind new White Sox stadium after developer meeting

Workers from the Colonial Brick Co. clean and stack bricks from the buildings demolished to make way for the White Sox’s new park at 35th Street and Shields Avenue on Jan. 26, 1989.

The alderman whose ward includes the South Loop plot where the White Sox are reportedly exploring the possibility of building a new stadium threw her weight behind the emerging idea Friday after meeting with the proposed project’s developers.

White Sox players Lance Johnson, from left, Steve Lyons, Ron Kittle (behind Lyons) and Dave Gallagher take a hard-hat tour of the new ballpark under construction across the street from Comiskey Park on Jan. 15, 1990.

Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, met Friday with Related Midwest, which owns the vacant 62-acre plot called “The 78,” she said in a statement. Her backing of the prospective stadium as a “positive anchor” for the community long promised for the untapped parcel brings critical support to the project.

With workers busily pounding and wiring away, the White Sox’s new park begins to rise in the shadows of the old Comiskey Park at 35th and Shields in November 1989.

“Assuming the financial details can be worked out, this development shows promise as a great growth opportunity for the City of Chicago,” Dowell wrote.

Members of the press get a look at the new scoreboard at Comiskey Park on Feb. 20, 1991. It incorporated the “exploding” scoreboard from the old Comiskey Park.

Those details are no small hurdle, however. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been cool to the idea of public funding for stadium projects. And the state agency that owns Guaranteed Rate Field, where the Sox play now, still owes about $50 million toward the construction of that stadium, which opened near 35th Street and Shields Avenue in 1991.

The infield at the new White Sox park, later named U.S. Cellular Field, as workers continue construction Aug. 18, 1990.

Dowell had planned to meet with the developers Thursday after news of the team’s potential move first broke earlier this week, she said at the time.

Steelworkers sit high above the new White Sox park during the governor’s tour July 10, 1990.

With the White Sox reportedly in “serious” negotiations over the stadium, team owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Mayor Brandon Johnson met to discuss “the team’s ideas for remaining competitive in Chicago in perpetuity,” Reinsdorf and Johnson wrote Thursday in a joint statement.

White Sox fans are displayed on the scoreboard during the seventh-inning stretch during a game against the Twins on July 24, 2020, at Guaranteed Rate Field. Fans were not allowed in the ballpark in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ald. Nicole Lee, who represents the area that includes Guaranteed Rate Field, where the team plays now, said Thursday she also planned to meet with the Sox and Related Midwest, adding that she is committed to keeping the team on the South Side. Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu fist-bumps a fan after a win over the Royals in the Sox’s 2021 home opener on April 8, 2021, at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Planning is “extremely early in its process,” Dowell said Friday. Concerns including traffic, noise and pedestrian access need to be resolved before any stadium moves forward, she wrote.

Christian Dudlo, 16, takes in the scene from the top of the upper deck at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago before a baseball game between the White Sox and the Houston Astros on May 17, 2016.

But the prospective ballpark holds promise for the city, she added.

A view of U.S. Cellular Field before the first pitch of Game 1 of the World Series on Oct. 22, 2005, between the White Sox and the Houston Astros.

“The addition of significant market and affordable housing, retail, and a world-class baseball stadium and concert venue can be the sort of catalytic investment this city needs.”

White Sox fans watch the action as former owner Charles A. Comiskey oversees in the right field terrace during Game 2 of the World Series at U.S. Cellular Field on Oct. 24, 2005. The statue was placed in 2003.

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Maria Pasaye looks for her “legacy brick” before the White Sox home opener on March 31, 2014, at U.S. Cellular Field.

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Matt Westfall competes in the White Sox Speed Pitch Challenge on Feb. 13, 2020, at Guaranteed Rate Field. Participants competed to throw the fastest pitch with the winner receiving a trip for two to spring training games in Arizona.

Fans walk with their dogs on the field during before the White Sox play the Orioles on April 29, 2019, at Guaranteed Rate Field.

With extended netting in place to protect fans, the crowd stands during the seventh-inning stretch of a game between the White Sox and Astros on April 21, 2018, at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The Guaranteed Rate logo is shown on the video board at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago before a game between the White Sox and Phillies on Aug. 24, 2016.

Fans arrive at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago for a baseball game between the White Sox and the Houston Astros on May 17, 2016.

Fans take a photo of themselves in front of the Championship Moments sculpture outside U.S. Cellular Field prior to the start of a game between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros on May 18, 2016.

Fans watch fireworks go off after the White Sox defeated the Orioles on July 3, 2015, at U.S. Cellular Field.

Original left field seat commemorating Paul Konerko’s 2005 World Series grand slam at U.S. Cellular Field on Sept. 13, 2014.