The White Sox are reportedly seeking $1 billion from Illinois to fund a new stadium.

The price the Chicago White Sox want for their new stadium is starting to attract attention, and the amount is by no means small.

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is working with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and others to help fund a proposed stadium in the South Loop, according to Justin Lawrence of Crain’s Chicago Business. He said he is preparing to ask other state leaders for about $1 billion in public funds.

For comparison, the Baltimore Orioles recently sold at a valuation of $1.75 billion, which would cover most of the purchase price for an entire MLB team. According to Forbes magazine, the White Sox are estimated to be worth $2.05 billion.

Earlier this month, the club announced plans to move to the currently vacant 78 South Loop development near Clark Street and Roosevelt Road. The stadium was the last ballpark from the era before Camden Yards changed the aesthetic of modern ballparks and replaced Guaranteed Rate Field, which opened in 1991 as Comiskey Park.

According to reports, Reinsdorf and Kurt Bailey, president of the Midwest real estate company Related Midwest, have been involved in a long-standing debate over how the state’s investment in the stadium would bring billions of dollars more in private investment to the surrounding region. It is said that they plan to make a sound argument and seek public funding (economists have not confirmed this). (I liked the idea that stadium revenues would cover public investments).

From Crain’s:

The Crains article goes into quite a bit of detail about the financial and political dynamics going on here, and you need to read the whole thing to get the full picture of the disorder, but even the basics are a bit confusing to the White Sox. It depicts a chaotic situation.

Essentially, the White Sox are seeking to claim revenue from the existing 2% hotel occupancy tax and extend it decades beyond 2034, when the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority’s outstanding bonds were scheduled to be paid off. ISFA currently exists to repay his 2003 renovation of the Chicago Bears’ Soldier Field.

Hotel tax revenues were already struggling to cover debt service on Soldier Field bonds due to reduced hotel revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic. You may remember that the Bears are moving forward with plans to use public funds to build their own new stadium to replace Soldier Field. They are reportedly in direct competition with the White Sox for Illinois money.

Mr. Reinsdorf also reportedly offered the state of The 78 property to repay the state’s share of sales taxes generated in the area, estimated at approximately $400 million for an undisclosed period. They hope to create a tax overlap district for this purpose.

Finally, the project appears to require a total of $551 million in funding for infrastructure to support the stadium (CTA Red Line stops, road improvements, etc.), which will be funded by Related Midwest. It will be paid upfront and repaid by the city of Chicago.

The White Sox reportedly declined to comment on all of this, but the game at play here is clear as always. Reinsdorf did the exact same thing a few years after purchasing the team for $19 million in 1981, threatening to move it to Tampa unless Illinois paid for the stadium they were now vacating.

After that, Reinsdorf succeeded. Whether he does so now depends on how desperate Illinois is to prevent the exit of Chicago’s second-largest MLB team.