CHICAGO — Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is reportedly open to selling the team, according to The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli.
Ghiroli talked to sources briefed on the matter — they weren’t cleared to speak publicly — who said the 88-year-old Reinsdorf is in active discussions with a group led by former Major League Baseball player Dave Stewart.
Reinsdorf, who also owns the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, has previously said he has no interest in selling the White Sox. Neither he or Stewart commented on Ghiroli’s report.
Reinsdorf headed a group that bought the White Sox in 1981 for $20 million. According to Forbes, the White Sox are now valued at $2.05 billion. Reinsdorf is the second-longest active owner in MLB, behind the Steinbrenners, who own the New York Yankees.
The South Siders are coming off the worst season in modern MLB history, posting a 41-121 record that became the new benchmark for total losses in a single season since 1900.
The news of Reinsdorf apparently being open to selling the White Sox comes as the organization has been pressing state lawmakers for help in financing a new ballpark project in the South Loop on a parcel of land known as “The 78.”
‘It makes sense’
Jon Greenberg of The Athletic joined Josh Frydman and Jarrett Payton on Wednesday night’s GN Sports to discuss Ghiroli’s breaking news and give his own insight into the future of the White Sox, including if a sale means they could leave Chicago.
Greenberg said there have been rumblings around baseball about Reinsdorf selling the team, but he doesn’t think the latest news is an effort to leverage state lawmakers to get on board with helping to finance a new ballpark in the South Loop.
“We’ve heard there’s definitely some interest here,” Greenberg said. “This isn’t Jerry leaking this to try to get leverage, although Dave Stewart as the main candidate would be a good leverage play for them.
“It makes sense. Jerry said he always was going to sell when he passes away. He’s 88 years old. He fired (former White Sox Executive Vice President) Kenny Williams, his closest baseball compatriot besides Tony La Russa. What’s really to stick around for? I think he wants to get the franchise in a better place, and maybe he’s now realized that kind of handing over control of it to someone else would do that.”
Also of note, Reinsdorf owns two of the three teams behind the brand-new Chicago Sports Network (CHSN), launched this fall as the new television home of the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks.
CHSN made its debut broadcast with a Blackhawks preseason game on Oct. 1, but the new network has been plagued thus far by carriage issues that are making the network unavailable for some fans. Most significantly, CHSN has not reached an agreement with Comcast, the largest cable provider in the Chicagoland area.
“The regional sports network and the chaos around it — if I was an owner, that might push me to sell,” Greenberg said. “Just because, would you want to deal with it? Jerry is basically two-thirds owner, two of the three teams, in this Chicago Sports Network.”
Still, Greenberg said Reinsdorf selling the White Sox doesn’t mean they would absolutely move out of Chicago — for example, to Nashville, a frequently-cited destination to get an MLB franchise.
“There’s a lot of time left, obviously, to figure out if that’s going to actually happen,” Greenberg said. “There are some other people in Chicago that are going to want a chance to buy this team. As much as Britt reported Dave Stewart — and that’s a big group that’s been trying to get Nashville an expansion team — there will be other people bidding for this.
“Jerry is going to have to do his due diligence in taking other bids. You just don’t give it away.”
Greenberg also said that even if Stewart ends up with the team, it doesn’t necessarily mean the White Sox would move, either.
“I think Dave Stewart would probably love Chicago,” Greenberg said. “Why wouldn’t you? The history of this town, he’d be a hero here. And I do think the leverage would be that a new owner might have more luck getting some public money than Jerry, since Jerry’s already been to the till once to get money from the state.
“A new owner with some excitement could really spur this excitement of getting them to ‘The 78,’ or wherever they want to be. So I wouldn’t be so sure that Dave would automatically want to move them to Nashville.”
To see more of Frydman and Payton’s interview with Greenberg on GN Sports, watch the video below:
Click HERE to read Britt Ghiroli’s full report in The Athletic.