Getting the practical side of things out of the way: with the White Sox not disclosing the terms of the deal, we’re forced to guess at the exact magnitude, but the number getting kicked around was $88 million, or which would be a bit less than $7 million per year. That’s about twice what they were getting from U.S. Cellular, though the opacity of the deals (what the actual yearly rate on the current deal was, what sort of buy-out was involved, what the switching costs are) means there’s some uncertainty.

If that $3 million in marginal gain or so goes to baseball ops, it’s neither hugely substantial nor a drop in the bucket. It’s filling a roster spot with a minor contributor like Alex Avila or Zach Duke, or it’s a few new front office personnel and a couple extra bonuses to international free agents. Of course, the White Sox have still never given out a $70 million contract and have refused to spend either on free agency or player development, so it’s hard to justify expecting them to get much out of this money, but at least it shouldn’t reduce their spending. The only unambiguous upside to this deal is that some of it will go to the state to replace the rent the White Sox don’t pay, slightly reducing the ongoing sting of seeing taxpayer money spent on a profitable private enterprise–and this enterprise in particular.

The downside manifests in less tangible ways. With the tacky name and unfortunately apropos logo, the White Sox are the butt of national jokes for the third time this year, following L’affaires LaRoche et Sale. Adding insult to insult, Guaranteed Rate joins fellow mortgage company stadium sponsors Quicken Loans and Ameriquest in having compliance problems in its past. The jokes won’t last 13 years, and people will figure out a nice nickname (there’s always Comiskey Park), but proper names matter—that’s why we fight about terminology regardless the subject. It’ll be a small blow every time I hear Jason Benetti read off “Guaranteed Rate Field” on the air, and a slightly larger one every time it slips into a conversation among fans. It’s especially grating when two of the other major Chicago franchises play in stadia that haven’t changed names in 90 years and the other two play in maybe the least-obtrusively sponsored stadium in sports courtesy of United’s very generic name.

It’s not a causal relationship, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that most of the franchises that don’t have proper corporate sponsorship on the stadium—the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Cardinals, the Dodgers, even the Cubs—have stronger national profiles and greater prestige than nearly all the teams that have ceded some dignity for annual seven-figure payments. Not all traditions are worth preserving, but the ones that don’t involve corporate defacing usually are. Names that have been around decades give the franchise a touch of gravitas that the White Sox are sorely lacking.

What makes this so disappointing is that the White Sox have foregone an obvious opportunity to inexpensively stand on principle and start a new tradition. Comiskey has the history, but given the many black marks on his record, he shouldn’t be the first choice to go back on the marquee. Why would he, when the White Sox could honor someone with an even longer association with the franchise, who made a more unambiguously positive impact on the game, who’s been largely underappreciated on a national level? One whose name wouldn’t represent either corporate greed nor an owner’s egotism, but instead a recognition that the players are the reason the game means anything to anyone? Sadly, it seems like a pipe dream to think that at some point in my life I’ll go back to Chicago and get to see a game at Minnie Minoso Stadium.

Lead Image Credit: David Banks // USA Today Sports Images

In a search of individual donors since 1994 (when the Illinois State Board of Elections began digitizing records), BP South Side found $731,413 in political contributions to state and local candidates from Jerry Reinsdorf, his businesses, and his family.*

These donations aren’t limited to either political party or any political philosophy. Reinsdorf has contributed significant amounts to both Democrats and Republicans who have influence over the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA).

The ISFA is the government agency that built and maintains U.S. Cellular Field. The Illinois General Assembly created it to act in the interest of taxpayers in negotiations with the White Sox, over things like ticket fees and ballpark improvements. But since the park opened in 1991, the Sox have enjoyed one of the most team-friendly agreements in baseball, and numerous state-funded ballpark renovations.

As the body that installed it, the General Assembly has legislative authority over the ISFA, along with a small measure of oversight. Reinsdorf has given handsomely to Illinois legislators in recent decades, including $27,650 to Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, going back to 1994. Over the same period, the Sox chairman paid current Democratic Senate President John Cullerton a total of $7,572, and an additional $50,500 to various Democratic political committees in the state legislature. Emil Jones Jr., the senate president preceding Cullerton, received $21,740 from Reinsdorf while serving office.

Despite his heavy investment in state Democrats, Reinsdorf is not a man of party allegiance. From 1994-2000, he donated $12,498 to Lee Daniels, the longtime House Republican Leader, who served briefly as House Speaker. Reinsdorf also provided funds to Republican Senate President James “Pate” Philip totaling $12,309, and $9,600 to the House Republican Organization.

Leaders of the Illinois legislature have indirect control over the ISFA, but the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois are responsible for appointing the seven members of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority Board, who have direct governing and administrative power in the state’s dealings with the White Sox. And so, the most concerning contributions from Reinsdorf have gone to these ISFA influencers.

From 2001 to 2015, Reinsdorf, his sons (who are also business partners), and his business entities (such as the Chicago White Sox, Encounters Ltd., CBLS Corp, and JMR Trust) made at least $355,230 in contributions to Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emanuel, Rod Blagojevich, Pat Quinn, and Bruce Rauner.

Chicago mayors directly appoint three ISFA board members, and approve the ISFA chairman, who is picked by the governor. Reinsdorf has bought heavily into both of Chicago’s mayors over the last two decades. Daley received $59,250 in donations from 2000 to 2006. And from 2011 to 2015, Reinsdorf awarded Emanuel $75,000. Three Emanuel appointees currently serve on the ISFA board.

Reinsdorf has kept his pen and checkbook handy over Illinois’ last four gubernatorial terms as well.

The governor has the authority to appoint four ISFA board members, including the chair. From 2002 to 2005, Reinsdorf contributed $36,000 to Blagojevich’s election fund, which included the use of a private plane. Quinn received $73,980 during his time as governor, from 2009 to 2014. In 2011, he appointed Emil Jones Jr. as ISFA chairman. As previously mentioned, Jones also received tens of thousands in political donations from Reinsdorf. Finally, in the short time since he was elected to office in 2014, Rauner has racked up $75,000 in Reindorf contributions. Rauner appointed four new ISFA board members in 2015.

Reinsdorf’s generosity toward elected officials has paid off over the years. Apart from the benefits of a stadium agreement that requires the state to maintain, improve, and pay off debt for U.S. Cellular Field at a hefty loss every year, the White Sox have enjoyed a number of expensive perks, courtesy of the ISFA.

To name a few:

• In 1998, the ISFA released the White Sox from any obligation to pay media fees from television revenue, before the sports television market took off.
• In 2000, the ISFA built a conference center that it maintains to this day for the team’s exclusive use during the season.
• As part of the ISFA’s deal for Soldier Field, about $30 million made its way over to Comiskey Park (as it was known then) for ballpark renovations in 2001-2.
• In 2003, the White Sox were offered, and agreed to, an extension of their team-friendly lease until 2025.
• In 2010, the ISFA financed construction of a new restaurant outside of U.S. Cellular Field, from which the team keeps the profits.
• This season, the state paid for construction and maintenance of new state-of-the-art video boards.

If, at one time, we were willing to accept that state and city officials exhibited bad judgement in their dealings with Jerry Reinsdorf and the White Sox, a little political research, and hundreds and hundreds of thousands in donations later, it looks more like corruption.

*Because political contributions can be masked in various ways, and because some of the data we’re using was entered manually in the IL State Board of Elections database and may be incomplete, the numbers reported here are limited to contributions that are available and verifiable electronically. Therefore, they should be viewed as minimum amounts Reinsdorf contributed to state and local politicians.

Lead Image Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski // USA Today Sports Images

The video boards will seem in that moment—in all of their high-definition, altitudinous glory—to be money well spent by the state of Illinois.

But, in that moment, we should also take time to ponder the gift of video boards in the larger context of the politics of state funding for things.

For example, we might ask what kind of world we live in, where we can pay for $7 million worth of state-of-the-art digital technology at the White Sox baseball stadium, but we can’t pay for computers in our classrooms?

The answer is that Jerry Reinsdorf has a much better deal with the state than our schools. Illinois ranks lowest among states in education spending, but is near the top in stadium money giveaways (to my knowledge, the Sox still enjoy the cheapest rent in the league).

Moreover, the US Cellular Field lease agreement requires the state pay to replace “any obsolete component of the Stadium with more modern replacements which may in the future become in use in at least seventy-five (75%) percent of Major League Baseball stadiums.”

This language is common in stadium agreements, effectively obligating local taxpayers to continue kicking in for stadium upgrades as others, elsewhere, do the same.

I contacted Neil deMause, who writes about stadium boondoggles at FieldofSchemes.Com, about these “obsolete component” clauses. He says that no one really knows how many taxpayer-funded renovations have been justified as a result of them, and that no one is checking.

Records obtained by BP South Side show that the White Sox twice made video board upgrade requests to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA), the state’s stadium governing body, in both 2014 and 2015.

In each request the Sox noted that over 75% of Major League Baseball had more modern video systems, referring to terms of the lease agreement.

The team pointed out that the video portion of the centerfield scoreboard dated back to 2003. Incidentally, that was the year when the White Sox paid for a series of ballpark improvements, but only after the team received $68 million from U.S. Cellular Corporation for naming rights to the public facility.

This time around, White Sox ownership was not about to pay for upgrades that the state was contractually obligated to provide, or for which the team wouldn’t be reimbursed by a third party.

So in a resolution dated September 30, 2015, appointed officials at the ISFA determined it was “in the best interest of the Authority to undertake the Video Improvements Project.” The “Authority” being the ISFA, representing the state. Usually, there is no room for irony in legal documents, but maybe they were making a joke here.

The contractor for the video system work and maintenance is Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc. The company operates out of Warrendale, PA.

Sports stadiums do not stimulate local economies. But contracting a company that is headquartered, employs management, and pays taxes in another state, no doubt lessens whatever local economic benefit the ballpark investment might provide.

Mitsubishi Electric Power is no stranger to state subsidies itself. According to Good Jobs First, the company has received what amounts to millions in tax credits, abatements, grants, and other payments from Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

Now it’ll be adding Illinois taxpayer money to the coffers.

Given these circumstances, the U.S. Cellular Field video system expenditure looks like a totally legal, yet gross misappropriation of state funds.

Adding further insult, in 2015, the same year the state approved the new $7 million video system in the White Sox ballpark, it announced a $28 million budget cut for the city’s public parks.

In this context, the White Sox new video boards—like previous renovations, the public debt financing of the ballpark, and the lease agreement itself—are a discreet political act, with a small group of beneficiaries.

And so, I’ll likely enjoy the multimillion-dollar, high-def experience in my baseball stadium this season, but I really would’ve liked for the owners of my billion-dollar baseball team to have paid for it.

Lead Photo Credit: Caylor Arnold // USA Today Sports Images