Quinn determined to have one last political power play while in office

There was some intense politicking taking place Monday in San Diego, where Baseball Hall of Fame officials ultimately decided that none of four former Chicago White Sox ballplayers – Dick Allen, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso and Billy Pierce – were worthy of recognition.

Yet that might not have been as intense as the hard-ball that was played Monday at U.S. Cellular Field, where the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority met and decided to hire a new executive director.

WHICH ISN’T A big deal, except for the fact that the authority’s board is controlled now by people chosen by the Illinois governor, which means it is Pat Quinn who got to decide who got the executive director’s post.

Not Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who also has appointees on the authority’s board. And most certainly not Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner, who would have got his chance to get involved with the agency that runs the White Sox’ ballpark and which paid for the renovation of Soldier Field for the Chicago Bears.

It would seem that Quinn, who wasn’t able to get the General Assembly to approve a measure providing for a statewide increase in the minimum wage so he could have a “last hurrah” of sorts signing it into law, will have to claim this appointment as one of his final acts of significance.

As it turns out, he gave the executive director’s post to Lou Bertuca, who was the campaign manager who led Quinn to his 50-46 percent defeat in the November general election for governor.

SO AT LEAST Lou is taken care of, from Quinn’s perspective. He has a job for the next two years, even though Rauner on Monday spewed a bit of cheap rhetoric about how he’d like to undo the appointment.

It’s not going to be a pleasant job, however. For I expect Rauner will replace all of the gubernatorial nominees on the authority’s governing board with people loyal to him.

I also expect that Emanuel’s people on the authority will not look too kindly to their new director. Bertuca could easily wind up having to deal with a governing board openly hostile toward anything he wants to do – along with a pair of chief executives who likely will dig for any dirt they can find for use as grounds to try to remove him!

I don’t know that I’d want to take a job under those circumstances – even if it does pay just over $175,000 per year.

OF COURSE, THIS isn’t the first time Quinn has had controversy related to the executive director’s post of the sports authority.

Bertuca replaces Kelly Kraft, the former television news broadcaster who got Quinn’s appointment in 2012 despite the belief of many authority board members that she wasn’t qualified.

That was when Quinn orchestrated the appointment by removing one of his appointees on the board who was opposed to Kelly, and replaced him with someone who would vote exactly the way the governor wanted.

It had a backlash, of course. For the person who got removed was Manny Sanchez, a high-profile attorney who wound up signing on early to the Rauner gubernatorial campaign and being one of the “prominent” Democrats who did what he could to undermine Quinn’s chances of re-election.

WHICH MAKES ME perceive this move as being more a gesture of hostility toward the political establishment that is preparing to cast him off in coming weeks.

It might not be as hostile as the one when former-Gov. Rod Blagojevich went out of his way to name Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate despite the desires of many others that he butt out of the matter. But it definitely comes across as a final cry for attention.

It’s not like there’s any activity coming before the sports authority in the near future that an executive director appointment couldn’t wait a couple of months. But it does entertain the political geeks amongst us who always enjoy the mechanizations behind political maneuvers.

Just as much as White Sox fans will spend the next few months complaining about how the Hall of Fame could be so stupid as to exclude (once again) such stars as one-time MVP Allen and the “Cuban Comet” himself in Miñoso.

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You never know what surprises lurk in those lists of government appointees

I have been a reporter-type person for a quarter of a century, and I’d like to think I know how to conduct myself professionally in ways that I won’t miss out on “news.”

YOUNG: Politically relevant, yet again



Yet every now and then, something comes along that gives me a swift kick in the behind and makes me realize that I’m more than capable of getting lax and missing out on things.

ONE OF THOSE moments occurred this week. Thursday morning to be exact, when I happened to get an e-mail message from the office of Gov. Pat Quinn, informing me of appointments to nearly two dozen state agencies or boards.

The governor’s press release on the issue highlighted the fact that one-time WGN-TV broadcaster Merri Dee is now on the Illinois Human Rights Commission, and Manny Flores will be the secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

It then went on to list many other obscure government bodies and new members picked by Pat Quinn.

When I saw that we were talking about entities such as the state’s Drycleaner Environmental Response Trust Fund Council, my mind shut down. I figured this was a list of the minutia that comprises state government, but that really doesn’t get significant enough to warrant any public attention.

SO I DIDN’T notice the ninth agency on the list – the fact that the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority has a new member. Dr. Quentin Young – formerly a bigwig at the old Cook County Hospital and with his own political ties back in the days of Harold Washington as mayor.

It was there right in between Maria Saldana being named to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission and seven people being named to the state’s Juvenile Justice Commission.

Now, of course, we realize the significance of Young being appointed to represent the governor on the board that operates U.S. Cellular Field, and may wind up being used to help raise money to renovate Wrigley Field similar to how Soldier Field was revamped about a decade ago.

Young’s first day in the post was to attend the sports authority’s meeting Thursday where he shifted the balance of power in the fight over picking a new executive director.

AS A RESULT, Quinn’s desire to appoint one-time television broadcaster Kelly Kraft (who has worked the past three years as a spokeswoman for the state’s budget director) became reality.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s desire to put former Chicago Public Schools CFO Diana Ferguson in the position went down the political toilet bowl – with Quinn getting to smirk while watching Rahm-bo swish and swirl into the sewer!

Of course, it’s a short-term victory. Because Emanuel is exactly the type who knows how to hold a political grudge.

The political speculation now is how will Rahm “get back” at Quinn. What will the punishment be? Nobody thinks either one of these men is capable of behaving like a grown-up.

AND WHILE THIS relationship isn’t as warped and twisted as the one that existed between former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, it’s not that pretty either. A bit reminiscent of the days of old between Mayor Richard M. Daley and Gov. Jim Edgar!

Quinn is becoming the guy who won’t let Emanuel have a casino in Chicago (the governor vetoed a gambling expansion measure), and now he has the upper hand on any future development that might occur at Wrigley.

Which is what this issue really is about. I don’t think anyone really cares whether Kraft or Ferguson gets the “executive director” title. It’s about Emanuel being willing to help the Chicago Cubs in paying for renovations to their nearly century-old stadium – provided HE gets to call the shots.

Now, it’s in the hands of a board whose majority will be taking marching orders from the Mighty Quinn, who might actually dare to think for himself and now kow-tow to Rahm when deciding if that project is worth any government attention.

FOR ALL THE grief that Quinn get for being a political weakling, a gadfly and a “goo-goo,” the reality is that he wouldn’t have survived all these decades on the Illinois political scene if he didn’t have some capability to play hardball.

At the very least, he managed to slip in a crucial political appointment under the cover of positions such as the new member to the state’s Sex Offender Management Board.

And if I (and my reporter-type colleagues) had been paying closer attention, perhaps we could have forseen this issue occurring.

We certainly wouldn’t be walking around feeling like we have the bruises of a combat boot all over our behinds.

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EXTRA: Gubernatorial delusions?

Tough talk from the governor? Or just evidence that his grasp of political reality is less than solid these days?

QUINN: Still a Kraft-backer



I couldn’t help but be amused to hear Gov. Pat Quinn on Saturday make a brief statement about the political future of Kelly Kraft. She’s the former television reporter-turned-state employee whom Quinn wants to have serve as executive director of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.

THAT’S THE AGENCY that runs U.S. Cellular Field, helped to pay for renovations at Soldier Field and could have a hand in any future Wrigley Field remodeling/reconstruction.

The agency consists of appointees by the Illinois governor and Chicago mayor, and Quinn wants his person (who most recently was a spokeswoman for the governor’s budget director) in charge.

Yet Mayor Rahm Emanuel doesn’t want her. He claims to want someone of a solid economics and financial background (and apparently, deciphering the financial claims of political people for public consumption – like a reporter-type person often does – isn’t good enough for him).

The two have been quarrelling over this, and there doesn’t seem to be any wriggle room.

YET QUINN , WHILE appearing at a state workshop in suburban South Holland to help people avoid foreclosure, said he still expects to see the concept of “Executive Director Kelly Kraft” at some point.

“She’s a qualified person,” Quinn said. “She will be confirmed soon.”

Yet Quinn, by his own admission, hasn’t talked any more recently with Emanuel about the issue than the sports authority meeting held Monday when nothing was done with regards to Kraft’s appointment.

EMANUEL: Wants another accountant-type



So what Quinn is basing his verbal snippets on (he wouldn’t elaborate) is something I don’t know.

NOT THAT IT is impacting the agency all that much. The position has been open since the spring of 2011, with that spat having no end in sight. The state’s maintenance of U.S. Cellular Field for use by the Chicago White Sox doesn’t seem to be suffering.

Then again, this issue probably does get resolved when the two sides come to agreement on the prospects of a Chicago casino, what the city ought to do to help the state resolve pension funding problems, and a whole host of issues that might appear unrelated to us – but are all intertwined in the jumbled mess who we think of as our local government officials.

  -30-

New political brawl breaks out over state’s sports authority (not the store)

While I comprehend that the positions of mayor and Illinois governor are naturally going to be competitive with each other, it never fails to amaze me just how petty the issues can be that get the two officials p’o-ed at each other.



Will the political games get as ugly as the play was on this field last month? Photograph by Gregory Tejeda



Such as the latest brawl taking place between Rahm Emanuel and Pat Quinn. It’s not over whether the city can have a casino (although I’m sure the lingering hostilities from that issue are making this new brawl all the more heated).

WHAT HAS THE two men upset with each other is the issue of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and who gets to run the day-to-day operations.

Quinn has someone in mind for the executive director’s post; the woman who was spokesman for the state budget director – who as it turns out is a former television news reporter-type for various stations, including WFLD-TV (Ch. 32, for those of you who can’t keep broadcast call letters straight in your minds).

But Emanuel is refusing to accept this idea. He’s got his own person in mind to run the daily operations of the agency that manages U.S. Cellular Field and helped raise funds for the renovation of Soldier Field that turned the structure into a “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” clone.

Considering that some people think the agency could play a role in any future overhaul of Wrigley Field, it is an agency that can have a public role in our city.

BEING IN CHARGE of the agency isn’t the most powerful position in government. But it will get someone more television face-time than running, say, the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

So maybe that’s why Quinn would like a television-type in charge. Plus, it seems he wants to reward her for the time she did with the state Bureau of the Budget. A move up!

But to listen to Emanuel, he wants someone of a more traditional (in his mind, at least) background. Someone with some direct financial experience. The Chicago Tribune reported that Emanuel’s staff had submitted the name of a former City Hall administrator and attorney for the job.

The newspaper also reported that a former Chicago Public Schools executive who in recent years has worked in private financial management has expressed interest in the post.

WHO’S TO SAY what will happen now?

For the sports facilities authority is scheduled to meet Monday, and could wind up picking someone for the executive director’s post on that day. Or they could wind up deciding to start a new search for the position that has been empty since last year.

They may well decide that since the job has been vacant since before Adam Dunn donned a White Sox uniform during a regular-season game, it won’t kill anyone to wait a little longer.

Although that would wind up being a slap at the governor’s ego – even though by now so many officials have taken so many pot-shots at Pat Quinn that I would suspect he’s all battered and bruised from the blows.

HE MIGHT BE used to it by now, although the odd part is that if the political people were playing by the rules, this wouldn’t be a controversy. Quinn would get his way.

For while the sports facilities authority is a state government agency, it is one that operates solely within Chicago and over which the mayor gets some say.

The authority is run by a board with a chairman to set broad perimeters for public policy, then has an executive director to take orders from the board and set their guidelines into actual working policy.

Traditionally, the board’s members are split among mayoral and gubernatorial appointees, with the mayor getting the pick (with a governor’s consent) over the board chairman.

Will political fight delay Wrigley renovation?



IN EXCHANGE, THE governor gets to say who the executive director will be (albeit with the same mayoral consent). That lack of consent is what is at issue now, and threatens to create an ugly political brawl.

One that already has taken on ugly undertones as we learned from Chicago Tribune reports about the financial mess that used to be Quinn’s nominee’s financial life (she declared bankruptcy in 2009, although seems to have straightened out her own financial problems).

One that I also sense will devolve into childish levels. Although that may be appropriate, since this agency is the one that builds (or renovates) structures meant to dignify what essentially are children’s games played (for big bucks) by adults.

Let’s just hope that the political brawls that will occur in coming weeks do not get as ugly as the Chicago Cubs were this season – or as depressing as the Chicago White Sox were in September!

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Long overdue? Or a smokescreen?

I am a professional baseball fan who does not share the thoughts of those individuals who rant and rage about governments spending their scarce dollars to build the stadiums used by their city’s teams.



Stadium changed, why not the lease?



It doesn’t bother me to have the city, county or state in the role of landlord. I can see where a ball club (even though technically a privately-owned enterprise) provides to the public image of a municipality, and that a city-owned stadium is the city’s official support.

I ONLY WISH that governments would act much tougher in their role as landlords, particularly when negotiating the lease. The same kind of tough talk that government officials will make about tax deadbeats? Why can’t we see the same approach used toward the local ball club – which needs the stadium to play in as much as the city wants the team.

So it is in that context that I read the reports from Crain’s Chicago Business that say the state (specifically, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority) is looking to renegotiate the lease it has with the Chicago White Sox to play their games at U.S. Cellular Field.

Former state Senate President Emil Jones, who now chairs the sports authority, told Crain’s that, “the Sox pay the lowest rent of all the facilities.” Are the White Sox going to have to share a larger percentage of their gross receipts in order to continue to be the team that plays at 35^th and Shields/Bill Veeck Drive?

I’m not sure how accurate Jones’ statement is. There may be a very specific context in which it is true. But I am aware there are some other teams that get away with paying no rent, whereas the White Sox do wind up paying something just about every single season.

MY OWN PERSONAL “favorite” stadium lease story involves the two-time American League champion Texas Rangers, who when they moved into their current stadium in the mid-1990s paid rent for five seasons before being given title to the building.

The ball club then sold the building back to the state. In essence, Texas paid the team money to play there, and continues to maintain it on their behalf.

For all I know, stories like that will make White Sox team Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf rant about how he’s already paying too much. But it is not unreasonable to expect Illinois state government to get something in return for its investment in the building – which opened in 1991 and underwent a major overhaul in the mid-2000s.

So just as the building has physically changed, perhaps the lease agreement should change as well – particularly since the White Sox boasted earlier this week how they want to open a sports attire store in the stadium that would be open year-round.

NOT JUST ON game days.

If they’re going to make some money, perhaps the building owner should get a cut – and not just the current rent that provides the state with $1-2 million a year, based on how well the White Sox draw.

Now I know some Cubs fans like to whine about the White Sox and those clauses that allow them to get away without paying any rent for a season. But that is if the attendance drops to low levels (1.4 million or fewer tickets sold).

For most of the 21 seasons that the White Sox have played in the building located across the street from the real Comiskey Park (now leveled to a parking lot), the team has met that standard.

THAT SHORT STRETCH at the end of the 1990s truly was an aberration for Chicago baseball, and not just because of Sammy Sosa’s freakish home runs (the real Sammy who played for the White Sox struck out too much, couldn’t hit squat and complained that the ballpark was inhibiting his greatness).

So if there are sufficient (if not record-setting) numbers of people visiting U.S. Cellular Field every season, it would be nice to think that the state could get a share of it.

Even though I’m realistic enough to know that a higher rent from the White Sox won’t even come close to resolving state government’s overall financial problems.

Besides, it’s not the first time the lease has been renegotiated. So no one can claim this to be an iron-clad lease that must be left intact in all its 1991 glory.

IT’S NOT LIKE the state is obligated to buy a certain number of tickets any more to ensure that the White Sox reach that minimal 1.4 million attendance standard. That was given up on over a decade ago (in exchange for the fact that state government is no longer entitled to a tiny percentage of the White Sox’ share of national broadcast revenue negotiated by Major League Baseball).

Let’s see what our state officials can get now, although they’re in the position of already having a signed lease and can’t really impose any terms.

At the very least, such money would help the state a bit – even those individuals who live across Illinois whose baseball sense is misguided enough that they root for the St. Louis Cardinals or the (Ugh!) Chicago Cubs.

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I'll believe it when I see it when...

… Illinois state government approves some plan to overhaul Wrigley Field without involving state tax dollars, and

… the Illinois General Assembly actually manages to put a state constitution amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot that provides for recall elections.

NOW I HAVE written before about the substance of the two issues, and my basic stance has not changed. I think recall elections are for sore losers who want to un-do the results of the majority, and I think the majority should have to live with its Election Day mistakes.

Meanwhile, in today’s day and age, governments are involved in the development of stadiums used by professional sports teams, often with leases that are meant to allow the ball clubs to financially rip off the government.

So to argue against some sort of state involvement in the future renovation of Wrigley Field on the grounds that government should have no role, well, that’s cute, but shut up. Nobody cares.

You might as well be arguing that all the riverboat casinos in Illinois should be shut down because gambling is immoral.

WE HERE IN Illinois had our officials make a decision years ago when they built a new Chicago South Side stadium for the White Sox, then provided some assistance for the Chicago Bears to renovate Soldier Field and for the Chicago Black Hawks and Bulls to get their own West Side arena.

Is this a 1929 panoramic view of the future Chicago Cubs State Park, sponsored by ComEd (or some other garish corporate entity)? Photograph provided by Library of Congress collection.

To claim now that there is something repulsive about the Chicago Cubs “getting some” from the state is absurd. It is going to happen. It is just a matter of what form the aid will take.

That is where I get skeptical.

Former Gov. James R. Thompson, who now chairs the government agency that oversees U.S. Cellular Field for the White Sox, says he has figured out a way that no state or local tax dollars would be put into a state purchase of Wrigley Field, with the state then being responsible for providing the significant reconstruction needed on the 94-year-old building to ensure that it can continue to be a viable sports stadium for several more decades.

THOMPSON WOULDN’T TELL the Chicago Tribune what this magical way of government finance without use of government money actually consists of. Chicago Cubs officials also claim to have not heard anything specific about how this transaction will occur.

I suspect that in the end, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority will come up with funding for the purchase and renovation in ways that some government observers of a curmudgeonly nature would believe is state and/or local money.

It is going to be a matter of how strictly one wants to define what constitutes tax dollars, similar to how when former President Bill Clinton famously said, “I did not have sex with that woman,” the truth of that statement depends on how one defines “sex” compared to what he did with intern Monica Lewinsky.

The newspaper, in its reports, hinted that the purchase of the ballpark (which would enrich the Tribune Co. owners of the team who want to sell after 28-years-and-counting of running a team that hasn’t won a thing) could come from money raised by selling the naming rights to Wrigley Field.

BASICALLY, NEW TRIBUNE Co. (run by Sam Zell, as compared to the old Tribune Co. geeks who sold out their interest in the “information and entertainment conglomerate”) would be allowed to pocket the money derived from offending Cubs fans by giving the building at Clark and Addison streets some sort of corporate name.

But renovations of the building along the line of what the New York Yankees did with Yankee Stadium in the mid-1970s or what the Bears did to Soldier Field in 2002 would be pricey – as much as $400 million, some officials estimate.

If the Cubs’ personality and potential profitability weren’t so tied into the cutesy image of their building, they would be better off financially going for a new stadium somewhere else. But the mentality of Chicago political people keeps the sports teams at their current locations – the White Sox will always be on 35th Street, while the Bulls and Black Hawks are on Madison Street. And the Bears have become the team of the lakefront.

So the Cubs can’t seriously think of having a stadium built for them somewhere else without upsetting the politicos. But those same politicos really don’t want to pay for the expensive overhaul of the one-time Weeghman Park.

THE BOTTOM LINE is that those two thoughts are contradictory. One of them will have to give. My guess is that it will be the ban on government funds being involved in the project, which wouldn’t bother me so much if only the state were willing to take a hard line and demand a significant rent payment from the Cubs to play in a stadium maintained at state expense, which would boost the Cubs profitability in and of itself.

But political officials enjoy being able to go to sports events and pretend they are big-shots while they sit in the crowd wearing too-tight caps with their business suits. So they won’t take a hard line.

Another thing they won’t do is actually get a constitutional amendment on the upcoming general election ballot for recall elections.

The Illinois Senate is considering a vote to approve something related to a recall when they meet Thursday. If they actually take the vote and give enough support to approve it, the measure would then have to return to the Illinois House of Representatives, which previously voted on its own recall election measure.

THIS IS A case of everybody in the Legislature wanting to pander to the people who think recalls are a “nifty” idea. Each legislator wants to be able to point to some bill that has him or her voting in favor of the idea.

But since the two chambers never actually agreed on the same identical bill (they agreed on two different bills that were virtually identical – not the same thing), they have not voted to approve anything that can be put on the Nov. 4 election ballots.

By law, any potential amendment to the Illinois Constitution must be approved by the Legislature at least six full months before the Election Day for which it is intended. That means Sunday is the deadline if anything is to happen in 2008.

Recall elections have become the equivalent of pay raises for legislators. Everybody in the General Assembly postures that they are against giving themselves more money at a time when the state is in tight financial times.

BUT SOMEHOW, THEY always manage to fail to agree on a single bill that would reject the pay raises, which means the raises take effect automatically.

The fact that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, hinted at having the House in session during the weekend just means he wants to put on the appearance of trying, really, really trying, to get something done.

Which means the Blagojevich-bashers of the Illinois political world (who are the people really pushing all this recall nonsense this year) likely will have to find another way to harass our goofy guv with the overblown hair.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: No government money for revamping Wrigley Field? (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-wed-wrigley-field-cubs-apr30,0,5382365.story) Prove it!

The Illinois House could have to endure “capital punishment” (defined in politico-speak as having to spend a weekend in the capital city of Springfield) to put on a show (http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2008/04/madigan-says-ho.html) that they want to place a constitutional amendment on recall elections on this year’s ballot.

Cubs to play at The Cell; What's the big fuss?

Am I the only person who has no problem with the Chicago Cubs playing a season or more on the South Side of Chicago?

Some of the rhetoric spouted by people who hate the idea of the Cubs playing some “home” games at the stadium built by the People of Illinois for the Chicago White Sox borders on the ridiculous.

CUBS FANS SOMEHOW think it beneath themselves to venture into the “real” Chicago (south of Roosevelt Road), while some Sox fans are so small-minded as to want to play mind games with the thought that the Cubs would be a homeless baseball club.

Let’s face facts.

The Cubs play in a 94-year-old-and-counting building that is in need of major renovation (it should have been significantly rebuilt three decades ago) if it is to remain the long-term home of the long-time-loser National League team.

Reconstruction calls for a significant amount of work that takes time, particularly since we in the Midwestern United States have to endure real winters (not some floofy San Diego version) that can put a cramp in construction schedules. (God is NOT a Cubs fan who will work a miracle to make it possible for the project to be complete in less than one year – like some fans are dreaming).

The South Side of Chicago likely will be the focus of all Chicago baseball for a short stint in the near future. Photograph provided by State of Illinois.

That means the Cubs have to find a temporary stadium, similar to how the Chicago Bears played one season at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Ill., and the Chicago Fire real football team had to shift to a college football stadium in suburban Naperville for two seasons when Soldier Field underwent its major renovation in the early 2000s.

No, the Cubs are not going to play “home” games in Milwaukee or St. Louis or Peoria (where the minor league Chiefs have a nice, new stadium in the downtown area on the Illinois River).

All this adds up to the fact that when, in the next couple of years, the Cubs move ahead with the renovation of Wrigley Field, the team will play at U.S. Cellular Field.

US WHITE SOX fans are going to have to get used to the notion of these ridiculous people coming to our team’s building and using it as the setting for a year or two of their losing ways.

What stands in the way is the possibility of White Sox team “pride,” where ball club officials might try some sort of legal move to prevent the act from taking place.

I can already hear the White Sox grounds crew registering their complaints that playing an extra 81 games on the field will cause additional wear and tear to the stadium’s turf.

Somehow, I think Roger Bossard and his crew (who have a reputation in baseball circles as being among the best groundskeepers in the business) are capable of handing the demands of a smooth, level field for 156 games played every week between early April and late September.

(DREAM ON CUBS fans, you’re not playing in the World Series on the South Side).

What gives the White Sox leverage in the use of the building is the lease they signed with the State of Illinois.

The state owns the building, but the White Sox have the upper hand if the matter ever goes to court.

Under the terms of the state’s lease, no event can be held in the building within 48 hours either before or after a scheduled White Sox game. The lease also gives the White Sox the right to veto any suggestion of holding events in the building at any other time.

THE ONE CONCESSION is that the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority does have the legal right to stage one event in the building every year and keep whatever proceeds they can raise, as part of the way of offsetting the cost of maintaining a stadium for the White Sox up to the standards demanded by Major League Baseball.

In recent years, the state has used that right to stage an event by holding concerts – usually in late summer. Remember the Rolling Stones and the sight of a geriatric Mick Jagger prancing around the White Sox turf?

There may very well be a way of negotiating a deal to allow the Cubs to use the building, particularly if the White Sox are cut in for a significant percentage of the parking and concessions revenues for Cubs games played in their building.

Also, don’t be surprised if White Sox officials then went out of their way to start putting up the Old-English script “Sox” logo all over every inch of the park so that it showed up in every camera shot for people watching Cubs games broadcasts on television.

THINK THIS IS a petty way to do business? It is totally in character with the way baseball people think.

Baseball’s one precedent for a construction-related shift took place in 1974 and 1975 in New York when historic Yankee Stadium underwent a major renovation. That building was stripped down to the foundation, reinforced, then re-built with more comfortable plastic seating, high-tech (for the 1970s) scoreboards and video displays, escalators and other doo-dads.

The Yankees had to play for those two seasons at Shea Stadium, the Queens-based stadium that is the home of the New York Mets. Yankees officials of that era say the Mets put in so many ridiculous conditions restricting the ballclub and the extent to which they could use the building and its clubhouse facilities.

Some say part of the reason Yankees owner George Steinbrenner still hates the Mets so much is that he remembers just how much they messed with him for those two years.

DOES ANYBODY DOUBT that Jerry Reinsdorf could be equally petty, especially when he has the law on his side?

Let’s not forget that when Soldier Field was re-built, the Chicago Fire originally wanted to shift their matches (about two per month) for two seasons to U.S. Cellular Field. The White Sox vetoed the measure, which is why they ultimately wound up playing at North Central College – which has a nice stadium for a Division III football program.

I always thought that was a mistake on the part of the White Sox.

Letting the Fire in could have built up some good will, while also getting people who let their irrational fears about the South Side get the best of them. They would have come to see some soccer matches, realized the building the White Sox play in is a comfortable, functional building and may very well have returned to watch the Sox play.

BESIDES, THERE WAS a precedent to having the Sox share their stadium with soccer teams. The Chicago Sting, back when they were a championship-caliber team (North American Soccer League titles in 1981 and 1984), played their games at the old Comiskey Park located across the street from U.S. Cellular Field.

To my mind, Karl Heinz Granitza and Arno Steffenhagen are just two of the many quality athletes who took the field at Comiskey and enhanced its reputation as an athletic paradise for generations of Chicagoans.

So let the Cubs come to The Cell. Let’s not forget that current Cubs owner Sam Zell for many years was a minority partner of Reinsdorf with the White Sox. If anybody can reach some concessions, it will be those two.

IT WILL BE good to expose the suburban and rural Illinois types who are deluded enough to cheer for the Cubs to expose them to a part of the city many of them prefer to ignore and to a building many of them deride even though they may never have visited.

Perhaps exposure to a contemporary building with amenities is what it will take to get them to realize that their aging building has seen its best days. It is time to let go. Perhaps they will stop eulogizing the notion that cramped aisles and a funky aroma wafting from the men’s room is somehow a part of the character of baseball.

I have just one bit of advice for any North Sider who ventures to The Cell.

I KNOW LAKEVIEW neighborhood residents who don’t particularly care for baseball because of the boorish behavior of Cubs fans, particularly at those moments when “nature calls” and they use neighborhood lawns to relieve themselves.

Anybody who acts like that in Bridgeport or Armour Square resident will cause a reaction somewhere along the lines of a resident grabbing his “Bill Melton” model baseball bat (from Bat Day 35 years ago) and using it to try to teach you some manners.

Show some class, Cubs fans, and you will be welcome on the South Side. It’s as simple as that.

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