[ardecila]

I give the Sox a 66% chance of leaving the city. The fanbase is at an all-time high level of disinterest. Reinsdorf has spent years disinvesting in the club and he's gotta be the most checked-out, absentee owner in MLB.

Dude has put as little skin in the game as humanly possible and seems to have one foot out the door already, the play for a 78 ballpark is a hail-mary to see if he can juice the value of the team, at taxpayer expense, before selling it on his deathbed. He's probably not interested in some complicated, 3-way deal with the Bears.

In many ways, renovating Guaranteed Rate and building a ballpark village around it seems to be the path of least resistance - I give that a 30% chance. It can probably be financed privately, the Cubs already showed it can be done, and the only politicians who aren't undecided right now are the ones from Bridgeport who want to keep the team in the neighborhood. If Reinsdorf ever comes around, I think they could get a deal together and city approvals pretty quickly.



For those keeping score, The 78 gets the last 3%... I personally like the plan, it is very well-designed and urban-friendly in a good location but that site is cursed. Plus it can't happen without billions in taxpayer money, and nobody wanted to hand billions to a sports team even before Reinsdorf destroyed his goodwill with fans (who are also voters and taxpayers).