Well, if we adjust for inflation, it was probably Albert Belle. And your main guy Jermaine Dye was probably the most important one, though that was because a spiritually 86-win team decided to go nuts.

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Moving to a smaller market like Nashville a good move from revenue-sharing perspective. MLB revenue sharing is based on this "market score" thing (any market score over 100 = not eligible for revenue sharing, no matter how poorly run your franchise might be. White Sox consistently least profitable MLB franchise):



Marlins have received $70 mil in revenue sharing in recent seasons. Not sure what the latest revenue shares have been for the small-market franchises; nor what the exact formula is but it seems the smaller the market, greater revenue share. MIL, KC, CIN usually get the largest piece of the revenue-share pie.

White Sox moving from a top 5 market to a bottom 4 market score (only MIL, KC, CIN smaller markets than Nashville's 2.1 mil population MSA) would be perennially eligible for that sweet, sweet corporate welfare.

Surprised Reinsdorf didn't move the team to a smaller market already.

Baseball struggles with truly small markets even with revenue sharing. The other leagues can sustain metros around or under 2MM because of fat national TV deals, regional followings, or in the case of Buffalo and GB/Milwaukee, both. Big RSN money is gone and you gotta fill the ballpark 81 times a year, hence no MLB counterpart for Jacksonville or Oklahoma City.

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Nashville being something of a tourist destination should help fill the stadium with visiting team fans, like Vegas does. Primarily the wrong gender of tourists, maybe they'll pink-hat it up and bus groups of girls back and forth to Stars (or whatever the team's called) games from lower Broadway. I think the Preds initially boosted their attendance numbers for the same reason. Folks planning Nashville trips around when their team would be there.

Milwaukee benefits from being close to Chicago.

Cincinnati doesn't have an NBA franchise but if they did I'm sure Joakim Noah would've found it even less of a tourist destination than Cleveland.

KC only a tourist destination on Pride Weekend.

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Genuine question - do people like the titans? Whenever their games are on the stadium reminds me of some off brand SEC school where half a crowd just kind of shuffles in & out of a sun drenched stadium until the game gets so boring they all go home.

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When I was a kid and they finished the Oilers rebrand/barely lost the Super Bowl, it seemed like they were everyone's second team, mostly because they had kind of a neutral but "cool" new brand and didn't really conflict with people's various NFC allegiances. Plus Steve McNair was fun to watch. I feel like they've settled into just sort of being blandly competent enough to avoid a St. Louis Rams all-out market collapse while leaning into Nashville as road-trip destination and accepting that fate. It's a level of sub-mediocrity that the Bears skip right past on their way down or back up.

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Based on the amount of Paul Finebaum watching and opening asks and enthusiasm in conversations about sports calibrated to your and their college team (UT, UK, Bama, Arkansas fans all well-represented around Nasvhille + Florida (Gators more than Seminoles, for whatever reason)), Titans take a back-seat to whatever college team the average Nashville sports fan supports (possibly behind the Predators too, you see Preds gear regularly but Titans not as much). Just because I'm from Michigan I spend a lot of time explaining how I don't like the University of Michigan either. Tho I was happy to see a Big 10 school take down the SEC on the way to a title.

McNair does come up more often in Titans conversations than a QB from 20 years ago should

What’s the difference between a prostitute and a lawyer?

(A prostitute only fucks you when you’re alive.)

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Jesus Christ. This would be tough to take. It's hard not to be cynical as it is.

I previously didn't think the MLB would let them move. Reading the comments here, I am not so sure.

The Oakland A's were around for 57 years and won four world championships, one of those in recent enough history that their manager is still kind of hanging around, in one of the wealthiest metropolitan areas in America. Barring a miracle, still gone. Nothing matters anymore.

They must believe the only viable two-team markets are New York and Los Angeles, and even L.A. is a reach because one's in a suburb 40 miles away. No other explanation for throwing away 125+ years in Chicago.

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If Jeff Bezos bought the Sox, would he move them? Or would he first hold up the city for a sweet deal? It’s weird…as much as I am against public funding for billionaires, I’d be a bit more tolerant if it were Bezos or Cuban and not Reinsdorf.

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the thing is there's no "MLB" with any influence. It exists only to serve the owners, so whatever the owner wants they'll go along with, even if it makes no sense like with Oakland->Vegas

so you really have to hope the new owner is less a businessman and more a sports fan. The market potential would be a huge downgrade moving pretty much anywhere, but it's probably made up for if that new podunk town pays for your stadium

Yeah, that’s kind of what I was getting at. I think someone like Bezos would see the bigger potential in Chicago, even if he paid for the stadium himself.

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I’m with CH that is it crazy that a team would move after this much time. But you should consider the dynamics of this market.

1) they are a clear number two to the Cubs in terms of number of fans,
2) their base is in the generally less affluent part of the city,
3) buying a team and investing in a stadium is a long term decision, say 30 years. On that point, what is the the trajectory of Chicago and its surrounding area vs say Nashville over 30 years. Population growth will clearly favor Nashville. TN is a much more favorable economic environment including a zero tax state.

So these are some important considerations.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

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Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.- JD Vance
When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus. - Turkish Proverb

There was a market survey maybe a decade back that concluded the greater Chicago area could readily handle multiple pro franchises in every sport. NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB...maybe not WNBA.

Saw some mention of Dave Stewart also being involved in purchasing land around the Oakland Coliseum. Maybe he was thinking move the Angels up north. Moreno thought about selling them a few years back and then changed his mind. Possibly Oakland's a back-up plan. Or maybe his unnamed investors for the Nashville team are from the Bay area and he's only connected to Oakland purchases because of them.

Stewart supposedly lives right there near where they wanna build the MLB park near Tennessee State. So he's probably more in on Nashville than Oakland. Great views of the city northwest of the river, up in the foothills, before it gets too hilly/rocky to build as you head northwest.

Chicago could have gotten the Vancouver Grizzlies. They wanted to build an arena in the south suburbs. I suspect if it had gotten serious, it would have met the same fate as when the Whalers tried to go to Detroit.

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It sure doesn't matter. Jesus.

All in the same neighborhood, too.

I remember when Charlie Finley tried to move the A's to Chicago. I guess the Sox would have moved out then. I ain't following them if they move. I think I'd just be done with sports. Maybe I'll follow Hawaii when they join the Big Ten.

You've posted this multiple times across multiple threads. You seem to want to talk about it. I'll bite. Is this a joke, or are you serious?

Don't most Bulls fans already hate him?

With that contract, I believe Belle was the highest paid player in baseball for a period of time.

I think Dennis raises valid points. You're probably better of dominating Nashville than having 25% of the Chicago market.

The fallacy there is that you'd dominate Nashville to begin with. Not only is it one of the worst transplant cities in America, it's also been the frontier of Cardinals and Braves territories for years. (Throw in the Reds for good measure.) For all the talk about Atlanta being a lousy sports town, there has to be something to that regional Braves allegiance--it's kept Nashville and Charlotte expansion rumors at bay for years and spooked the Twins out of a move to Winston-Salem.

I know "the White Sox are a sleeping giant" is a board meme at this point, but I totally believe they can be a lot more than what they are now and it wouldn't take all that much. Then again, I believe in Chicago, too. Nashville can't grow at this rate forever.

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I flew into Tune a couple of weeks ago. Nashville (like its little northern brother Louisville) is unfortunately a great town. A lot of character, undeniably fun, and developed. They also have tons of money. Chicago stands really no chance at keeping the Sox if push comes to shove here, the balance of power has swung to the Sun Belt.

The best hope for keeping the Sox in Chicago is the owners not wanting to swap in a new revenue-sharing mouth to feed in exchange for a big market team that doesn’t get a dime.

I would not be shocked if the Sox go to Nashville and fairly quickly get an expansion franchise.

AL baseball in Chicago dies if the Sox move.

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The NHL was able to pretend they were profitable for years at a time by collecting expansion fees and now they're doing it again, sniffing around Houston and northeast suburban Atlanta (?!?) to get up to 34. We've gone the longest between expansions that MLB has ever gone. If the owners can pocket $2B x2, that could paper over the RSN collapse nicely and keep the Sox from having somewhere to go.

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There would be enthusiasm for the product that you're not going to get anytime soon on the South Side. Also, I suspect Nashville would build you a new park, at its own expense, with a thousand ways to extract money out of anyone who clicked the turnstiles.

If you want enthusiasm and a new park in Chicago, you're going to have to put in years of work and reach into your own pockets for the park.