A Game of Chicken

Jerry Reinsdorf did an interview with Crain’s Chicago Business this week that may have had the opposite effect of what he intended. Nobody’s buying what he’s peddling. Reinsdorf blamed the team’s predicament on its Bridgeport location rather than team performance. He also said the team would be worth more if sold to out-of-town buyers. He also wants a TIF (Tax Increment Funding) district, which devotes a healthy percentage of locally derived real estate tax revenue to development projects in said district. He also wants the moon. Different critics get ticked by different aspects of the interview. What I see is Reinsdorf playing a game of Chicken 2.0: Give me what I want, or my team walks. The ploy worked in 1988, but that was a long time ago. Right now, the public sentiment for a second Sox stadium is closer to ice cold that cool. The weird thing is, I doubt if Reinsdorf cares. It’s all a game to him, a second publicly funded stadium rammed down the public’s throat. The other side blinked first 36 years ago. Jerry Reinsdorf expects them to cave again before long.