Illinois Governor Says White Sox Now “Bound to Stay” in Chicago

Chicago White Sox fans were jubilant Friday over an extra-inning victory in the state legislature that is supposed to keep the ballclub in the city it has called home for nearly the last 90 years.

The multimillion-dollar package for a new stadium, narrowly passed by Illinois lawmakers as a Thursday midnight deadline expired, will keep the White Sox from moving to St. Petersburg, Fla., according to Gov. James R. Thompson, who said the White Sox are now “legally and morally bound to stay” in Chicago.

“They signed a lease. We have their word,” Thompson said. “The White Sox promised to stay in Chicago if we passed the bill, and we passed it.”

The deal still needs approval by the team’s board of directors, who must act by July 7. But White Sox spokesman Paul Jensen said “there’s no problem anticipated.”

The deal could cut $60 million from the team’s cost of occupying a new $150-million state-financed stadium near the site of its current home, Comiskey Park.

Final passage of the deal came on a 60-55 vote in the House on the last regularly scheduled day of the 1988 session. A short time earlier, the package cleared the Senate on a 30-26 vote.

Thompson said he had lobbied heavily for passage of the deal, adding: “I told members of the Senate Republican caucus that I don’t care what they think of baseball. . .we can’t let Illinois be wounded by losing a major league team.”

Naturally, the fans were elated.

“I think it’s great! My heart was breaking last night when it looked like this deal wasn’t going to pass,” Paul Losensky, 30, said outside Comiskey Park while waiting to buy tickets for Friday night’s game.

But many scorned the package for a new stadium and blamed greediness on the part of the team’s owners, Eddie Einhorn and Jerry Reinsdorf.

Neither owner could be reached for comment Friday. Calls were referred to Jensen, who said the team has “been committed to stay all along, as long we could get the stadium built” to replace aging Comiskey Park.