 Tickets to see the Chicago Cubs potentially end their 108-year championship
drought this October are pricey, with home World Series tickets on StubHub
ranging anywhere from about $2,000 for standing room only, to $1 million to sit
next to the Cubs bullpen.
It will be nearly impossible to find a ticket much cheaper – unless you’re an
alderman or state lawmaker.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Oct. 3 that for the second consecutive year, all
50 aldermen and state lawmakers representing Chicago districts have been offered
the right to purchase two terrace reserved or upper deck tickets at face value
for each of the Cubs home playoff games, as well as for the World Series.
A Cubs spokesman told the Sun-Times the offer was a “courtesy.” But really, it’s
just the cost of doing business in Chicago.
The Cubs organization – which receives no taxpayer money and is putting upwards
of $375 million in private money toward Wrigley Field renovations – extended the
same offer to these politicians during the 2015 postseason, and during the
team’s 2003, 2007 and 2008 playoff runs. This year, the team added the caveat
that the tickets are not for resale. Many aldermen have already confirmed they
will take the Cubs up on the offer, including Alderman Tom Tunney, 44th Ward,
who has been in a longstanding feud with the organization over its proposed
renovations to Wrigley Field.
Tunney has tried to block efforts by the Ricketts, who own the Cubs, to renovate
the ballpark with their own money, notably through the addition of two
electronic scoreboards at the start of the 2015 season, as well as an outdoor
patio adjacent to the ballpark, for which Tunney sought to deny a liquor
license.
The ticket offer reveals what all Chicago business owners face: Play ball with
city politicians, or they will make life difficult for you.
The Cubs ownership is trying to privately fund major projects for the betterment
of the surrounding neighborhood and the enjoyment of the team’s fans – and these
efforts are met with political opposition. The alternative, which Chicago
politicians have historically welcomed, is a series of backroom deals with city
and state officials.
Chicago sports owners have often picked that option in the past.
In the early 2000s, when the Chicago Bears were seeking taxpayer funding for
renovations of Soldier Field, then-Chairman Edward McCaskey made a political
donation to Mayor Richard M. Daley, despite the late McCaskey’s history of
donating to Republicans.
The Bears got the taxpayer funding, which they are still receiving to this day,
and the renovation turned into a “huge public-works project with plenty of hefty
contracts for friends and political allies of City Hall and Springfield,”
according to the Chicago Tribune.
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The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, or ISFA, oversaw those
renovations, and also owns and operates the Chicago White Sox’s U.S.
Cellular Field, which, starting Nov. 1 will be renamed Guaranteed
Rate Field. The White Sox won’t see any of the new money from the
naming deal, though – of the $25.1 million in the deal, the team
will receive $20.4 million that was left from the deal U.S. Cellular
opted out of. The new $4.7 million will go to the ISFA, or in other
words, the state.
The ISFA was created in 1987 to provide taxpayer funding for the
construction and renovation of stadiums for professional sports
teams, including the new White Sox stadium – a fiasco that started
when White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who also owns the Chicago
Bulls, threatened to move the team to Florida.
The ISFA is usually stacked with the politically connected, such as
former state Senate President Emil Jones, who served as ISFA
chairman from 2011-2015. But not every ISFA board member has
accepted its cronyism. Former ISFA Chairwoman Perri Irmer, who
served from 2004-2011, claimed in a lawsuit the ISFA exists as
“nothing more than a cash cow puppet for Reinsdorf,” not to serve
its intended purpose of economic development through sports
stadiums.
Since the ISFA was created, Reinsdorf has made large donations to
powerful politicians in the city and the state, including Illinois
House Speaker Mike Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton,
Attorney General Lisa Madigan and both former Gov. Pat Quinn and
Gov. Bruce Rauner.
If Irmer’s claims are true, Reinsdorf is doing everything he can to
protect those subsidies that benefit the sports teams he owns.
And even when politicians aren’t doling out taxpayer funding for
billionaires’ stadiums or benefitting from ticket favors, they’re
still using their standing to gain additional access in the sports
world.
Madigan used nearly $1 million from his campaign funds to buy
tickets to sporting events from 2011-2015. That bill included more
than $1,200 annually to the University of Notre Dame, more than
$450,000 for Cubs tickets, more than $260,000 for White Sox tickets
and more than $200,000 for Bulls tickets. Another $287,000 was
listed as “gifts.”
Those organizations are probably thankful for Madigan’s hefty tabs,
regardless of where the money came from. And they may well remember
that when it’s time to write campaign checks.
The close-knit relationship between politicians and billionaire
sports owners isn’t fair for Illinoisans – either as taxpayers or as
sports fans. But barring some massive change in the city and state’s
political culture, Chicago politicians will have ample opportunity
to see the Cubs make history this October, and will likely enjoy
other privileges in the Chicago sports world not afforded to the
public.
Meanwhile, most Chicagoans will watch the games from home, stuck
with tax bills for billionaires’ stadiums and backroom deals.
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