Fans stray from Comiskey
Patrick Rose
Guest Managing Editor                                      

     The thought just came to my mind on a late March night after watching “Baseball Tonight” with my friends. “Hey do you guys want to go down to Comiskey tomorrow and get Sox tickets?” The room was silent for a couple of seconds.

     Maybe I was being a little too cautious that we needed to go down there three months early for Sox-Cubs tickets, because, lets face it, the White Sox just do not sell tickets. Last year we were able to get our hands on quality bleacher seats just a month before the Sox-Cubs game, and with the upper deck not getting lower any time soon, it was probably a pretty safe bet that we were going to get decent seats whenever we went down there.

     Well, it is already May and the White Sox are still continuing their dominant form, pounding the ball and getting decent relief from the bullpen. Magglio Ordonez, Paul Konerko, Ray Durham and, yes that is right, Frank Thomas are all hitting in the .300’s. The Sox currently have a game and a half lead over Cleveland in the AL central. So, Sox management should be excited over the rest of the season. Wrong.

     Sox management is worried that, even with a decent team on the field, fans won’t show up at the park. Many Sox fans put blame on two things for not buying tickets and showing up at Comiskey—Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and the park itself. Reinsdorf is whole separate story and Comiskey is a very delicate story for Sox fans.

     Comiskey Park was built to replace the old Comiskey Park that was located across the street at 35th and Shields. Before being demolished in ‘91, Comiskey was the oldest baseball park in the league (built in 1910), but the park couldn’t withstand anymore time, as ramps around the park started to collapse and it would have been too costly to renovate it. Building a new park was more feasible.

     The $137 million “new” Comiskey Park opened up on April 18, 1991 against the Detroit Tigers. The park was sold out on opening day and it received rave reviews from the fans. During the ‘91 baseball season, Comiskey was one of the most popular attractions in Chicago, where they drew 2,934,154 customers. This is an attendance record for Chicago baseball. Sox fans couldn’t help but notice the giant exploding scoreboard that put the old one to shame, or the public address sound system where PA announcer Gene Honda’s voice could be heard clearly throughout the whole stadium. This was the place to be for people who didn’t even like baseball because of the great variety of food or the fireworks show after a Saturday night ball game.

     Other fans thought the new park represented the city very well in its powerful structure. To an average onlooker, it looked three times bigger than old Comiskey and it appeared that Comiskey was going to be a fan favorite for years to come, but that all changed one year later when Oriole Park at Camden Yards was built.

     Oriole Park was designed as a throwback park, combining traits of Ebbets Field, Wrigley Field and the old Polo Grounds. As Sox fans found out how beautiful Oriole Park was, they began to find many flaws in Comiskey and asked questions as to why the Sox did not build a replica of the old park. To this day, Reinsdorf says that they built the stadium how fans wanted it. Reinsdorf says that the fans wanted a park depicting more of the Toronto Skydome than a replica of the old parks. Reinsdorf has silently regretted not building a replica of the old park after dismal attendance records year after year.

     Fans have complained that the upper deck is too high, the park is facing the wrong way—it should be directed at the Chicago skyline, the park is in a bad neighborhood and it is too hard to get there from the suburbs.

     Although many Sox fans have found problems with Comiskey, management believes that Comiskey is in a perfect situation. “It is fan-friendly and charming— right by the expressway. It is very modern with wide seats and wide concourse areas,” said Rob Gallas , director of Marketing and Broadcasting for the White Sox.

     Some Sox fans don’t have a problem at all with the park and agree with Gallas. “Comiskey Park is a wonderful baseball stadium. It is easy to access from the expressway, has plenty of parking, new amenities and does not have a bad view from any seat, said Torre Palandri a resident of western suburbs.

     Other longtime Sox fans have found only minor problems with the park and continue to go without too much complaint. “It’s a beautiful structure on the outside, but it needs some baseball character and beauty on the inside. Every seat is a good seat,” said John Gelsomino.

     Gelsomino also believes that the new Comiskey does have some advantages over the old park. “It’s a much more fan-friendlier park than the previous one.”

     Comiskey is scheduled to host the 2003 All-Star game and there have been rumors of a possible facelift and name change to help spice up the park a bit, but there is no telling if the new structure will put happy faces on Sox fans.