Could rail yard sale in South Loop lead to new White Sox stadium?

Posted March 18, 2026 4:04 pm

By Jon Greenberg

In November, White Sox owner-in-waiting Justin Ishbia invited famous White Sox fan Pope Leo XIV to throw out a first pitch if and when a new ballpark is built in Chicago.

On Wednesday, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that Ishbia’s private equity firm, Shore Capital Partners, was in the process of buying a 47-acre Amtrak rail yard in the South Loop, located across the south branch of the Chicago River from “The 78,” the development that will house a new Chicago Fire stadium and one the Sox have also been eyeing for years.

Could the rail yard land be the ideal water-side location for a new stadium to replace Rate Field? All that’s known so far is Shore is talking to a local hospital about expanding there.

“Shore Capital Partners is under contract to acquire the Amtrak rail yard and has begun early planning for a mixed-use development on the site,” said a spokesperson for Ishbia. “As part of the vision for the district, Shore is exploring with Northwestern Medicine a potential health care facility and medical innovation hub.”

The MLS Fire just broke ground on a $750 million stadium project in “The 78” but the Sox haven’t given up hope of putting their stadium in the 62-acre development as well.

“Our White Sox focus has been and continues to be solely on the potential of a new ballpark at The 78,” a White Sox spokesperson emailed.

Fire owner Joe Mansueto is building the team’s new 22,000-seat stadium with his own money, while White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who turned 90 in February, was asking for public funds to finance his team’s project, as he did for the Sox’s current ballpark on the South Side.

In 2024, as the Sox were losing an MLB-record 121 games, the team created a makeshift field on The 78 as part of a pitch to would-be investors, but the plan for public money died quickly in Springfield and Mansueto swooped in to close a deal. The Sox had flirted with moving to Nashville to create some leverage for a new stadium, but Ishbia said that won’t happen on his watch, whenever it begins.

“I love Chicago,” Ishbia said. “Put it this way: If I wanted to have a team that was not in my hometown, I probably should have (bought) the Twins, right? If I wanted to commute, I could’ve just commuted to Minnesota.”

Still, Ishbia has been clear he has no involvement with Sox’s decisions right now. According to the deal he signed last June — four months after The Athletic broke the news he was negotiating a deal to buy the team — he won’t have the right to buy the team outright until 2029 at the earliest and 2034 at the latest. The Sox have four more years left on their stadium lease with the state. According to the team, Ishbia is currently putting money into the organization to pay off debts and help with costs.

“Jerry’s the chairman, Jerry has 100% control of what happens with the White Sox,” Ishbia said to The Athletic in June. “And so, anything about the stadium, you should ask Jerry. But I’ll say this: I’m 48, right? And the White Sox lease is up in four years (after the 2029 season). I can’t tell you exactly when, but in my lifetime, we’re definitely building a new stadium. Whether it’s four years from now or 34 years from now, I can’t tell you when exactly this moment, but we will build a new stadium while I am the steward of the franchise.”

If he won’t leave the Chicago area, would he commute to Northwest Indiana? Perhaps if the Bears don’t move to Hammond, Ind., that plot of land along Wolf Lake could interest the team. After all, Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, who shepherded a stadium authority bill through the statehouse in February, is a White Sox fan, he confirmed to The Athletic on the House floor in February.