A Monday deadline was set by Gov. James Thompson`s office to complete negotiations on a new Chicago White Sox stadium lease in what could become a marathon bargaining session involving team owners and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.
The Monday deadline, set by Deputy Gov. James Reilly after a three-hour session Friday, was seen by some Sox sources as a way to disrupt their bargaining position with St. Petersburg, Fla., the city that has tried to lure the Sox with an attractive offer to its Suncoast Dome.
And while the negotiations took place on Friday, South Side residents opposed to the construction of a Comiskey Park replacement heard their leaders threaten a civil rights lawsuit against the stadium authority on the grounds that black voter rights would be disproportionately harmed if a stadium were built in the South Armour Square neighborhood.
Another group opposed to a new stadium, Save Our Sox, issued copies of a letter they sent to baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, appealing to him to keep the Sox from moving to Florida.
The threats of lawsuits and promises of dramatic confrontations should South Armour Square residents be moved from their homes were made by activists supportive of Ald. Timothy Evans (4th), a likely mayoral candidate. The activists, some from the Heart of Uptown Coalition, attempted to frame the stadium debate into an issue of affordable low-income housing in the city, a debate that was anticipated by the stadium authority months ago.
Other neighborhood activists promised to confront Ald. Patrick Huels
(11th) and other representatives of the 11th Ward`s Democratic organization controlled by Cook County State`s Atty. Richard Daley, who has maintained a low-profile on the issue.
After the Friday negotiating session between the team and the authority, Reilly told reporters that both sides exchanged more documents and were in the final stages of completing their negotiating positions. He said that each side would meet separately on Saturday to prepare for the Monday showdown.
”We went through a lot of detail today,” Reilly said of negotiations for a long-term lease on a proposed $120 million Sox stadium complex. ”On Monday, we`ll either get it done or we won`t get it done.”
Reilly characterized Friday`s session as ”a step sideways” and said that because millions of dollars were at stake, both sides were expected to move cautiously. He sidestepped questions on whether the negotiated settlement would require approval by the Illinois legislature and gave no political reasons for imposing the Monday deadline.
”My experience with human nature is that people operate well on a deadline,” Reilly said. ”I picked Monday because it seemed like a good day and it is our intention to get this done. It could`ve been Tuesday or Wednesday, but it is time to come to a decision on this.”
Reilly said that he had not heard of any plans to file a suit against the stadium authority, but the authority`s chairman, Thomas Reynolds Jr., bristled at the suggestion of threats.
During an emotional meeting of the authority board earlier Friday, Reynolds and other board members were subjected to shouts, threats and the timely blowing of a dozen whistles by spectators who do not want to lose their homes.
The authority heard the testimony of more than a half-dozen South Armour Square homeowners, each of whom described the authority as intent upon destroying the quality of their lives to appease Sox owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn.
”I`ve lived in the neighborhood since 1951; I raised 10 kids in that spot,” said resident Gus Zimmerman, 80, who chastized the board for considering condemnation of the neighborhood. ”You can`t take my home. If the White Sox don`t like it, God`ll take care of you and take care of them.”
Suzie Myers, 66, another longtime resident, said she would offer to sell her home only if Reynolds and Peter Bynoe, executive director of the authority, would guarantee a new home loan.
”And then you could guarantee that I could pay the loan on my Social Security, and then you`d have to take us all with you,” Myers said.
James Chapman, an attorney and ally of political activist Walter ”Slim” Coleman, also spoke and threatened to file a lawsuit against the authority for building a stadium in the predominately black area.
Chapman and Mary Milano, the attorney for the homeowners, said that they would review other cases in preparation for filing a lawsuit next week. The lawyers said they would argue that the authority discriminated against blacks by deciding to build a stadium in South Armour Square, and that those residents would become disenfranchised politically.
