Chisox’ Ticket Plan Burns Cubs Fans

Earlier this year, Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago White Sox, prevailed upon a radio station to remove a billboard sign from the Wrigley Field area on the north side of the city. “Major league baseball 8.1 miles south,” the sign had read, alluding to his Comiskey Park.

Reinsdorf, acting in the interest of peaceful coexistence, didn’t want to inflame relations with the crosstown rival Cubs. But then he turned around and adopted a plan to keep Cubs fans out of Comiskey Park.

In this first season of interleague play, anyone who wants to go to a White Sox-Cubs game at Comiskey in June also has to buy tickets for three other White Sox games in a package.

“The whole idea of this is to keep the Cubs fans out,” said Rob Gallas, senior vice president for marketing and broadcasting. “It’s no big deal for White Sox fans to buy tickets for four games. Last year we wound up with a lot of Cleveland fans in the park for both series. You could hear them, and we lost a little of the home-field advantage. We didn’t want that happening with the Cubs. This is for real.” We want the home-field advantage.”