The post Why the Justin Ishbia news is even better than you think for the White Sox appeared first on Sox On 35th.
On Thursday afternoon, the Chicago White Sox announced a long-term investment agreement with billionaire Justin Ishbia, which is expected to result in his ownership of the team sometime between 2029 and 2034. While Ishbia’s potential ownership has been the subject of speculation for several months, the announcement confirmed that Jerry Reinsdorf is comfortable with one day selling the White Sox to Ishbia. But with the uncertain timeline, ongoing discussions around the future stadium, and Ishbia’s track record in other sports, what does this all mean for White Sox fans?
First, let’s start with the obvious aspects of the announcement. While it is understandable that people might get excited when seeing a notification or headline that Jerry Reinsdorf is selling the White Sox, the timeline for Ishbia’s potential ownership is between 2029-2033 (Reinsdorf’s option) or 2034 (Ishbia’s option). While nothing is guaranteed and there is plenty of legal language in the announcement to reflect that, it would be a massive surprise if Ishbia were not the owner of the White Sox in 2035, and potentially earlier.
That being said, the timeline is consistent with what has been rumored for months. Reinsdorf has never indicated that he wants to sell the team in the short term, and a common assumption is that Ishbia’s capital infusions over the next two years will not just pay off debt, but also help (whether directly or indirectly) finance a new stadium. 2029 is not a coincidental first year for the potential change in ownership — the current White Sox lease at Rate Field expires after the 2029 season.
Ishbia, who is building what will be the most expensive home in Illinois history in the suburb of Winnetka, is a safe bet to keep the White Sox in Chicago. His company is based in Chicago, and he lives near the city. While the Chicago Fire made headlines this week for announcing a new soccer stadium at The 78 in the South Loop — a location that the White Sox have publicly hoped to house the team’s next ballpark — there is enough room at The 78 for both stadiums. The White Sox released a statement confirming this.
Whether or not the team’s next ballpark is in the South Loop, the point remains that Ishbia’s strong ties to the city make him an ideal candidate for an owner from the standpoint of White Sox fans who want the team to stay in Chicago. Of course, it is worth noting that Jerry Reinsdorf has admitted in the past that his threats to move the team to Florida were simply a negotiating tactic, and it is very possible that his threats to move the team to Nashville over the last year are just a repeat of that same tactic. Moreover, the Chicago metro area is home to 9.4 million people — nearly five times as many as the Nashville metro area — so even if the White Sox are the second most popular team in the market, the market size is so large that the Cubs would need to have a ~75% or greater grip on Chicago. While the Cubs are indeed the more popular team, a 75/25 split is a stretch.
With Justin Ishbia poised to take over as owner at some point in the next decade, the natural questions become: how will he fare as an owner of a baseball team, and how will he differ from Reinsdorf? By nature, we cannot really answer until Ishbia is the owner, but for now, there are two areas worth considering.
The first is money. Justin Ishbia is worth roughly $5.5 billion, and his brother Mat (who at various points has been rumored to be in as a part majority owner along with Justin) is worth roughly $10.1 billion. Mat Ishbia owns the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury, with Justin serving as part majority owner, so the idea is that the reverse may become true with the White Sox.
While net worth is a flawed way to evaluate the wealth of MLB owners, there are not many better publicly available methods. And if you choose to use the combined wealth of the Ishbia brothers, only New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is richer. If you use Justin alone, then he would still be in the top five-to-10 range among MLB owners.
Of course, simply having money does not guarantee that it will be spent. But it is worth considering the second area mentioned before: the Ishbias’ patterns with the Suns. While the Suns have not had an extremely successful run since Mat Ishbia’s purchase was approved by the NBA in early 2023, they have made bold moves to try to win. They immediately traded for future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, and then acquired all-star Bradley Beal a few months later. The moves have backfired, in large part due to Beal being a poor roster fit and a lack of complementary pieces around those star players, including Devin Booker.
But from a White Sox standpoint, these may be reasons for optimism. For example, making these moves forced the Suns to pay the NBA’s luxury tax — something Jerry Reinsdorf’s Bulls have only done during the Derrick Rose era. The Suns now have to pay $152.3 million, not as their payroll, but solely as their luxury tax bill. Combined with their payroll, the Suns are paying $362 million toward their roster. Clearly, the Ishbias are willing to invest in their teams.
The NBA and MLB are fundamentally different leagues with unique financial structures and paths toward winning. Instead of looking at the Suns’ recent struggles despite heavy investment, White Sox fans should see the investment itself as the real story.
While the Suns have not been successful, spending money in the NBA is wildly different from spending in MLB. Basketball has the luxury tax, the second apron, and all sorts of measures in the CBA designed to promote parity. In baseball, teams such as the Dodgers and Mets can (and do) spend hundreds of millions of dollars on their rosters with far fewer penalties. Yes, there is a luxury tax, but there is also more flexibility from a team-building standpoint. The Dodgers and Mets paid about $100 million each in luxury tax bills for last season, and they still invested heavily in their rosters for 2025.
And unlike basketball, spending money in baseball is much less restrictive. The NBA has a salary cap, meaning that even teams that pay a luxury tax still have limitations on what they can do. It is not a free-for-all like in baseball, where the luxury tax is less punitive. Since there is no true salary cap in baseball, someone like Justin Ishbia could come in and spend far more than what has been invested in the Suns. Steve Cohen’s spending sprees since taking over the Mets are an example of this (maybe exorbitant, but still relevant). Since Cohen took over, the Mets have made the playoffs in two of four seasons (including a 100+ win season) and are poised to be a perennial playoff team with Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, and Kodai Senga signed long-term.
The NBA and MLB are fundamentally different leagues with unique financial structures and paths toward winning. Instead of looking at the Suns’ recent struggles despite heavy investment, White Sox fans should see the investment itself as the real story. While there is no guarantee that Justin Ishbia will spend as wildly as the Suns have, there is at least enough of a reason to assume he will spend more than Jerry Reinsdorf has. And in baseball, spending money is like a cheat code for winning games, especially recently.
So while White Sox fans may be disappointed by the need to wait for potentially up to a decade for the Justin Ishbia era to officially begin, there are plenty of reasons — several billion, in fact — to be excited for his eventual ownership.
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Featured Photo: © Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
The post Why the Justin Ishbia news is even better than you think for the White Sox appeared first on Sox On 35th.