Negotiators in Springfield who manufactured the apparent agreement between Gov. James Thompson and Mayor Harold Washington for the proposed $180 million stadium south of the Loop forgot a key element.
They forgot to tell the General Assembly, which was asked to ratify the accord at the same time the legislators were trying to finally flee the Capitol.
While aides to Washington and Thompson scurried between meetings Tuesday trying to draft compatible language for the stadium, legislators were told as late as 4:30 p.m. that ”there was no deal,” though talk of a stadium financing plan had been whispered for days throughout the Statehouse.
When it became apparent later that there was a tentative deal, there was no guarantee of legislative support.
Thompson told reporters that the mayor agreed to a proposal to create a stadium authority, much like the McCormick Place Board, in a telephone call only minutes after the governor concluded a late afternoon meeting with the four top legislative leaders.
”Whether it`s in time or not, I don`t know,” said Thompson. ”There is no bill, and the four legislative leaders have not signed off on it. I don`t know what`s going to happen to it.”
However, accounts of what went on in the two days of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the governor, the mayor and their various representatives differed substantially.
Both sides agreed that representatives of the mayor and the governor met in a Springfield hotel much of Monday and into early Tuesday and that, for a while, the governor also sat in the negotiations. Also present was Jerry Reinsdorf, White Sox chairman.
Both sides also agreed that Thompson and Washington talked directly by phone at some point.
The deal involved a city request for a $42 million state grant for infrastructure projects, such as street improvements, sewers and water lines, and new rapid transit stations in and around the proposed stadium site at Roosevelt Road and the Chicago River.
Also involved in the deal was the question of how the two branches of government would subsidize the stadium operation in the event, as expected, that the stadium operates at an annual loss.
Finally, the negotiators had to decide who would issue the revenue bonds that would finance construction of the stadium.
Thompson said that the mayor`s people, including Ernest Barefield, his chief of staff, insisted all day Monday and most of Tuesday that the mayor be given control of any public board created to run the stadium. Washington`s aides wanted him to have the authority to appoint the majority of the board members, Thompson said.
Thompson said he insisted on a board split evenly between mayoral appointees and governor`s appointees. Both sides agreed that one member should also come from the White Sox organization.
Thompson said the dispute over board control held up agreement between his office and the mayor`s office until late Tuesday afternoon.
He said it was not until 4:45 p.m. Tuesday that Washington agreed in a phone call to a board in which the two would share equal control of the stadium board.
But Albert Johnson, owner of Al Johnson Cadillac in Tinley Park and one of the mayor`s principal negotiators, said Thompson`s version was incorrect.
Johnson said that Washington and Thompson agreed in a phone call Monday that they would have equal control of the stadium board. Johnson suggested that Thompson had forgotten that phone conversation.
”He`s a very busy guy. He might have forgotten,” said Johnson.
Johnson said he was surprised to hear from the media Tuesday afternoon that Thompson and the mayor supposedly had reached an impasse over the board membership.
”All of this has been rumors and misinformation,” said Johnson.
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The negotiations that occurred Tuesday concerned financing of the stadium, not control of the board, Johnson said. The agreement was delayed until late Tuesday afternoon because Thompson`s people were busy and could not meet face to face until the afternoon, Johnson said.
Thompson said Washington and his staff had rejected his proposal for an evenly split board at 3 a.m. Tuesday. Thompson said his proposal at that time also included giving the city the $42 million grant and a state agreement to share the operating subsidies 50-50 for 30 years. Thompson said he also proposed to have the state issue the bonds for construction.
Thompson characterized his own proposal as ”extremely generous.” He added, ”My staff thinks I`ve lost my mind.
”I gave them everything they asked for and more. I think Reinsdorf almost fell of his chair when I made that extraordinarily generous offer. He appeared to be happy.”
The move toward an agreement marked the latest chapter in attempts to keep the Sox from leaving Chicago for a site in west suburban Addison or out of state.
”It just doesn`t look good for the City of Chicago or the state of Illinois to lose a major league team,” said David Fields, the governor`s press secretary. ”It`s a pride issue for the city and the state, but it`s a jobs issue too. The governor has been open to talking about it and dealing with the issue since it first came to light.”
In Chicago, Washington told reporters that the financial arrangements for the stadium made ”the bottom line almost riskless.”
”The governor has been cooperative over the last few days, the tenant
(the White Sox) certainly has been and the developers are salivating,” the mayor said. ”I haven`t noticed any foot-dragging on the part of the participants.”
But Washington`s aides were saying privately before the agreement was reached that there was no rush to complete the deal this week in the General Assembly.
”It`s Reinsdorf who`s really pushing it hard,” said one aide.
The political deal dovetails with a financial agreement reached weeks ago between the White Sox and the mayor`s chosen stadium codevelopers, Daniel Shannon and Robert Wislow.
The Sox agreed to pay the stadium authority a minimum rental of $1.7 million a year when seasonal attendance falls short of 1.5 million.
As attendance grows beyond 1.5 million, the new stadium authority would take 45 percent of parking revenues, 8 percent of ticket revenues and 15 percent of food and drink concessions.
In addition, the stadium authority will keep all revenues from the long-term lease of skyboxes and luxury loge seats, which developers hope will produce more than $10 million a year.
The Sox rental terms are very different from what the team originally proposed.
In their opening pitch in January to developers, Reinsdorf and Sox President Eddie Einhorn said the team should pay no rent, leaving the developers only skybox and loge revenues to apply toward debt service on construction bonds.