In the 1950’s, every team in a multi-team city that wasn’t the favorite moved to a new city for undivided fan loyalty - the Boston Braves, the Philadelphia A’s, the St. Louis Browns, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.
It’s pretty clear that the Cubs have a much, much bigger following in Chicago than the White Sox. How is it that no city (Minneapolis? Houston? Atlanta? Dallas?) managed to draw them to a new market for MLB?
Someone who is a real expert would have to validate this, but my WAG is simply city size: Chicago has always been (in MLB’s modern era) one of the top four cities in the nation in population. There was enough of a fan base to provide two profitable franchises, one in each league. Boston and St. Louis were both significantly smaller; Philadelphia is skewed by having Connie Mack own and operate the Athletics for so long; the story behind the Giants and Dodgers has been retold so many times I need not repeat it.
I think size would explain a lot. Note that when the Dodgers disappeared over the Hudson River, it was not really that long before the Mets opened another National League franchise in New York.
And, as L.A. grew, it was also not long before they added an American League franchise.
The White Sox almost moved to St. Peterburg, FL back in the early 1990s when Jerry Reinsdorf was able to parlay that threat to move into getting the Illinois State Legislature to fund a new stadium for him.
Also in the 1970s, the White Sox were rumored to be moving to Seattle (I believe) when Bill Veeck got back into the picture and purchased the team.
From 1919 until the middle of the Reinsdorf Era, the White Sox were always in precarious financial shape. But inertia and antitrust exemptions helped to keep them in Chicago.
Note that this explanation is quite simplistic.
[cheating] The White Sox found new life when they hired Paul Richards in 1951 to manage the club. They had 17 straight winning seasons. That’s hard to beat. Winning the pennant in 1959 only added to their success. They set an all-time attendance record that year for them. Up 78% over the previous year. Attendance was what all the moves in the 1950’s was about.
The words are mine, but the info came from my reading of my Total Baseball.
Prior to Reinsdorf buying the Sox, the team was almost sold to Ed DiBartalo. While he made all of the statements that he was going to keep the club in Chicago, it was pretty much accepted that his real mission was to move the team. The city that was mentioned was New Orleans. Reinsdorf, the eventual owner, did exactly what BobT said.
It was kind of funny because at first the Chicago sportswriters took the attitude of just letting the Sox go. Then they figured out that a bunch of them would lose their jobs and they got on the bandwagon to get a new stadium.
The White Sox came close to moving to Milwaukee between the Braves leaving for Atlanta and Bud Selig buying up the bankrupt Pilots.
The White Sox played a few games in Milwaukee County Stadium in 1968 with great success and Selig attempted to buy the Sox from Arthur Allyn in 1969 with the intention of bringing them north. The American League blocked the deal, not wanting to give up the Chicago market. In the end Arthur sold his share of the team to his brother John who agreed not to seek relocation.
I think it’s a very valid question, and I think a large part of the answer must be attributed to sheer luck. Part of the luck, per samclem, is that the White Sox happened to be successful during the first wave of franchise relocations during the 1950’s, which lessened the urgency of a move.
Afterward, the White Sox came very close to moving on four occasions, all of which have been noted: to Milwaukee in 1969, to Seattle in 1975, to Denver or New Orleans in 1980, and to St. Petersburg in 1988. On each occasion, per Polycarp, the size of the city came into play. An owner would look twice before abandoning the second largest market in the country, and while they were looking twice, something happened to abort the move–new ownership in the first three cases, a new stadium in the fourth.
Continuing their run of luck, the White Sox moved into new Comiskey Park for the bargain-basement price of $120 million, one year before Camden Yards went up and tripled the price of what fans and owners came to expect as a minimally adeqaute stadium. It took all of Jim Thompson’s arm twisting to force a $120 million subsidy through the Illinois Legislature; if the Sox had waited another two years and asked for $400 million, there is no-how, no way they would have succeeded. The Bears eventually got more than that, but they’re Chicago icons.
Note that the NFL equivalent of the White Sox, the Chicago Cardinals, bolted town in 1959.