The White Sox enter today's game against the Indians with MLB's second-worst record, and the team has "bottomed out on the field and at the gate," according to Jon Greenberg of ESPN CHICAGO. The White Sox "have to get people interested in the team again, interested enough to actually buy tickets in advance. To watch games. To care." The "belief that this team can't rebuild for fear of losing the fan base has been disproven, as the team they have now has already lost the fan base." Even after "dramatically lowering season ticket prices the past two seasons, attendance is terrible," as the team's 23,121 fans per game ranks 24th in the league. Through 50 games last year, the "competitive Sox were averaging 23,980." MLB attendance is "dependent on offseason sales and season-ticket plans." White Sox fans "jumped ship in the last few years" of the tenure of former manager Ozzie Guillen, and "season-ticket, and mini-plan, sales suffered." OF prospect Avisail Garcia, who came to the White Sox as part of trade that sent P Jake Peavy to the Red Sox, is the "kind of player they need to keep adding to get back fans and transform the team" (ESPNCHICAGO.com, 7/31).
IT'S A START: In Chicago, Daryl Van Schouwen writes the "best way to fix a franchise in need of a facelift from the ground up is to manage resources wisely." White Sox GM Rick Hahn "already has struck gold" by inking P Chris Sale to a $32.5M contract during Spring Training, and trading Peavy prior to yesterday's trade deadline to relieve the team of the approximately $20M left on his contract. Hahn is a "trustworthy steward of chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s riches." This is "not to say Hahn is a penny-pinching accountant whose top priority is the bottom line" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 8/1).
