White Sox stadium name changes from Guaranteed Rate Field to Rate Field
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago White Sox announced Tuesday that they are changing the name of their stadium from Guaranteed Rate Field to Rate Field.
The team made the announcement on X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday evening.
This move was anticipated back in the summer, and comes months after the mortgage company Guaranteed Rate changed its name simply to Rate.
The ballpark at 333 W. 35th St. has been known as Guaranteed Rate Field since Nov. 1, 2016, when the mortgage company purchased naming rights for a 13-year term that runs through 2029 and could be extended on a team option through 2030.
From January 2003 until November 2016, the ballpark was called U.S. Cellular Field—and sometimes nicknamed the Cell—under a naming rights deal that published reports note was supposed to run through 2028. Archive news reports note that U.S. Cellular left the Chicago market three years before the company's name was taken off the ballpark.
From its opening in 1991 until 2003, the ballpark was called Comiskey Park, or New Comiskey Park, like its predecessor that stood across 35th Street from 1910 through 1990.
Meanwhile, the White Sox are hoping to move from Rate Field to a proposed new stadium in "The 78" development on the South Loop.
"The 78" is a long-undeveloped 62-acre parcel of land near Roosevelt Road and Clark Street. The land has been dubbed "The 78" for its potential to become the city's 78th official community area.
If such a thing were to happen, developers have suggested plans to turn the current Rate Field into a possible soccer stadium.
Rate Field was financed by the State of Illinois, after owner Jerry Reinsdorf had threatened to move the team to the Tampa Bay Area in Florida if the state did not subsidize a new stadium to replace old Comiskey Park. The state-run Illinois Sports Facilities Authority owns Rate Field.
As for the use of public funds to build a new White Sox stadium in The 78, Gov. JB Pritzker said this past winter that such a project was "not a priority."
