* WTTW…

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said he “couldn’t miss the opportunity to see what this diamond looked like,” when the White Sox and developer Related Midwest invited lawmakers Monday night to visit a temporary baseball field on the site of what they hope will be the new Sox stadium.

All-star athletes including Bo Jackson, Ron Kittle, Harold Baines and Ozzie Guillen were there, too, Welch said — not playing, but to take part in a panel presentation about what a new stadium could mean for the team and the city.

But even though Welch called it a “beautiful baseball field with a great view,” he told a full room at City Club on Tuesday that it wasn’t enough to change his mind that Illinois won’t provide big bucks to make it happen.

“The reality is, we still represent the taxpayers of the state of Illinois,” Welch said. “How do you pay for it?”

Related Midwest is developing a formerly vacant lot it calls The 78 in the South Loop — between Roosevelt, Clark and the Chicago River — and the Sox want to move there. The team also wants the state’s help with building a stadium with a skyline view.

* Tribune…

The White Sox proposal for taxpayer money is a tall order for a team that has lost 100 games for the second straight season, and comes at a time when the Chicago Bears have also appealed for help from lawmakers to pay for a new football stadium that would cost more than $3 billion before infrastructure costs.

In addition, some lawmakers have said any conversation on public funding for pro sports stadiums has to include financing for women’s teams, such as the Red Stars, which rents space in suburban Bridgeview’s publicly funded SeatGeek Stadium. And lawmakers said several budgetary issues heading into 2025, including public pension reform and school and mass transit funding, need to be addressed first.

“What I’m hearing out there when I talk to people is they’re worried about their grocery bill. They’re worried about paying their mortgage. They’re talking about the things that impact folks at their kitchen tables. They’re not talking about stadiums,” Welch, a Hillside Democrat, said during a City Club of Chicago event Tuesday at a downtown restaurant. “It was a beautiful baseball field with a great view. But again, that doesn’t change the conversation about who pays for it.”

Welch, who played baseball at Northwestern University, acknowledged a new Sox stadium on The 78 site would be great for economic development in the city, but said developers should spend more time considering what private investment options would look like for the venue.

…Adding… Gov. Pritzker said today that there has been “no movement” on any sort of state funding whatsoever.

* On to legislation to address mass transit subsidies and governance…

Welch: We have a working group on that, and they’re really just beginning their work. And I honestly think we have to let the process play out. We have to talk to all of the the advocates, and, you know, listen to to the folks that are going to be impacted by this. This is, this is a big deal, and we have some great leaders that are going to be running our working group around that space in Eva-Dina Delgado and Kam Buckner. They are experts in this issue. I really trust them around this issue, and I do believe we’re going to get it right, because we’re going to listen to everyone.

Q: So probably not in veto, but maybe in the spring.

Welch: Oh gosh, definitely not in veto.

Q: Okay.

Welch: This is, this is probably an end of May issue.

Somebody reported today that Welch is the one who said “probably not in veto,” but that was said by the questioner. No way is that happening in November.

* Also…

Q: What makes it different being a Black speaker than not a Black speaker? [tittering from crowd]

Welch: I mean, I think race in America matters. I think..

Q: I’m asking just, you know, how you, how people approach you. Do you feel it’s different than if it was somebody else in that position, like, do you notice the racial dynamics as a Black speaker?

Welch: I think there’s racism in America. Racism still exists in this country. And you know, I tell you that there are times when, you know, I think that race has come come into play, but that’s been the story of my life as a Black man in America.