Baseball is often referred to as “America’s pastime,” but in the present day, few major cities possess a stronger adoration for the game than Chicago. Here, professional baseball has a deep, rich history with two teams — the Cubs and the White Sox — who share over 250 years of Major League experience. Both franchises have built strong die-hard fan bases in Chicagoland and serve as foundational members of the National and American Leagues, respectively. 

Even so, the product on the field leaves much to be desired.

With the two ball clubs consistently putting together so-so teams on the diamond, it begs a question: Why is Chicago still home to two professional baseball teams?

Between the two, the White Sox currently have more egg on their face, largely due to a disastrous 2024 campaign that resulted in a 41-121 record. This was the most losses by an MLB squad since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134). The Sox have won three championships, including in 2005, which marks their sole title since the Great Depression. Even worse, the franchise is perhaps best known for its scandalous 1919 season in which the team, since dubbed the Black Sox, gained notoriety for intentionally throwing the World Series.

The Cubs have not fared much better, as their 2016 title run put to bed a 108-year ringless stretch. It was the longest such drought in all American professional sports. From the “Curse of the Billy Goat” to the Steve Bartman foul-ball incident in the 2003 playoffs, the story of the Cubs has been one of inconceivable pain, torture and near misses — and lately, the team seems to have reverted back to its pre-championship ways.

The glory days — if they ever existed in the first place — seem to be in the rearview for both faltering franchises, but scaling back to just one team in the city might help usher in a new era of Chicago baseball. 

Two teams sharing one city is not unheard of in baseball: New York is home to the Yankees and Mets, while Los Angeles has the Dodgers and Angels. 

Every team listed above, outside of the Angels, is doing essentially everything in their power money-wise to win the pennant, while the Chicago teams have had a much different approach in recent seasons. When looking at the percentage of revenue that teams are putting back into paying their players for 2025, the Cubs and Sox rank 26th and 29th respectively out of 30 teams. 

It might take die-hard fans quite some time to come around to this idea, but if one team left Chicago, the city could look to fully embrace the remaining squad as they do in other sports. Whichever team stayed in Chicago would have essentially full market control of the nation’s third-largest metropolitan population. That would allow the team to collect revenue via tickets and merchandise from the entire city, not just a fraction of it. With the increased cash flow, the MLB’s salary capless structure would allow this team to spend more on potential star contracts, raising the overall talent level in the dugout. This would hypothetically only lead to more success and, more importantly for the owners, more revenue.

If a team were to leave the city, the Sox would have to be the betting favorite. The Cubs are an institution of a franchise that I have admittedly rooted for my entire life, but it would be impossible to imagine the lovable losers in a different city. 

Conversely, the Sox have faced frequent rumors of relocation, fueled partly by minority owner Justin Ishbia purchasing a larger share of the team’s ownership. Alongside his brother, Mat, the Ishbias own stake in several sports teams across the nation, including the Phoenix Suns and Mercury of the NBA and WNBA, as well as Nashville SC of MLS. Nashville remains the most likely location for the Sox, or any other MLB team on the move. Still, the Ishbias’ familiarity with the emerging market is a dot that feels impossible not to connect.

Many die-hard Sox fans would, no doubt, despise the idea, but some believe that the city would move on fairly quickly. 

“I don’t think it would really matter,” Josef Fehn, a first-year marketing student at DePaul and Cleveland Guardians fan, said. “Far more people care about the Cubs, and their games are definitely more exciting to go to.”

Henry Navarre, a Chicago native and first-year DePaul education major, sees it much differently.

“Growing up a Sox fan, I always hated the Cubs, and that’s still in me,” Navarre said. “If the team can turn it around just a little, a lot of people will start caring and going to games. It’s a bigger fanbase than you think … and I doubt they could find as many passionate fans in Nashville.”

Still, Fehn sees the value of a city being able to fully back just one squad, similar to his hometown Guardians.

“It creates an atmosphere where everyone’s together,” Fehn said. “It’s more fun.”

In all reality, the Sox are more than likely here to stay, but the sports world is ever-evolving, and empowered owners won’t let tradition and sentimentality prevent them from making savvy business moves. Losing the Sox could shake up the city’s sports scene in an irreversible way. 

One of the best parts about sports, especially in a massive, diverse city like Chicago, is that these teams serve as a shared thread between people and communities that otherwise sometimes have very little in common. When it comes to football, basketball and hockey, this city has no problem in backing one team, no matter how bad they are at times, and baseball should be no different. Chicago is already one of the best sports cities in the world, and focusing its attention on one baseball team would only make the city — and the team — stronger. 

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