Guaranteed Rate Field
| Sox Park; The Cell; The Arrow; New Comiskey; | |
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The ballpark in 2016
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| Former names | Comiskey Park (II) (1991–2003) U.S. Cellular Field (2003–2016) |
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| Address | 333 West 35th Street |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 41°49′48″N 87°38′2″W / 41.83000°N 87.63389°WCoordinates: 41°49′48″N 87°38′2″W / 41.83000°N 87.63389°W |
| Public transit | at Sox-35th at Bronzeville-IIT at 35th Street-Lou Jones |
| Parking | 8 main parking lots |
| Owner | Illinois Sports Facilities Authority |
| Operator | Illinois Sports Facilities Authority |
| Capacity | 40,615 (2004–present) 47,098 (2002–03) 47,522 (2001) 44,321 (1991–2000) |
| Record attendance | 47,754 (September 24, 2016; Chance The Rapper concert White Sox game: 46,246 (October 5, 1993; ALCS Game 1) Post-renovations: 41,432 (October 23, 2005; World Series Game 2) |
| Field size | (2001–present) Left field – 330 feet (101 m) Left-center – 375 feet (114 m) (not posted) Center field – 400 feet (122 m) Right-center – 375 feet (114 m) (not posted) Right field – 335 feet (102 m) Backstop – 60 feet (18 m) Outfield wall height – 8 feet (2 m) |
| Surface | Bluegrass |
| Scoreboard | Center field full-color, high-resolution video board 28 feet (8.5 m) × 53 feet (16 m) (2003–2015) Right field LED display out-of-town scoreboard 23 feet (7.0 m) × 68 feet (21 m) (2009–2015) Left field matrix board (2003–2015) Fan Deck ticker board (2003–present) 2 small scoreboards along the facade down the right field and left field lines below the 500 level |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | May 7, 1989 |
| Built | 1989–1990 |
| Opened | April 18, 1991 |
| Renovated | 2001–2007, 2015–2016 |
| Construction cost | US$167 million ($294 million in 2017 dollars) $118 million (2001–2007 renovations) ($136 million in 2017 dollars) |
| Architect |
Populous (then HOK Sport) HKS, Inc. (2001–2007 renovations) |
| Project manager | International Facilities Group, LLC |
| Structural engineer | Thornton Tomasetti |
| Services engineer | Flack + Kurtz |
| General contractor | Gust K. Newberg Construction Company |
| Tenants | |
| Chicago White Sox (MLB) (1991–present) | |
Guaranteed Rate Field, more commonly known as the South Side Stadium, is a baseball park located in Chicago, Illinois. It serves as the home ballpark for the Chicago White Sox, a Major League Baseball club competing in the American League (AL) Central division. The park is owned by the taxpayers of the State of Illinois, but operated by the White Sox. The park opened for the 1991 season, after the White Sox had spent 81 years at the original Comiskey Park. It also opened with the name Comiskey Park but was renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2003 after U.S. Cellular bought the naming rights at $68 million over 20 years. The ballpark received its current name on October 31, 2016, after Guaranteed Rate, a private residential mortgage company located in Chicago, purchased the naming rights to the ballpark in a 13-year deal.
The stadium is situated just to the west of the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago's Armour Square neighborhood, adjacent to the more famous neighborhood of Bridgeport. It was built directly across 35th Street from old Comiskey Park, which was demolished to make room for a parking lot that serves the venue. Old Comiskey's home plate location is represented by a marble plaque on the sidewalk next to Guaranteed Rate Field and the foul lines are painted in the parking lot. Also, the spectator ramp across 35th Street is designed in such a way (partly curved, partly straight but angling east-northeast) that it echoes the contour of the old first-base grandstand.
The park was completed at a cost of US$167 million. The current public address announcer is Gene Honda, who also serves as the PA announcer for the Chicago Blackhawks, NCAA Final Four, and University of Illinois Football.
The stadium was the first new major sporting facility built in Chicago since Chicago Stadium in 1929. It was also the last one built before the wave of new "retro-classic" ballparks in the 1990s and 2000s. However, a few design features from the old park were retained. The front facade of the park features arched windows. Most notable is the "exploding scoreboard" which pays homage to the original installed by Bill Veeck at the old park in 1960. The original field dimensions and seating configuration were very similar to those of Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City—which had been the last baseball-only park built in the majors, in 1973.
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