White Sox further stick it to fans by canceling SoxFest

When they actually had SoxFest, you could get pictures like this.

In a classic "Friday afternoon news dump," the White Sox announced that SoxFest 2023 has been canceled.

When bad news is announced, people often try to sneak it through on a Friday afternoon, hoping that everyone will be too focused on the upcoming weekend to care or notice.

I don't know how much the local media noticed, but Sox fans sure noticed, and they are rightfully furious.

Here's the text of the email I received, as a "regular attendee" of SoxFest:

"As one of our regular attendees, we look forward to seeing you every year at SoxFest. We wanted you to know that due to several factors, SoxFest 2023 will not be held this January. Like you, we are disappointed this event will not take place." 

Bullshit. 

The Sox aren't disappointed at all. If they actually cared, they would be doing everything in their power to make sure the event takes place. We haven't had a SoxFest since 2020, and now we won't have one until at least 2024. Four years is a long time.

"Due to several factors," huh?

Why don't they enlighten us on exactly what those factors are? We're all reasonable people here, and if there are good, legitimate reasons for the cancellation, then present them.

Lacking information, we're reduced to speculation. My speculation is the Sox don't want to answer difficult questions from their fans after an extremely disappointing 81-81 season that began with October expectations, and ended in disaster.

General manager Rick Hahn and others were happy to strut around and take questions when a majority of the fan base was on board with the direction the team was heading, but now that those plans have imploded, they are all too cowardly to stand up and discuss what went wrong.

Not to mention, this cancellation also signals to me that the Sox are going to be making some unpopular decisions this offseason. They won't be spending in free agency to improve the team. Nobody knows what exactly is going to happen with the managerial hire. They will probably do some other things that I'm not even thinking of that will piss the fans off even more, and they won't be in the mood to be called out about it.

The funny thing is, SoxFest is a cash cow for Jerry Reinsdorf. He's got a bloated payroll, a mediocre team and a dwindling season ticket holder base. You would think he would want the money, but nah, apparently they've decided to stick it to fans some more and avoid the face-to-face confrontations that would be coming their way.