If the White Sox leave Bridgeport, their home for over a century, the emotional toll on the area would be “heartbreaking,” business owners said Tuesday.

“Bridgeport and the White Sox just go together, they always did,” said Carrie Stegniller, a manager, bartender and server at Turtle’s Bar and Grill, a block north of the ballpark.

“The White Sox are our family and we’re their family.”

Several hours before the scheduled first pitch between the White Sox and surging Seattle Mariners, “Killing Me Softly With His Song” by the Fugees played over the speakers at Turtle’s.

Stegniller has worked at the restaurant for 15 years — and been a White Sox fan even longer.

Amid reports the Sox are open to relocating Stegniller told the Sun-Times a move would hit her in the pocketbook.

“My kids are in high school and some are in college,” Stegniller said Tuesday. “It would be very devastating if you took my summers away, I mean that really helps put my kids through school.”

A move also is not good news to Jon Jones, a follower of the team who grew up “about a 3-minute drive from the stadium.”

He was enjoying some fries on a bench along 35th Street Tuesday.

“The Sox are a staple in this neighborhood, just like how Wrigley [Field] is a staple on the North Side,” Jones said.

Staple or not, Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, 87, is considering moving the White Sox or selling the team when its lease at Guaranteed Rate Field expires in six years, according to a report in Crain’s Chicago Business.

The possibility of moving is serious enough, according to Crain’s, that a Chicago developer is preparing a bid and possibilities exist for a move to a new stadium in the city or suburbs, or even relocating to Nashville, Tennessee.

Not everyone, however, would miss the Sox.

Just across the street from Turtle’s, Stix N’ Brix Red Line owner Mario Scalise said the team “didn’t mean much” to his restaurant.

“A lot of times, people think when you buy a sports stadium you generate all the sales from it. But whenever the Sox are playing, the regular customers don’t come,” Scalise said. 

“They take up parking, they screw up traffic. There’s not really much of a benefit for us in particular.”

Some residents and business owners say the White Sox should focus on just playing better baseball.

Stephanie Ganal, owner of Grandstand, 600 W. 35th St., has met Hall of Famers from every major Chicago sports team at the store her family has owned for nearly four decades.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

That includes Blackhawks winger Bobby Hull and White Sox legends Robin Ventura and Frank Thomas.

Although foot traffic makes up a “huge part of business,” Ganal says the store’s fans “know where they are, who they are and what they carry” if the team were to move.  

“We’ve built a staple for the last 38 years. I’m not concerned about [the Sox relocating]. My huge concern is this team actually proving who they are and what they can be.”