Lake County Fielders

[The_Admiral]

You know, Kevin Costner hasn't been to town once for anything related to this team, not even the groundbreaking gala, which was held inside a warehouse somewhat adjacent to the ballpark site. It's probably a bad omen for construction when the groundbreaking ceremony doesn't actually involve the ceremonial breaking of ground.

[Sodboy13]

For what it's worth, a quick check of the state's and Lake County's road construction projects shows nothing in the pipeline for the intersection of Green Bay Road and 9th Street. Closest thing I could find was to the south at 14th, for "intersection improvements". So I guess the owners are just really hoping everyone arrives and departs in an orderly, staggered fashion.

[The_Admiral]

Wasn't the crappy old Foxborough Stadium like just one entrance off a four-lane highway in the middle of nowhere, and a big part of why nobody attended Patriots games until they really had no other choice? This situation could rival that one. Anyway, I have a very very bad feeling about this whole thing.

[scarsofthumper]

I was at that "groundbreaking" too. It sucked.

And they STILL haven't started construction. And it's supposed to open in June.

[The_Admiral]

Thanks for the confirmation, Thumper. Hey, you're from Schaumburg. Do you have any inside stuff on the Flyers that might shed light on why the Fielders have been such a quagmire? Maybe just PM it to me?

[scarsofthumper]

Thanks for the confirmation, Thumper. Hey, you're from Schaumburg. Do you have any inside stuff on the Flyers that might shed light on why the Fielders have been such a quagmire? Maybe just PM it to me?

I think it's mainly Ehrenreich. Seems like he turned the Flyers to a horrible organization and somehow managed to do it worse with the Fielders.

If you want to get a good idea what's going on, then go here. http://nlfan.yuku.com/forums/105 I have pictures from the site and the "groundbreaking" too.

[Lee.]

You're the one from the groundbreaking thread, thumper? I thought I recognized the handle. Nothing like a groundbreaking where one of the attractions is getting your picture taken in front of an old Cadillac with a cardboard cutout of Kevin Costner...which actually might have more emotion than the real Costner.

As far as 8,000 seats: isn't the actual number more like 4,000 permanent seats, and the rest being located as general admission in the outfield, all of which is a gigantic sloped berm?

[The_Admiral]

Something like that. There's also a concert stage in there somewhere that people can sit on when it's not needed, for people who enjoy buying tickets to sit on floors.

I'll need to compile various press releases and articles over the last year, but I believe the number of seats, and as such the total price of the park, has been slowly and quietly shrinking over time. I think the price went down from $18MM to $15MM now, with total permanent seating going from 6,000 to 4,000. Generally I applaud fiscal responsibility in the realm of stadium socialism, but, uh, it's January 15th and they haven't started building anything yet. What is it gonna end up being?

[scarsofthumper]

I think it's gonna be a party deck when it's not a concert stage, or something like that.

Why do I have a feeling though that the Barclays Center will be finished before the Fielders Stadium will

[Sodboy13]

And out comes the stupefying truth.

To review:

- Construction was supposed to start last summer, and never happened.

- Construction was supposed to start, for reals this time, in November, and never happened.

- Construction will now allegedly start in March with a revised design that shaves 35 days off the schedule... on a project starting 7 months late.

- They don't even have a building permit yet.

- They don't have the funding for the stadium yet.

- They don't even have a freaking building permit yet. Half a year has gone by, and no one has gone through the steps to allow Theoretical Magical Unicorn Stadium to be legally built. But they're, like, totally getting on that in a couple of weeks. Trust 'em.

So, do we get the Kenosha Fielders for 2010, or Bingo Kostner's Traveling All-Stars? Because nothing beyond a little league field is getting put up in Zion by June.

[logoman]

So what happened to the idea of "If you build it, they will come"?

[Sodboy13]

Never built it. Ain't comin'.

[Yac12]

If they deside to play at Simmons Field (where the Kenosha Twins played) they will have to talk to the Kenosha school district which now owns the field. As for parking, it is all side street parking. There has to be better places to play than Simmons Field.

[The_Admiral]

If they deside to play at Simmons Field (where the Kenosha Twins played) they will have to talk to the Kenosha school district which now owns the field. As for parking, it is all side street parking. There has to be better places to play than Simmons Field.

Not anywhere remotely near northern Lake County. They'll have to play in Kenosha, unless they move in with the Flyers in Schaumburg, where these guys can now allegedly not pay rent to the Park District for two teams. This is so embarrassing. Gonna have to negotiate with Kenosha public schools. It's come to this.

I feel really bad for a lot of people I got to come in contact with regarding this whole project: C.ofZ. officials, area businesspeople, and folks who seemed genuinely excited that there would be affordable baseball in their backyard, here in one of the most baseball-mad metropolises in the world. I feel kind of bad that I didn't act on my suspicions about this whole project, but really, it wasn't my place to do that. I'm not a journalist. As one of the commenters on the News-Sun article noted at the bottom there, where were the journalists on this thing? The plans were announced in February (as I recall), the team name was unveiled in late May, the groundbreaking party was in November, and it took until January 28th for someone to publish an article that said 's not getting done yet? I know it's "only" Lake County, but it's still greater Chicago, and it's not like this project has been under the radar: the pomp and circumstance regarding this team has been smothering for almost a year now. And yet all these people let all this time go by without thinking or daring to ask why this project has been moving slower than a sloth? Repeating for emphasis: they had a groundbreaking party and never broke ground. I'm not saying they were supposed to start that day, of course, but maybe that week? that month? at all? And nobody who's paid to do this stood up and said "hey, guys, something stinks here." They didn't even have a permit and nobody saw fit to discover and report this. How podunk is that?

I'm not buyin' any park of substance being built in three months. No, it's not a "sky-scrapper" (either a typo by the paper or a Freudian by Ehrenreich; either one amuses me for different reasons), but if you read closely, they're not even guaranteeing they'll start in March! "Weather permitting." It's still not exactly spring in five weeks, and in fact, the whole unpredictable melange of rain and snow is probably a bigger encumbrance to accomplishing things than just a plain old cold day like today. Maybe they'll blame setbacks on Lousy Smarch Weather. And even if weather permits and they build something, what the hell is it even going to be? It's only a Northern song League ballpark; how much more minimalist can you make it? How do you further downsize a grandstand and a berm? It's not like they signed on to build Camden Yards here. Worst case scenario, no park. Best case, they're gonna rush this thing through and it's gonna be a big slapdash house of cards that impresses people on only the most superficial levels, like a 15-page research paper written the night before it was due and as such is full of tangential stream-of-consciousness nonsense once you actually sit down and read the thing. (I did this in high school.) This really is "Marge versus the Monorail." Ugh.

I have a Lake County Fielders hat and t-shirt. I look forward to the dubious achievement of owning team apparel for a team that never played a game. I'm willing to trade the hat for some Cincinnati Railraiders merch, though, so I can start a collection.

[Lee.]

As a former Winnipegger who went to more than his fair share of Goldeyes games, the state of the Northern League as it currently stands is pretty saddening.

Honestly, the league needs to divvy up its remaining franchises between the AA, the Golden League, and the Pioneer League, and be done with it all. There are five (ish) teams in the Chicago area, one in KC, and Winnipeg and Fargo off on their own little island someplace up north; hell, Rockford, even though it's in the "North" division with KC, FM and Winnipeg, doesn't even have to play road games against teams in their division, due to an agreement in their expansion package.

So honestly, what's the point anymore? This used to be the premier independent league in North America, now it's a joke. Someone put a bullet in its engine block, it's done.

[scarsofthumper]

It's actually quite pathetic.

Why do I feel like they're not gonna be in any hurry to issue refunds for tickets purchased either?

[scarsofthumper]

? The Lake County Fielders and the Schaumburg Flyers, two Chicago area minor league baseball teams, are sending team garb to earthquake recovery teams in Haiti. "Just sending caps, shirts, jackets and the like will help give the adults some decent clothing during this horrific time for them," a spokesman said.

[The_Admiral]

Though I hate to flog the horse here,

As you probably know, there is a ton of prep work to be done before the contractors can just "plop" down the stadium frame. Draining system, electrical lines, etc.

That is what is going on currently.

LIE, NO IT'S NOT, NOTHING WAS EVER GOING ON

The stadium location is starting to seem suspicious, too. It doesn't exactly scream "first choice," being a brownfield in the middle of nowhere and all. If I were starting a team in Lake County, the first place I'd go would be Waukegan, with some plan to further revitalize the downtown, using Joliet and Gary as examples of what a Northern League park can do for a town. Also, it's the biggest city in the county, and the closest thing to a "city center" that the region has. Failing that, I'd be inclined to go with Gurnee or Vernon Hills, where there's always space for some sort of development that extracts money from people, and the park can be piggybacked with Great America and Gurnee Mills and Key Lime Cove and the rest of the abundant shopportunities that draw people like iron filings to magnets. I might even try to float a plan to Libertyville. (Southern Lake County's out of the question, since you're either starting to encroach on the Flyers, or missing your target demo with the North Shore.) But here we are on a parcel of land considerably west of downtown Zion, adjacent to a landfill, and so close to the state line that a well-placed spitball could land in Wisconsin (and immediately get ticketed for going 32 in a 30). Simply put, it's buttfrackingnowhere, and certainly not what I would have in mind were I starting a "Lake County" team. My fear here is that people in Waukegan and Gurnee knew something was up, and Zion, being all too eager to repair its image as a downtrodden town with oppressive liquor laws, got roped into a project they weren't ready for, dazzled by visions of movie star owners and concerts and of course "putting the town on the map." Now they're running the risk of losing some serious money on this project, or at least taking a big public relations hit. Tough stuff.

[Sodboy13]

Since it's now officially the time to really start asking questions, are we certain, outside of team press releases, that Kevin Costner is genuinely associated with this operation? It's clear that this organization has lied about practically everything else, and given Costner's perpetual absence from team events, I think it's a question that can be asked without donning my tinfoil hat.

[The_Admiral]

I believe he's a minority investor and phoned in an interview about exciting opportunities and blah blah, but all the day-to-day management is handled by Ehrenreich and his guys. But yes, that he was rumored to be at the unveiling party (just plain absent) and the groundbreaking (replaced with cardboard cutout) but didn't show is certainly cause for concern.

As for Alexian Field as a contingency plan, the Northern League message board seems to indicate that the Schaumburg Park District books the park solid all through the summer, and I doubt they're willing to cancel 40some scheduled events--even if they're just U-16 ball and stuff--for some Zion team that's not going to bring any money in. So scratch that. The Fielders' facebook wall has a response to further questions, authored by the mysterious incognito member "Lake-County Fielders," that insists Kenosha is "not an option." However, the same "person" also notes

Kenosha is definitely a market that we want to feel a part of the Fielders, it is as much your team as it is northern Illinois'.

in this slightly mangled sentence.

Also consider that Fielders personnel have no qualms about telling bald-faced lies right to the e-faces of their facebook group members, and you still can't rule it out. Maybe they can play in Gary. Gary is located in a Lake County, so they won't have to change their name!