New Paper Covering McHenry County College Baseball Stadium

Pioneer Press, a chain of weekly newspapers whose local presence is mainly in Algonquin, Cary and Fox River Grove, has taken an interest in McHenry County College’s baseball stadium.

Reporter Pete Gonigam has written a story, the most complete version of which is online.

He points out that the proposed MCC expansion is now priced at $29 million and, according to the feasibility study released last Monday “would clear $5,000 in its sixth year.”

Gonigam didn’t use an exclamation point after that sentence, but he certainly could have.

$15 million of profit is assumed over the 20-year live of the bonds, using the assumption that an equal amount of principal and interest would be repaid each year—like in most home loans. The $15 million comes using what the reporter characterizes as “favorable assumptions.”

But, instead of paying an equal amount back each year, bond counsel Jo Ann Malinowski told the Algonquin Countryside that interest only would be paid in the early years, thus increasing the total amount of interest paid, with larger payments at the end of the loan.

This is essentially what Carpentersville District 300 did with its bond repayment schedule.

Taxpayers there were forced to pay interest on interest.

Sounds a bit like a series of payday loans, doesn’t it?

Total cost?

$46 million.

That’s what MCC taxpayers will be on the hook for.

Pioneer Press becomes the only paper to report the negative analysis of the feasibility study’s baseball attendance figures and non-baseball use revenue by Economic Research Associates:

“The company also maintained the initial proposal drastically underestimated money to pay for stadium repairs and upgrades.

“The report, dated April 4, stated the feasibility report based game attendance projections on the top minor league teams in the Chicago.

“’(The projected attendance) would actually be the most aggressive of the five local Chicagoland teams,’ the report stated.

“The report further described the assumed growth as implausible. The report stated that attendance at semipro baseball games typically increases from year one to year two and then levels.

“’The initial 3,125 (fans) per game … is reasonable but continually increasing (attendance) … seems aggressive and would put the MCC stadium at one of the highest in the Frontier League,’ the report states. “

New MCC Board Chairman’s reaction:

“Like any business, the first three to five years are the most difficult.”

Of course, if the board of directors of a private business make a big mistake, it can just go bankrupt.

We taxpayers won’t have to bail them out.


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