Northwest Herald Continues Campaign for New Baseball Team Advertiser

How many weekends has it been that Northwest Herald editor Chris Krug has been making favorable comments about a taxpayer- supported minor league baseball stadium?

Maybe it’s time for a retrospective.

First, on October 21st, it was

Krug pointed out that the “naysayers” criticized McHenry County College for not releasing the feasibility study Mark Houser’s EquityOne did of his baseball promoter buddy Pete Heitman’s projections.

Interestingly enough, Krug did not reveal that the NW Herald asked for it…twice. That tidbit wasn’t dropped until last Sunday.

Not yet, however, has the NW Herald written an article on the content of

This devastating analysis of the feasibility study was written by Economic Research Associates. It pretty much says the same thing other economists have concluded, that is, taxpayers have to subsidize baseball stadiums for them to make it.

It is due to be revised.

Want to bet the NW Herald will trumpet the new, rosy analysis?

I found it a fascinating conclusion from a consultant. Consultants usually bring in the advice that the governmental officials want and pay for.

47 reader comments were under this first column.

I’m not sure it was this week (and I’m surely not going to read all the comments again to see if this is where I saw it), but one commenter pointed out that the Chicago Tribune owns the Chicago Cubs and, if the NW Herald really wants a baseball stadium as much as its editor says, the NW Herald could build it.

Maybe they would come.

On October 28th,

This was the “The cranks, crabs and curmudgeons were right” column.

I think he missed “tightwad” and “cheapskate.”

But he did add “boo-birds.”

He bemoaned that they would not, “…invest in something that everyone from McHenry County could share.”

But no tax district cares to test whether people want a baseball stadium with a referendum, right?

53 reader comments.

On November 2nd, Krug took a break to promote what the NW Herald thinks will be money making idea. But he couldn’t resist suggesting that the Gala and Lakeside Festival could be moved to the empty land at McHenry County College, if the neighbors don’t like the two-week disturbance.

And this past Sunday, on November 11th, Krug shined more wattage on his viewpoint:

For the first time, Krug reveals the NW Herald filed Freedom of Information requests for the feasibility study done on Pete Heitman’s baseball stadium projections by his buddy Mark Houser of Equity One.

Note that the paper did not consider the two turn downs were worth an article. Nor were they worth a suit against MCC to pry them loose.

And, Krug says, “there is plenty of room for interpretation.”

Yet, the NW Herald has not yet run a story on the analysis of the feasibility study by Economic Research Associates that the college paid good money for.

Here’s the only part I’ve seen. It was in the most recent Krug column:

“Our experience is that these facilities and programs usually have a difficult time generating a positive cash flow and as a result are often public projects. Your upscale suburban market is probably the most feasible location to have a profitable program.” (emphasis added)

Even the two sentences Krug quotes are not favorable ones. Read the whole summary here.

Krug ignored this sentence, for instance:

“Again, most of ERA’s baseball market analysis / feasibility assignments have been for public clients since the programs generally do not generate enough revenues to cover their development and operating costs.” (emphasis added)

Maybe he thought it was too duplicative of the one he quoted.

But, he doesn’t mention the “need for budgeting the eventual facilities improvements and upgrades.”

Talking about what a big step toward transparency the release of the feasibility study is, Krug comes up with this really cogent thought:

“Sometimes it seems as if the college’s governing board – like many other government bodies – confuses itself with private business.”

He is so right.

Read what Pioneer Press got from MCC Board President George Lowe:

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

Why should McHenry County taxpayers take the risk for a baseball promoter who can back out at any time?

Why should anyone think that government is capable of making good business judgments?

I learned that when I was the U.S. Bureau of the Budget’s budget examiner for the Small Business Administration. The SBA could not even tell me its loss ratio. Any bank could have produced that information in 1965.

Not many comments to Sunday’s column.

Maybe opponents to putting a baseball stadium on Crystal Lake’s watershed and opponents who don’t want McHenry County taxpayers to be the ones to have to bring bags of money to bail out a failed baseball team don’t mind if Huntley, McHenry or Woodstock taxpayers are put on the financial hook.

Just in case you missed a really comprehensive article on the MCC baseball stadium in weekly Pioneer Press’ Algonquin Countryside by Pete Gonigam that I linked to on Sunday, here’s where you can find it. It actually has information the Northwest Herald has not yet published.

But, that would not surprise you, would it?

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Pete Heitman is the head shot on the left with Mark Houser’s on the right. The large photograph is of Northwest Herald Group Editor Chris Krug.


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