Has the McHenry County SportsPlex Gotten Competition?

The Chicago Sun-Times broke the story.

As I understand the concept of the McHenry County SportsPlex planned for Lakewood, Illinois, it is to be a regional facility drawing teams from throughout the country.

Sure, it will aim to find players in the immediate vicinity of McHenry County, but its developers also hope to draw teams that travel nationally. They would fly into O’Hare or Midway Airports.

Now comes Oak Lawn’s Denise and Mike Stillman, baseball fans with friends with enough money to buy the “Field of Dreams” movie farm in Iowa.

And, what do you think they plan for the part of the 193-acre farm that was not used in the movie?

An indoor training facilty is touted.

A regional baseball and softball complex.

Indoor training domes.

Opening in 2014.

Not quite the same as the proposed Lakewood facility, which would include soccer and other sports, but close.

And, competition, it seems to me.

Even if the developers are billing it as “a very affordable family tourist destination.”

The McHenry County SportsPlex has about three more months to come up with money to proceed under the extension granted by the Lakewood Village Board this summer.

On a related matter, as I was briefly looking at Northwest Heralds saved for me by my mother-in-law this summer before tossing them into re-cycling, I noticed that Woodstock minor league baseball stadium developer Mark Houser hasn’t found investors to build his vision either.


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