Minor League Baseball Team in Trouble?

It was not too long ago (about two years ago) that the minor league baseball team in Joliet was sold.

The team’s name was “The Joliet Jackhammers.”

The new team owners re-named it “The Slammers,” an appropriate enough name for the town the Blues Brothers movie made famous.

When I spotted a Slammers tee shirt in Galena last weekend, I asked to take a photo.

A Joliet Slammers fan was walking the main street in Galena last Saturday–a beautiful day.

In discussing the team, I was told it won the Frontier League championship this year.

This past week, however, the Chicago Sun-Times that the Slammers may be for sale.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Joliet Slammers minor league baseball team may be for sale.

Again I am pleased that I was not one of the taxpayers stuck with paying off over $20 million in baseball stadium bonds that the McHenry County College Board wanted to issue for Mark Houser’s Frontier League team.

For those with short memories, here’s the language that says you and I would have been on the hook for any payments if the minor league baseball team defaults on its lease payments:

“Security

“The Certificates are valid and legally binding upon the District and are payable from any funds lawfully available and annually budget for such purpose. There is no statutory authority for the levy of a separate tax in addition to other taxes or the levy of a special tax unlimited as to rate or amount to pay the principal of or interest on the Certificates. The Certificates are considered debt under Illinois law; are not subject to appropriation risk; are non – cancelable and are not subject to completion risk.”(Emphasis added.)


Comments

Minor League Baseball Team in Trouble? — 1 Comment

  1. How many times does it take for these elected officials to realize that they should stick to the mission for which they were created and leave the entrepenurial efforts to the private sector.

    Lakewood and it’s golf course and recent discussion of a baseball stadium (to increase tourism, are they nuts?), the Woodstock baseball venture, the College, Joliet, Schaumburg.

    One would think that these elected officials would get smart, but it is very easy to spend someone else’s money—-that be the poor taxpayer who is really a schmuck!

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