| Subject: The new owners speak |
Author:
Oak Lawn Guy
| [ Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 20:05:28 10/02/03 Thu
From today's Southtown.....sounds like sweeping changes for the good.
If only the Arch's had supported Chuck Heeman with this much enthusiasm, or money.
Owners: Cheetahs will be remade
Thursday, October 2, 2003
By Steve Schmadeke
Staff writer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The new owners of the Cook County Cheetahs pledged Wednesday to make sweeping improvements to the embattled minor league team.
Among the changes will likely be a new team name, a decision that should be announced by the end of the month, officials said.
And groundbreaking is scheduled to begin soon on a new front-office building for the team. The new owners also said they will hire year-round staff members and would work on making fans happier, improving the quality of food served at games and making sure the restrooms are clean.
Seven local businessmen, including former state Sen. Patrick O'Malley and the son of Crestwood Mayor Chester Stranczek, purchased the team from Blistex CEO David Arch for around $700,000. The Cheetahs had been up for sale for three years.
Arch had been criticized by Stranczek, who led the push to build Crestwood's $7.8 million baseball stadium, since the end of the Cheetahs' first season. The mayor said Arch failed to invest enough time and money in the team, a judgment that lingered even after this week's sale.
"On a personal note, I've been for a couple years very unhappy with how things were going with our team," the mayor said Wednesday night. "We didn't spend $7.8 million to have this run as hobby. We want this to run as a business, and these people who have taken over are going to do it."
Arch did not return a voice mail message Wednesday.
The village has signed a new five-year lease with the team, and the Frontier League accepted the sale during a conference call with owners on Friday.
The new owners have hired Kevin Rhomberg, a baseball management consultant, to manage the team's day-to-day operations.
Rhomberg said that he understood the pressure he was under to turn around a team that has slipped in attendance from the top third to the bottom third of the Frontier League. He was confident that the team could be successful.
"There's going to be hiccups, no doubt about it," he said. "But we're going to enhance everything."
Mayor Stranczek said that he expected immediate results from the new owners, but others said improvements in attendance and the team's level of play may take awhile.
"You won't see miracles overnight," said league commissioner Bill Lee. "This will take some time."
Lee said the team should be able to average more than 2,000 fans. The Cheetahs went from having 86,000 fans in its first Crestwood season four years ago to drawing only 60,000 last season.
It remains to be seen what the mayor, who threatened to kick the Arch-owned Cheetahs out of the stadium if they weren't sold, will do if attendance at the stadium continues to lag.
But Stranczek said the village does not receive much money from the team, only a head tax and portions of the parking revenue and scoreboard advertisements, and may only be looking for a stronger commitment from the team's owners.
Bob Stump, one of the seven investors in the partnership, a limited liability group called Crestwood Professional Baseball, said he viewed his commitment as less of a business opportunity and more as a way to improve the area's quality of life.
"I'm a baseball fan," he said. "It's not a real profitable investment as far as business returns go. This is more of a way to support the community."
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
] |
|
Feedback: 
Re: The new owners speak