Adios Banditos - or how we lost July 4th betting on softball
The Chicago Bandits softball team are now in their final season at Judson, and will be leaving Elgin afterwards, the Courier reported earlier this month.
Sokolis said the team was used to drawing around 1,500 spectators per game, but that attendance at Judson has leveled out at around 600 per contest.
I’m going to assume that by that statement he meant that before they came to Judson they were doing 1,500 spectators per game and at Judson they averaged 600 spectators per contest.
Let’s take a look at the numbers. The city paid a total of $700,000 for facilities improvements at Judson University for the benefit of the Chicago Bandits. At the end of this season, they will have played here for three years. $700,000 amortized across three years of play means $233,333 per year.
The Bandits 2010 schedule shows 16 home games played at Judson University in Elgin. 16 games and 600 spectators per game means 9,600 spectators during the entire season. Of course, some of these people are going to be fans that come back repeatedly. But just look at that figure of 9,600 spectators and look at the amortized cost of the facilities improvements $233,333. That works out to about $24 subsidy per spectator per game. That’s an astonishing figure.
Think about that. A matinee at the Marcus Ultrascreen is only $8. With the same amount of money they could have bought nearly 30,000 movie tickets a year for three years. 30,000 is basically a third of the city’s population, so for the same amount of money they spent on the Bandits–I’m not saying they should have, but they could have treated one out of three people in this city to a free movie each year. Over three years everybody could have gotten a free movie, and maybe they would have enjoyed it more than softball. I’m just sayin.
Obviously there are better ways to spend $700,000.
It’s hard to believe that city leaders were looking at building a 4,400 seat stadium for this team which would have cost many millions of dollars. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that we lost only $700,000.
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Don’t blame the Bandits or womens softball for poor attendance. The Bandits are a fine team - winning the national championship in 2008. But the facility sucks. A great field with poor parking, lousy concessions, and when you go, get ready to give up a pint of blood to the mosquitoes since you are literally sitting feet away from the Fox River.
And a lot of us would like to watch a great ball game with a beer in our hands, which is impossible at Judson.
So the economy tanked, Elgin cannot follow through on their deal to build a stadium, Bandits attendance has fallen to less than 1/2. Bandits leave.
Judson is left with the facility (still a great field and indoor training facility) for their own use or to rent out for $150/ hr to other local teams. Maybe Judson will let starving artists use it for 1/2 price.
Another great move Elgin! Are 9,600 Elgin residents using our fine, new and very expensive golf courses every year?
“Don’t blame the Bandits…”?
Tell it to the ghost of Mike Powers.
Don’t worry, we won’t blame the Bandits for poor attendance.
We’ll just blame them for being a “fine team” of itinerant rip-off artists who paid off elements of Elgin’s City Council (to the extent we’ll never know) for a fat subsidy, sucked precious money out of the city’s treasury, and cost a Councilman his life. In other words, an organization fully living up to its name “Chicago Bandits.”
Thank goodness, that so-called “deal” for a stadium never materialized.
At least a real, contributing Elgin institution, Judson College, got some benefit from this fiasco.
oops… My previous post was not giving appropriate credit to Judson UNIVERSITY.
Yeah rm, it was lots of deals that never panned out. And I can’t even pretend to know all the ins and outs of what went in to it.
When I said don’t blame the Bandits, I really meant the team of players. They play a good game, and always have all the time in the world even for the littlest autograph seeker at the end of the line.
I was irritated that after Elgin spent their $700,000 and the team is gone, it was only Judson that was left with any benefit (there are other year round leagues that rent it and Fox Valley Sports Academy has used the field). I was narrowly thinking “man, if it were somehow connected to Sports Complex, or run by Park District…”
But you are absolutely right - Judson University is an Elgin organization, and greatly contributes to a better Elgin image. I have more of an ECC budget and forgot! LOL.
enoughalready, thanks for your response.
BTW, your observation about not enjoying a beer at Judson reminded me of another odd aspect of this deal.
How did all that public money end up going to build facilities at a religious institution?
I ask that question with no bone to pick with Judson, its Baptist mission or value to the community. It was just odd that we never heard a peep out of the Separation of Church and State crowd who are usually so quick to pounce on any hint of public support for or even connection with religion.
Powers was always very candid in admitting that the Bandits deal was intended to direct public money into certain local private pockets. I’ve never seen the receipts for that $700,000, and maybe some of it made the “Separation” issue go away.
Just one more aspect of a very strange and troubling deal.
In sum, I’m sure the Bandits would be a much more appropriate addition to an environment like the Stephens’ family’s sketchy private fiefdom, Rosemont.
As you can tell, I like the Bandits games (except for my above complaints). We see 1-2 games a season. It’s neat to take my family practically around the corner to see them. We like Cougars games, too.
I’m just bummed it got all messed up.