Slammers looks grand, but low attendance has team hoping to improve numbers

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Fans at Silver Cross Field in Joliet, Illinois watch John Wagle #4 Joliet Slammers at bat during the game Friday night July 15, 2011 against the Rockford RiverHawks. | Art Vassy~Sun-Times Media

Updated: November 25, 2011 12:21AM

JOLIET — The Joliet Slammers go into the second half of their debut season looking for better attendance to bolster the business. But the team has not shown any of the troubles that led to the demise of the JackHammers — the team that folded last year after a season in which the front office simply stopped paying its bills.

Last year, the JackHammers infuriated everyone from The Famous San Diego Chicken to the janitor when the team not only didn’t pay its bills but stopped taking phone calls from vendors wanting to know where their money was.

The Slammers have been building a different reputation.

“They’re really a pleasure to work with,” said Cheryl Muscato. Her family company, Rocket Imaging in Plainfield, went unpaid last year for $65,000 worth of graphics work done for the JackHammers. The company is fully paid for work done for the Slammers, Muscato said.

Still, attendance is an issue.

A breakthrough season

The Slammers have a team that ended the first half of the season in first place in the East Division of the Frontier League. But attendance ranked eighth in the 12-team league.

Average attendance at Slammers games before this weekend’s home series was 2,083.

The good news is that the team saw crowds get bigger before last week’s All Star Game break. Attendance on July 3 hit 3,545, which was the high point of the first half.

As far as being around for 2012, “It’s not an issue,” said General Manager John Dittrich. “In fact, we feel that’s going to be our real breakthrough season.”

Slammers’ management said from the start that it was a scramble to get ready for this season after buying what was left of JackHammers assets late last year and putting together a team and a business in the spring. Having a full off-season to develop the business and market the team will make 2012 a lot easier, Dittrich said.

Here’s how the Slammers stood business-wise going into the second half of the season:

Attendance

Attendance has been the top concern.

At some point, Dittrich said, the team needs to average 2,500 on weekdays and better than that on weekends.

“That’s the formula for steady operations,” Dittrich said. “If you do more than that, than you can make a little money.”

Steady operations are no sure thing in minor league baseball. The JackHammers were not the only team to fold last year. The Schaumburg Flyers were evicted from their stadium and owed $900,000 to the village of Schaumburg.

Last weekend, the manager of the Lake County Fielders quit and 11 players refused to play because they weren’t being paid.

Slammers’ owner Alan Oremus, however, has shown confidence in independent league baseball. He is in the process of taking over the Schaumburg franchise, which he plans to own in addition to the Joliet team.

Oremus is upbeat with the Slammers in first place going into the second half.

“I think we’ve got an exciting product on the field for people to see,” Oremus said. “We expect the second half to be strong attendance-wise.”

Paying their bills

That hasn’t been a problem this year, but the Slammers have had to live with last year’s JackHammers troubles.

Dittrich said the Slammers have had to pay some vendors in advance because companies were wary of doing business with Joliet’s new minor league team after last year’s experience.

Rocket Imaging never did get the money owed the company by the JackHammers, which went out of business owing more than $400,000 to vendors and $200,000 to the city for unpaid rent.

Vendors like Muscato could not get through when they tried to find out about their money.

With the Slammers, Muscato said, “There isn’t any mystery. A lot of what was going in with the JackHammers’ organization was very mysterious. … In this organization, I think everyone is accessible.”

Relationship with city

Joliet City Manager Thomas Thanas had to deal with JackHammers business problems for the past three years. The city owns Silver Cross Field, and getting rent from the JackHammers became an annual problem.

When vendors did not get paid by the JackHammers, they came to the city. Thanas said that has not been a problem with the Slammers.

“We’re all hoping for better attendance numbers, but we’re confident the team is going in the right direction,” Thanas said. “Things are going well.”

The Slammers have not made a rent payment yet. But City Attorney Jeff Plyman said the team has earned credit for more than $75,000 — the total of the first installment on this year’s rent — because of money spent by the team during the off-season getting Silver Cross Field in shape for the baseball season.

“They don’t owe us anything,” Plyman said.

The second half of the annual $150,000 rent is due at the end of the season, and City Hall is not showing anxiety about collecting.

Slammers and Steelmen

The prospect of Silver Cross Field becoming a new home field for Joliet Central High School Steelmen football, however, looks unlikely as time goes on.

Everyone — school, team and city officials — still say they’re talking about the plan initiated two years ago that would have renovated Silver Cross Field to accommodate Steelmen sports. But the school district opted in February to build a stadium for the Steelmen, and field turf is being installed there now as the new facility is put into shape for football this fall.

Field turf is seen as one way to make Silver Cross Field multi-dimensional, so it can generate more revenue for the city of Joliet.

Oremus said field turf still could be a viable way to bring concerts and other sports to the stadium. But nothing definite is in the works now, and, Oremus acknowledged, “Unless we have a user for it who would contribute to the project, it doesn’t make any sense.”

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