Slammers' owner warns city of Joliet against auction of Silver Cross Field

JOLIET – The majority owner of the Joliet Slammers warned city officials they could “kill” minor league baseball in town if they put Silver Cross Field on the auction block.

Silver Cross Field is not for sale.

[ But two Joliet City Council members have said the city, which owns the stadium, should explore options. ]

The council’s Land Use and Legislative Committee considered the matter Thursday and heard from an auctioneer who recently put the home stadium of the Rockford Aviators up for auction.

Nick Semaca, president and majority owner of the Slammers, implored the committee not to pursue an auction.

“I would be deathly scared of introducing a risk that could kill baseball in this town,” Semaca told the committee.

Semaca said the Slammers are not opposed to a sale of the stadium, but he believes the auction of the Rockford Aviators’ stadium is destroying that team, one of the Slammers’ rivals in the Frontier League.

He said attendance for Aviators games is down from an average of 1,608 a year ago to 643 this year, while the team has lost only one game and is the “cream of the Frontier League.”

“I would bet Rockford’s team is going to die. You can’t survive on those kind of numbers,” he said.

Semaca noted the auction has not resulted in a sale of the stadium.

Auctioneer Rick Levin said while a sale has not been made, the bank that owns the stadium is negotiating with potential buyers.

An auction would be one way to explore the market for Silver Cross Field, Levin said.

“You guys have a unique, hard-to-find asset,” Levin told the committee. “You can find out if there’s a buyer willing to pay a price the city would find desirable.”

He noted the city could conduct an auction and reserve the right to reject all bids.

Semaca, however, said he feared what an auction would do to the market for baseball in Joliet.

“We quite frankly are very open to selling the stadium if you can find a buyer,” Semaca said. “What we don’t want to do is create an atmosphere where the fans think the team is at risk.”

Semaca’s comments prompted Councilwoman Jan Quillman to emphasize the city is not in the process of selling Silver Cross Field.

“Just so the rumor mill doesn’t get started, we are not selling the baseball stadium anytime soon,” Quillman said. “Just exploring options is what we’re looking at.”

Councilman Jim McFarland, who wants the city to explore a sale of the stadium, called Silver Cross Field "a drain on the public coffers financially. I think we need to minimize that."

McFarland and Councilman Larry Hug called for the city to explore opportunities to sell Silver Cross Field after a controversial vote in March to spend $361,000 for a new video scoreboard.

Slammers owners have said they are not interested in buying the stadium now. One issue they would face is the cost of property taxes, which are not levied on the stadium while it is under public ownership.