Contest will name new Schaumburg team

The prospective owners of a new minor league baseball team for Schaumburg’s Alexian Field expect to launch a contest to name the ballclub on or about June 1.

John Dittrich, general manager of the investment group fronted by businessman Alan Oremus, said the contest will ask people to submit nominations, with the choice of name ultimately left up to the organization. There will be no public voting on entries.

The contest is expected to run about a month, with the winner to be announced just after the Fourth of July.

The organization will design a logo to match the name and unveil it in August. The new team — the successor to the 12-season run of the Schaumburg Flyers — will begin play in May 2012.

All of this is contingent on a lease agreement being worked out between Oremus and Alexian Field’s two landlords, the village of Schaumburg and the Schaumburg Park District.

The first year of that lease is already under way, though no professional baseball team will call the ballpark home this summer. Instead, approximately 70 events have already been booked at the stadium for the coming months, with more to come.

Most are baseball-related, but others include cycle training, police driving training and the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life on June 24.

In addition, the new tenants expect to spend the next two to three weeks on a major refurbishment of the field and inner part of the stadium once the Dominican University baseball season ends this weekend, Dittrich said.

The same ownership group is preparing for the launch of its other new team — the Joliet Slammers — later this month.

Both teams succeeded ones that were handicapped by financial issues in their final years.

The Schaumburg Flyers were evicted this winter after the village and park district sued for overdue rent and other payments.

Though Flyers Managing Partner Rich Ehrenreich still hoped to sell the team and absolve his debt after the eviction, local officials chose Oremus’ group as the new tenant of Alexian Field — calling it a better long-term option.