Schaumburg Flyers owners sue would-be buyers

Owners of the former Schaumburg Flyers, evicted from Schaumburg’s baseball stadium in February, have filed a breach-of-contract and fraud lawsuit against the investors who pursued purchase of the team in 2010.

The suit argues that the potential investors led Flyers ownership to bypass other interested parties in negotiations which led to an asset purchase agreement for $2.73 million signed by both parties on June 18, 2010.

Named as defendants in the Cook County circuit court suit are John C. Sciaccotta of Barrington, Adriano Pedrelli of Glenview and their limited liability company, Schaumburg Flyers Holdings.

Sciaccotta declined to comment Friday and Pedrelli did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Suing them is Schaumburg Professional Baseball, LLC, whose managing partner, Rich Ehrenreich, now co-owns the Zion-based Lake County Fielders with Hollywood actor Kevin Costner.

Ehrenreich had stated his intention to sell the Schaumburg Flyers as soon as he began putting the Fielders franchise together.

The sale was intended to help Ehrenreich move on to his new team in Zion and help repay overdue rent and other fees to the village of Schaumburg and Schaumburg Park District, which co-own the stadium.

But when the sale that was promised in the summer of 2010 had still not materialized by the offseason, the village and park district filed suit against the Flyers.

The team was evicted in February with a court order stating that the Flyers still owed the village and park district $551,828.92. The two governments had originally sought more than $920,000 in their lawsuit.

The village and park district later entered into a new lease agreement with businessman Alan Oremus who subsequently sold his interest to attorney Patrick Salvi, current owner of the new Schaumburg Boomers baseball team.

Ehrenreich’s lawsuit against Sciaccotta and Pedrelli seeks monetary damages that include the negotiated $2.73 million purchase price of the Flyers.

The suit claims the only monetary transaction between the two parties was the writing of a $75,000 check by Sciaccotta and Pedrelli’s company, which bounced in July 2010.

The suit does not claim a closing of the sale ever occurred, but rather that it was postponed several times by the potential buyers until all contact between the two parties broke off in the late summer of 2010.

Schaumburg Village Manager Ken Fritz said the village was not a party to the sale or its specific details, but knew Ehrenreich was engaged exclusively in negotiations with Sciaccotta and Pedrelli for months leading into the 2010 baseball season.

Pedrelli was publicly announced as managing partner of the prospective new ownership of the Flyers days after the asset purchase agreement was signed in June 2010.

Ehrenreich deferred comment to his attorney, who could not be reached Friday. His current team, the Lake County Fielders, has been embroiled in a battle with the village of Zion this year over the delayed construction of a stadium there.