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November 20, 2008
Mr. Slate would approve
If you needed further proof that development-rights swaps are the flavor of the month in stadium deals, try this on for size: A company in Woodstock, Illinois is offering to build a $12 million, 6500-seat multipurpose stadium in exchange for the rights to dig a gravel mine.
"This isn't the Joliet Jackhammers with a riverboat or the Schaumburg Flyers where they have a mall, where they can come in with tax dollars and subsidize one of these endeavors," Merryman Aggregate LLC project manager Rick Zirk tells the Northwest Herald. "There is just no well to go to." Of course not - that'd be a water mine.
