Initially, a southern Illinois medical doctor proposed the idea of his bringing a minor league team to the region. He was somehow convinced to back out of his efforts. In 2005, the announcement was made publicly that SIU Trustee John Simmons would build a ballpark in Marion, Ill., and purchase a minor-league team.
Early on in this venture, Simmons hired Dennis Poshard as his public relations and marketing director for this for the ball team and stadium. (That would be the Arthur Agency.)
In 2005 – and this received much negative attention in the northern part of the state and among legislators – Blagojevich announced he would give $3 million for the infrastructure for the ballpark. At his press conference in Marion, he gleefully said he was adding $1 million more, for a total of $4 million. At the same time, local school districts were begging for money for much-needed construction projects of their own. Blagojevich’s promises to them remain unfulfilled to this day.(and probably will remain that way)
Among the interesting offshoots of Rent One Park is a newly constructed exit off I-57 just north of the original interstate exit in Marion, Ill. To the west, the traffic flow goes past a branch of Peoples National Bank (connected to the newly appointed SIU Board of Trustee William "Bill" Bonan II) on its way to – you guessed it – Rent One Park. (I spoke to a couple of people whose opinion about IDOT I respect about the new Marion exit and both were of the opinion there was no logistical or economic need for it, only a political one).
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