Wintrust Field is a

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Schaumburg, Illinois Schaumburg ( ) is a village mostly in Cook County and partly in DuPage County in northeastern Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 78,723. Schaumburg is around northwest of the Chicago Loop and northwest of O'Hare ...

, formerly known as Boomers Stadium and Alexian Field. It is now home to the

Schaumburg Boomers The Schaumburg Boomers are a professional baseball team based in Schaumburg, Illinois that began play in the independent Frontier League in 2012. The team plays its home games at Wintrust Field. The Boomers replaced the now defunct Schaumburg Fly ...

of the

Frontier League The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...

which began play in May 2012 and captured the first-ever professional baseball championship for Schaumburg in 2013. It is primarily used for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

, and was the home field of the

Schaumburg Flyers The Schaumburg Flyers were a professional baseball team based in Schaumburg, Illinois, in the United States. The Flyers were to be charter members of the North American League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, but the team fol ...

baseball team from 1999 through 2010 before the Boomers resurrected the facility for pro baseball in 2012. Wintrust Field opened in 1999 and the park holds 7,365 people for a baseball game or over 10,000 for a concert or other non-baseball event. Its field dimensions mimic those of Chicago's

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago W ...

, and the land the stadium is built on was originally purchased in the mid-1980s as a hopeful site for the New Wrigley Field, had the

City of Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

not come to terms to bring night baseball to the North Side. Some pro

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...

as well as

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

and amateur softball has also been played at Wintrust Field due to the late start (mid-May) of the independent baseball season. The Stadium itself is located west of

I-355 Interstate 355 (I-355), also known as the Veterans Memorial Tollway, is an Interstate Highway and tollway in the western and southwest suburbs of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. Like most other toll roads in the northeastern portion of th ...

off the

Elgin-O'Hare Expressway Illinois Route 390 (IL 390), previously known as the Elgin–O'Hare Expressway, now known as the Elgin–O'Hare Tollway, is a electronic toll highway in northeastern Illinois. IL 390 currently connects U.S. Route 20 (US&n ...

. Now called Wintrust Field, the

Alexian Brothers The Alexians officially named as the Congregation of Alexian Brothers ( la, Congregatio Fratrum Cellitarum seu Alexianorum) abbreviated C.F.A., is a Catholic lay religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men specifically devoted to caring ...

Medical Center in nearby Elk Grove purchased the naming rights to the ballpark in 2000. The Stadium was host to the

from its opening through the end of the 2010 season. At that point, the village and park district which owned the stadium began eviction proceedings against the Flyers for failure to pay $551,800 in back rent. On February 24, 2011, a

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

court ruled the Flyers could be evicted, ordered the now defunct team to pay the back rent, and the naming rights contract was terminated when there was no professional baseball played in the park in 2011. From 2009 to 2010, the Wheaton College Thunder, a Division III baseball program, played its home games at Wintrust Field, and since 2008 the Dominican University Stars another Division III baseball program has played a majority of it home games at Wintrust Field. In 2011, the

Roosevelt Lakers Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The univ ...

, an NAIA baseball program, played its home games at the stadium as well. Later that year, in September 2011, Chicago attorney

Patrick A. Salvi Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name *Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick or ...

was awarded ownership of a

franchise that began play in May 2012. Salvi is also the owner of the American Association's

Gary SouthShore RailCats The Gary SouthShore RailCats are a professional baseball team based in Gary, Indiana, in the United States. The RailCats are members of the American Association of Professional Baseball, an official Partner League of Major League Baseball. The Rai ...

. The franchise is known as the Schaumburg Boomers named after the "booming dance" of the male Greater Prairie Chicken and the team earned a 54–42 record during its Inaugural Season, falling one win short of a playoff berth. In just the franchise's second season in 2013, the Schaumburg Boomers captured the first-ever pro baseball championship for the Village of Schaumburg in impressive fashion. After capturing the league's best record in the regular season (59-37), the Boomers became the first team in the Frontier League's 14-year history to sweep through the playoffs with a 6–0 record en route to claiming the 2013 Frontier League Championship. In doing so, the Boomers made good on a promise to win title in the "first 100 years or your money back." The guarantee was featured on a billboard announcing the new team in March 2012 before the club's first season got underway. In October 2019, the Village of Schaumburg purchased the portion of the stadium which was owned by Schaumburg Park District for $1 million, becoming sole owner of the stadium. It was the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

's alternate training site in 2020 when the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

forced the cancellation of the Frontier League campaign and the abbreviation of the

Major League Baseball season The Major League Baseball (MLB) season schedule generally consists of 162 games for each of the 30 teams in the American League (AL) and National League (NL), played over approximately six months—a total of 2,430 games, plus the postseason. ...

.Dykstra, Sam. "Roundup: Major League alternate training sites," Minor League Baseball, Thursday, July 16, 2020.
Retrieved August 28, 2020

References

External links

Official Site of the Schaumburg Boomers

Roosevelt Lakers web page

Wheaton Thunder web page

{{Frontier League Ballparks College baseball venues in the United States Cricket grounds in the United States Minor league baseball venues Baseball venues in Illinois Roosevelt Lakers Softball venues in Illinois Schaumburg, Illinois Sports venues in Cook County, Illinois 1999 establishments in Illinois Sports venues completed in 1999 Cricket in Illinois