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Schaumburg poised to upgrade netting at Boomers Stadium

Schaumburg officials today are poised to approve an upgrade to the planned extension of the safety netting at Schaumburg Boomers Stadium.

The village board will consider a $57,134 addition to the $132,000 already approved for contractor Haldeman Homme, Inc. in the spring.

While the earlier decision was to extend the safety netting behind home plate to the outfield end of both dugouts - the new standard for professional baseball in the U.S. - today's proposed change will mean taller and better positioned poles, as well as thinner netting to provide fans with better views.

None of the changes have been made yet, but could start later this week and be completed during a stretch of away games from July 23 to 30, Schaumburg Boomers General Manager Michael Larson said.

The Schaumburg Park District co-owns the stadium with the village of Schaumburg, and its board of commissioners has already signed off on the upgrade as part of this year's maintenance, Executive Director Tony LaFrenere said. The park district will reimburse the village for its half of the expense, he added.

The village of Rosemont opened its new Impact Field as the home stadium of the Chicago Dogs in May with extended, thinner netting as an original feature.

But the project cost at Boomers Stadium is fairly comparable considering it includes taller poles and is being done as a retrofit amid the scheduling restrictions of the season, Schaumburg Senior Civil Engineer Michael Litwin wrote in an internal memo.

Litwin cites the Rosemont project as costing approximately $510 per linear foot while Schaumburg's costs $533 per linear foot.

The amount Schaumburg is paying for the taller poles and additional tiebacks into the building is $24,637, while the thinner netting costs an additional $32,767.

Extended netting becoming standard in suburban ballparks

  The safety netting currently extends to the start of each dugout at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg, but new thinner netting is planned to stretch to the outer ends of the dugouts before the end of July. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  Thinner protective netting extends to the outer ends of the dugouts at the new Impact Field in Rosemont. Similar netting is planned at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg this month. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com, May
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