SSCVA ups Pierogi Fest sponsorship amid dustup with Hammond

The South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority is giving Whiting's Pierogi Fest an extra helping of sponsorship dollars this year, but the gesture likely won't smooth over bad feelings between the SSCVA and the City of Hammond.
The SSCVA board at its Wednesday meeting voted 10-0 to give Pierogi Fest a $10,000 sponsorship after finding an extra $5,000 in its budget. The SSCVA in April voted to give the wildly popular festival $5,000 while giving Festival of the Lakes $15,000, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
During discussion before the vote, Board Member Bernie Grisolia said that Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. had given back the $15,000 for Festival of the Lakes and wants to see it given to Pierogi Fest. McDermott did that because 'there were hurt feelings between Whiting and Hammond' over the money, Grisolia said.
'If we take the $15,000 back, we'll be giving Pierogi Fest $25,000,' SSCVA Board President Andy Qunell said.
'Are we not sponsors for Festival of the Lakes, then?' asked Board Member Chris Cash, who's the general manager for the Ramada Conference Center in North Hammond. 'I don't want people to think we're not supporting Festival of the Lakes.'
Qunell then moved to approve the $10,000 for Pierogi Fest and said Hammond should still accept some of the money and that he would call McDermott even though the SSCVA's relationship with him is 'strained right now.' SSCVA Treasurer Matt Malony added that Qunell should make clear it the SSCVA never intended to slight Whiting.
McDermott, however, told the Post-Tribune on Wednesday that Qunell's effort would be a 'loaded proposition.'
'This whole thing was botched, completely mishandled from the beginning,' McDermott said. 'I love Whiting, and we never wanted to take any sort of money away from them, so (SSCVA) can keep the money.
'We pay $2.5 million to the CVA each year — that's 50% of their budget — and they want to give us $15,000? That's a pretty crappy return.'
This year's smaller SSCVA sponsorships for the two prompted President and CEO Phil Taillon in April to consider changing the process by which festivals asked for sponsorships, the Post-Tribune reported. Having previously paid $20,000 for a high-level Festival of the Lakes sponsorship, the organization's vote to give $10,000 to it this year and $5,000 to Pierogi Fest was directly tied to the SSCVA's lawsuit between it and former President and CEO Speros Batistatos.
Grisolia at that meeting asked whether the board would consider giving Festival of the Lakes $15,000 since $10,000 is 'kind of an insult.' Chief Financial Officer Nicole Wolverton concurred with Taillon that the money isn't there right now.
In other business, CFO Nicole Wolverton said the SSCVA collected $398,000 of Innkeeper's tax for March, about $33,000 less than last year. So far, the SSCVA has collected $1.6 million, or $100,000 less year-to-date. Some of the lower revenues, at least on Hammond's end, could be attributed to a function BP Whiting hosted where many of their contractors were staying in hotels, Cash said; as such, revenues are 'hard to make up' at the start of the year. But Taillon wasn't too concerned yet.
'Tourism is down all over, so to be where we're at right now isn't a bad place,' he said.

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Chicago Tribune

3 hours ago

• Chicago Tribune

Column: Remembering the ‘Sammy Wars' and other tales from Sosa's long and storied Chicago Cubs career

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The Sammy Wars were a daily thing between the Tribune and Sun-Times for many years, and as much as he helped enrich the Cubs, he also sold a lot of newspapers in this sports-crazed town. Sosa's mid-career trajectory from serviceable slugger to superstar was dramatic, and by baseball standards, happened almost overnight. Sosa had a combined 22.4 bWAR over his first nine seasons, from 1989-97, with one All-Star appearance in 1995. Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox snubbed him when picking the 1996 and '97 National League reserves, and Sosa begged out of the '98 game with a shoulder bruise after being selected as a reserve despite hitting 20 home runs in June. On the final weekend of the 1997 season, manager Jim Riggleman alluded to Sosa in a rant to the media about a 'me-first' culture in the Cubs clubhouse. 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But Sosa abruptly canceled and later told Sports Illustrated in a statement: 'When the time came, I felt like I was being swept up in a PR machine that was moving way too fast and not adhering to the spirit of our agreement, so I pulled out.' Ten years later, Sosa's people issued a semi-apology statement for making 'mistakes' by doing things to 'recover from injuries in an effort to keep my strength up to perform over 162 games.' He was then invited to the Cubs Convention and elected into the Cubs Hall of Fame. But at the convention he told the media he wasn't apologizing for any PED stuff but for depriving Cubs fans of his presence during the separation. The Cubs regret the error. It was a classic bat-and-switch. But Ricketts, at that point, didn't seem to care. He just wanted it over, like everyone else. 'We kind of inherited this Sammy situation from 2004, and it's always been a goal to put it behind us,' Ricketts told Tribune Cubs writer Meghan Montemurro at the convention. 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As you well know, conflicts of interest — perceived or real, it doesn't really matter. When Sammy thinks Tribune Company, he thinks of the newspaper, the whole deal. He doesn't make a distinction.' Sosa continued to sell newspapers when Adee later moved to the dark side and joined the Tribune as sports editor. Good, bad or ugly, people have always been interested in the Sosa saga. Someday it'll make a great Netflix series.

Yahoo

a day ago

• Yahoo

REVIEW: New 28 Years Later film, shot in Somerset - worth a watch?

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Miami Herald

2 days ago

• Miami Herald

‘I feel like I'm home': Brad Marchand serves Panthers fans Dairy Queen after Cup win

Brad Marchand, barely 60 hours after winning the Stanley Cup for the second time in his 16-season NHL career, emerged from the kitchen of the Dairy Queen in Sunrise late Friday morning with a tray full of chocolate chip cookie dough Blizzards. 'Best day of my life,' Marchand said. Marchand credits the dessert chain for a lot of the Florida Panthers' postseason success after he and several teammates made a post-dinner trek there during the Eastern Conference final and began winning. So it was only natural that one of his post-Cup meet-and-greets with fans would be at a DQ, where hundreds of fans lined up on short notice to meet the veteran forward and get free ice cream hand delivered by him. For the day, at that location, the chocolate chip cookie dough Blizzard was called the 'Brad Blizzard' and instead of chocolate chips, it contained 'chocolate chirps.' 'It's been incredible the last couple days, but I think this tops it all off,' said Marchand, his voice hoarse from all the celebrating with his teammates since clinching the championship Tuesday night with a 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. 'It legit brings me back to my childhood, and it's been an incredible few days. So much love down here in Florida. There's always been a lot of talk about it not being a hockey city, but it's pretty evident that there's so much love down here for the game of hockey, and it's pretty incredible to be part of it.' It's something Marchand never expected would happen. Up until the Boston Bruins traded him to the Panthers in March for what became a first-round draft pick, he was a villain of sorts in South Florida. He was on the opposite end of a pair of bitter playoff series in 2023 and 2024, both of which Florida won. But since he got to Florida, he was accepted with open arms and was a major reason the Panthers repeated. He scored 10 goals, including six in the Cup Final series alone, and had 20 points throughout the postseason. 'It's been special,' Marchand said. 'From a fan base that was not very fond of me and I wasn't very fond of them, it's done a full 180. They completely embraced me and allowed me to be part of this team in the city and very appreciative for it.' His time in Florida might be up soon, though. He's slated to become a free agent on July 1. But by the way he talked on Friday and the way he has talked over his brief tenure here, Marchand doesn't sound like a guy who wants to leave any time soon. 'I feel like I'm home,' Marchand said as he was talking with fans. 'I am home, aren't I?' His message to Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito: 'Give me a contract!' If he does stay, there's a request to put a Dairy Queen in Amerant Bank Arena, as well. How the Dairy Queen tradition started It all began when a half dozen Panthers players — Marchand, fellow forwards Carter Verhaeghe and Eetu Luostarinen\ and defensemen Niko Mikkola, Uvis Balinskis and Jaycob Megna — going on a Dairy Queen run between Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference final in Raleigh. A photo of a fan meeting the group went viral. 'We were just going for a walk,' Marchand said. 'We wanted to walk off our dinner. We got up Dairy Queen for dessert, and it became this huge organic moment throughout the playoffs.' The Panthers won that game against Carolina 5-2. They made four more trips throughout the playoffs — ahead of Game 5 against the Hurricanes as well as Games 2, 5 and 6 in the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers, with the size of the group increasing during the Cup Final. Florida went 5-0 in the games following Dairy Queen runs. The Panthers even made a T-shirt commemorating the DQ runs, depicting the original six from the first trip eating ice cream in their home red sweaters around a Stanley C. Panther-themed ice cream truck. Did Marchand also eat a Blizzard during a game? During Game 3 of the conference final against the Hurricanes, a Sportsnet camera caught Marchand eating something off a spoon during the second intermission. When asked postgame about his midgame treat and if it happened to be a Blizzard, Marchand smiled. 'You can't beat it,' Marchand said. 'It's the best dessert in the world.' Except... it's not what he was eating prior to the Panthers finishing off the eventual 6-2 win, one in which Florida scored five goals in the final frame. So what was on the spoon that cameras caught him with? 'Honey,' Marchand said. As for talking about Dairy Queen? 'I was kind of making a joke,' Marchand said. 'I think people took it seriously. The amount of messages I got about people going to Dairy Queen yesterday — I appreciate the support. I love a good Blizzard more than anybody, but it's not something I've had in the middle of a game ... yet.' As for the honey? There's a story behind that, too. 'I've always loved honey,' Marchand said. 'Actually, when I was growing up, I loved Winnie the Pooh. So I used to have a Winnie the Pooh bear and I would feed him honey. It was covered — covered — and rock hard. I've always enjoyed it.' Marchand living up Stanley Cup celebrations Marchand certainly has enjoyed himself the past few days as the Panthers celebrate their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship — and he enjoys the second of his career and first since 2011. He was one of the lives of the part at both the Elbo Room on Wednesday and at E11even on Thursday night. Prior to the trip to the Miami nightclub on Thursday, Marchand and the team dined at Maple & Ash. While there, Marchand uploaded 20 photos to his Instagram story thanking the various former teams of his current teammates, plus the former clubs of coach Paul Maurice and Zito, for allowing the Panthers team in its current form to come together. Teammates followed suit by thanking Boston for sending Marchand to Florida. 'We all have our own story ... but we all got here,' Marchand said. 'It all played a part in this team winning the Cup.'