DEPAUL AND THE McARENA: WHERE’S THE RETURN ON DEPAUL’S INVESTMENT IN CLOUT?

5/17/13

DePaul University this week entered into a preliminary deal under which the country’s largest Catholic University will pony up $70mm for the use by its men’s and women’s basketball teams of a new arena located in the “improved” McCormick Place campus.   See yesterday’s already seminal AN ARENA FOR DEPAUL AND ELEVATING CHICAGO:  “FRAU BLUCHER, ELEVATE ME!” for further details on this deal.

This is the biggest deal DePaul has ever arranged with the city of Chicago.  Tom Hynes, former Cook County Assessor and Democratic committeeman of my home 19^th Ward, is being paid $80,000 per year by DePaul for services that “may include consulting and strategic public affairs advice…in connection with the city of Chicago.”  Yet Mr. Hynes “had no role in the development of the events center project, nor in any discussions” with the city surrounding this project.

Hmm…

What is DePaul paying Mr. Hynes (pictured below) for if, despite being paid for “strategic public affairs advice…in connection with the city of Chicago,” he “had no role in the development” of DePaul’s biggest deal ever?

Yesterday, I wrote…

Second, who knew that the DePaul had $70mm lying around to finance a new basketball arena when the Blue Demons have been offered use of the United Center rent free?   If I were a DePaul graduate and/or financial supporter, I would consider this heretofore unrealized flushness the next time I received a letter or a call from the Vincentians asking me for money.

Today, I will add that if I were a DePaul contributor, I would also ask, next time the University calls with its hand out, where DePaul gets $80,000 to pay a politician who apparently does little or nothing in the area of his greatest potential value.  It would certainly not come out of my pocket.

Further…

 If DePaul were to hire yours truly for financial advice, I would have told them to avoid this deal like the proverbial plague.   Why?   I’ll let McCormick Place CEO Jim Reilly (pictured above with Mayor Emanuel and DePaul President Father Dennis Holtschneider), the latest in a long line of hangers-on who have nominally run McCormick Place, explain…

“As much as anything, it comes closer to being the truth that DePaul is subsidizing us rather than vice-versa.”

Again, see yesterday’s post.

But DePaul doesn’t want financial advice from an expert in the field.  Rather, DePaul, like most any institution that wants to survive in Chicago, seeks political clout (Some cynical types might say “buys protection.”) from people, like Mr. Hynes, who purport to be able to deliver it.   Apparently, DePaul is not getting much of a return on its investment…if Mr. Reilly is to be believed.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics.