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The city-state agency that operates the home stadium of the Chicago White Sox has asked a Cook County court to help it claw back the $1.5 million it claims were lost when a charity concert event planned to take place at Guaranteed Rate Field cratered, because promoters failed to bring in the big-name musical acts they had promised.
On May 17, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court against New York-based Mike Daddy Unlimited Inc. and two individuals, identified as Michael Evans and Shannon Ridley, asserting they owe the money, after their alleged breach of contract and fraud left Illinois and Chicago taxpayers on the hook for the bill.
The ISFA is overseen by a board appointed by the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago. In addition to operating Guaranteed Rate Field, the ISFA also provided funding in 2001 for the redevelopment of Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.
James Figliulo
The lawsuit stems from a failed charitable concert event planned to take place in the fall of 2017 at Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the White Sox.
According to the IFSA’s complaint, the agency wished to host the event to draw perhaps as many as 30,000 spectators to the ballpark the IFSA owns and manages, and then donate a portion of ticket sales to non-profit organizations dedicated to reducing gun violence.
As the agency planned the concert, the complaint said it connected with Ridley and Evans, who the lawsuit identified as “promoters.” The lawsuit identifies Evans as president and CEO of Mike Daddy. Ridley, who also goes by the names Shannon “SLam’ Lawrence, and “SLam,” according to the complaint, is described as the founder and CEO of Wizpack, the maker of “a backpack with a built-in stereo.”
According to the complaint, the IFSA alleges Evans and Ridley promised to exploit connections within the entertainment industry to sign such acts as Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and Joseph “Fat Joe” Cartagena to perform at the concert, which the IFSA called “Get In It Musicfest.”
According to the complaint, the IFSA said Evans and Ridley also led former IFSA CEO Anthony O’Neill to believe they could also sign some other big-name acts, potentially including Demi Lovato, Prince Royce, Nikki Minaj, Lupe Fiasco, Nick Jonas, Gucci Mane, Felix da Housecat, Pharrell, Fifth Harmony, DNCE, Macklemore and others.
The complaint said O’Neill investigated Evans’ and Ridley’s claims, and determined they could be trusted to follow through on their assertions. In May 2017, the IFSA executed a memorandum of understanding with Mike Daddy, Evans and Ridley, setting the terms of their partnership. The IFSA then transferred $650,000 to Mike Daddy, according to the complaint.
According to the lawsuit, Mike Daddy was also to contribute $650,000 toward the concert budget.
However, in ensuing months, IFSA officials allegedly began to suspect the promoters were not signing the acts, as promised, and the numbers were “not adding up.” Throughout the summer, the IFSA complaint said, “Mike Daddy, Evans and Ridley could not, or would not, provide adequate documentation supporting alleged payments to performers or documentation confirming the performers’ commitments to the concert.”
Fearing for the fate of the concert, the IFSA then purportedly hired a second promotions agency to sign performers. But ticket sales proved “dismal,” forcing the IFSA to cancel the concert and refund all ticket sales.
ISFA said they were only able to recoup about $352,500 of deposits paid to performers who had signed on for the show. That left taxpayers on the hook for nearly $1.5 million, the lawsuit said.
Following the debacle, the ISFA placed O’Neill on paid administrative leave while lawyers it hired investigated the loss. This spring, the ISFA announced it had hired former Illinois Tollway director Greg Bedalov to serve as its CEO.
The ISFA has asked the court to order Mike Daddy and Evans to pay $1.5 million in compensatory damages for breach of contract, and Ridley and Evans to pay more than $1 million in compensatory damages for fraudulent inducement.
The ISFA is represented in the action by attorneys James R. Figliulo and Rebecca Kaiser Fournier, of the firm of Figliulo & Silverman PC, of Chicago.