Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance’s CEO, Ryan McCrady, stopped by The WTAX Morning NewsWatch to discuss the upcoming CyrusOne data center, and the new Scheels Sports Park.

With rising concern in the area about the new data center, electric bills, water usage and loud noises. McCrady deep dived into those concerns.

“Construction is the easy answer to why prices go up, but I think what people are forgetting is the amount of power generation that’s going offline in the supply and demand equation that results in a price, you have to look at both sides of it. We need to start putting more on the supply side, going forward, because absent any construction or operation of data centers, we were already losing power generation in the region.

“Count a certain percentage of the maximum output of renewables towards baseload capacity, but we believe it’s very important to have a mix of assets in generation. So, as you know, the Growth Alliance has been big supporters of renewable energy projects, also here in the region.”

The new Scheels Sports Park has opened up, so how does the Growth Alliance Feel About this?

“It was just a day of celebration, kind of like, let’s stop and take a breath and to see that there. And I think it shows what a big deal it is that we had Governor Pritzker came and spoke about sports tourism, all the kids, the local kids that were out there playing on the fields. In fact, to Springfield High School played a game out there that evening against Rochester, just shows how this isn’t just built for people outside of Springfield. 
It’s built for us to enjoy, too.”