Northwestern Medicine Field

Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva, IL, was the home of Geneva affiliated baseball from 1991 through 2019. After that and the Coronavirus pandemic-canceled 2020 season, MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization eliminated the Kane County Cougars of the Midwest League.

The operation then joined the American Association, which lost the St. Paul Saints to affiliated ball in the same reorganization.

The Cougars were the most successful franchise to be drummed out of affiliated baseball. They were not on the two contraction lists that were leaked in November 2019. After Baseball America broke the coming contraction that October, first the New York Times and then BA obtained and published a list of the doomed teams. Each included three MwL clubs, and two of those were the same. The only difference: The Times list included the Quad Cities River Bandits while BA showed the Beloit Snappers. The Snappers' antiquated stadium made them no surprise, but the highly successful River Bandits raised eyebrows. About a month later, the Snappers announced a deal to build a new stadium - suggesting that took them off the list and possibly accounting for that one difference. While the final contraction had many other changes, 13 of the 16 MwL teams did survive - 12 including the Bandits becoming High-A Central, one moving to High-A East, and the Cougars among the three teams out.

The Cougars' start was perhaps as surprising as their end as an affiliated club. Amid the 1990s wave of new minor league ballparks, one in Geneva - just 35 miles west of Chicago, IL - drew this struggling franchise from Wausau, WI, into the shadow of two big-league teams. Not only do contemporary accounts indicate doubt about that at the time, the ownership at that point viewed the move as a transitional one on the way to a planned new ballpark in Wyoming, MI, near Grand Rapids.

Either the Chicago Cubs or the Chicago White Sox could have vetoed the move by the then-Baltimore Orioles affiliate; in fact, the Cubs parented them in one later affiliation cycle.

Opened in 1991 as Kane County Events Park, the ballpark hosted nearly a quarter of a million fans in its first season and led the league the next two with totals in the 300,000s. In 1993, it was renamed Philip B. Elfstrom Stadium for the man who landed an affiliated team to play in it. Attendance broke 400,000 in 1994, increasing every year except 1996 and turning in six straight seasons above 500,000 starting in 2001. A second seating level was added during the 2008-2009 off-season, making it the second stadium in the then Low-A league that could seat more than 10,000 - a whopping capacity for that level. The following Independence Day Eve, Elfstrom reported its all-time one-game record gate: 14,872. The HOK Sport (now Populous) ballpark's name was sold to Fifth Third Bank on May 3, 2012 - "5/3 Day" - but that went unrenewed. Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine, a healthcare system affiliated with Northwestern University, bought naming rights after the 2016 season.

Overall, the Cougars drew more than 400,000 for 14 straight seasons, yet late in that string saw consecutive increases in both Cubs campaigns, 2013-2014. The Cubs then moved their affiliation to South Bend, IN, where attendance promptly skyrocketed. During the first Cubs season, their 23rd in Geneva, the Cougars became the first club in their class to draw 10 million in one location - a feat since surpassed in 18 seasons by the Dayton Dragons.