The Sox would have, had the citizens of Addison not voted against a referendum to have the Sox move to town. It showed good judgement to keep the mullet wearing Alsipians away from town. The tax revenue might have been kinda nice for them though.

This subject has been discussed MANY times. The fact is, a majority of the fans that go to games reside in the burbs. Traffic and parking would be much better if the ballpark were just off the highway. But whether tourists from out of state would want to venture to the suburbs after the initial couple of years it was built is questionable. I would be all for the move for selfish reasons, but believe it would be a mistake for the ballclub to make such a move.

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Go Cubs!!!!

A fair question. Do the buses from Iowa go to that baseball landmark, Wrigley, or do they go to where the Cubs play (presently, Wrigley)? If the buses are there for the Cubs then obviously they'd go to Arlington Heights, Mokena, or wherever they plop a new stadium down.

But, would there be the opportunity for the Ricketts to develop the hotel at the site of the McDonalds? I don't think so; there's more than enough rooms along Rt 53 as it is.

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

I have to believe that most tourists would rather stay in the city, where there are a greater number of Hotels, theatre and resturants to choose from. That Hotel they plan to build may be a real gold mine. From tourists visiting, to possibly the visiting teams staying there (Like they do at the Westin in Cincy and many other cities, where staying at a Hotel really close to the park eliminates any potential traffic snafus) as well. I will be curious to see just how many rooms they plan to incorporate into the Hotel and how many resturants as well.

Mokena??? Really....

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Go Cubs!!!!

BUMP...Ricketts could do what he wants in beautiful Arlington Heights. Tell Tunney that. Maybe Northwestern could play all their games there at Wrigley.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

That is a fair question and while I believe it's a bit of the latter, it's mainly the former. Were the Cubs to move to a brand new super-stadium or even and Arlington Heights Wrigley replica, I don't believe the bus traffic would immediately cease. But after a couple years an organizer would likely say, "This year our trip is to Minnesota and next year we're going to St. Louis. Our next trip to Chicago will be in 2015." Or something like that.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

People from Iowa love to leave Iowa and go to better places. It's a running joke in the Big Ten that "Iowa travels well" to bowl games. That's why they keep on playing "road games" in Soldier Field. The buses will still come.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Just not with as much frequency. You can leave Iowa for other places besides a replica Wrigley Field in some suburb. In fact, you may as well build the replica Wrigley in Iowa.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

While that is true, it seems pretty obvious that people are already seeking other entertainment options. Interest and attendance is down right?

The issue here seems to be that the Cubs can no longer rely on the building they play in to sellout. If they can recreate the ability to walk to 15 bars after stumbling out of the stadium the experience doesn't lose that much.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Oh, I think the most important part of the "Wrigley experience" is the location. You may be able to destroy everything else and still draw giant numbers as long as you keep that. Who knows for sure?

But I certainly don't think if you put a new Cubs Park within walking distance of MB Financial Hillbilly Drinking Town in Rosemont- and if Ricketts wanted to, Rosemont would find him the land- that after the novelty wore off in a few seasons, the Cubs would draw any more than an average team.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Why is the location special? It just has a lot of bars and is surrounded by a stadium. If you built a whole block of bars next to Soldier Field it would be just as much of an experience.
They are the dominant team in the second or third biggest baseball market in the country. They'd be just fine. To use New York as another example, the Yankees and Mets both play in pretty useless neighborhoods too. It's just about people.

I know the Mets aren't a great example right now but that's because of other reasons.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

No, it wouldn't. It's part of a neighborhood. Wrigley Field as we now know it and the "Wrigley experience" happened organically. It wasn't planned by Really Smart People. That shithole ballpark that is now one of the Seven Wonders of the World, that has tourists from Japan taking pictures in front, that has people riding buses from Iowa to come to games there is the SAME EXACT BALLPARK that was empty when I was in high school, that had about 5000 fans inside when Ernie hit his 500th home run, that had a closed grandstand in the late 60s/early 70s.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

They are the dominant team because of the park. They were never dominant prior to the fetishization of the ballpark. That's a fact.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

As you point out, it wasn't always like that, and there are signs that the stadium/neighborhood is not able to make up for a bad product any more. There is no reason to think that a new stadium couldn't be just as much of a draw as the current one, especially if the money provided by it allows them to spend on nearly the same level as the Red Sox and Yankees.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I think it's still making up for it. They still draw better than most teams. Sure, the expectation that they automatically sell out every game may be over. That's likely due to economic factors more than anything the Cubs are doing specifically.

These days it's very difficult to tell how many tickets have actually been sold and at what prices. You have teams selling tickets to themselves.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

The Cubs are not in a position to bargain because the team is so bad. However, should they reach the level they seem to think they will, it would be a perfect time to move. I'm a season ticket holder...I'll be going to more Kane County Cougar games this season than cubs games, because it's closer.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Okay, cool, but that's not closer to the population and business center of the metropolitan area, which is served by a hub-and-spoke of expressways and railroads that bring people to said center. We're not fucking Detroit.






yet

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Moving isn't the only solution. This story deserves more attention than what it's getting. I'd be finding ways to get that attention if I were Ricketts.

Why not add windscreens behind the bleachers, then place advertisements on them? Ricketts gets the revenue he wants, gets a lot of attention for it, and also pisses off the neighbors. Dare the neighbors to take the Cubs to court.

Stop yourself

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It's probably best to not say anything when you don't know what you are talking about.

I do think that this does need more creativity for solutions. I still think my condmenation of the property on either Waveland or Sheffield could work. If you are uneasy about committing public funds because of the appearances, this is a solution that you wouldn't propose.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I'm sorry. I see you do it enough. Didn't think you would take issue with it.

Tigers still pack Comerica even though the area not within a 1/2 radius looked sketchy as shit. Their park is pretty sweet. Cubs fans will have no issue going to Arlington Hts to watch games.

Not really all that true. Since 2000, they've broken the 3M mark twice in 07' and 08' while the Cubs did it for 8 straight years and the two years flanking that run were at 2.9 and 2.8m. The amount of people the Cubs get to a game who are coming to Chicago as tourists/to spend a long weekend is undervalued around here I think.

Not a chance they'd be pushing 3m in the burbs unless they were a competitive team. Everyone knows this who is involved which is why any grandstanding by ownership that the team would move is silly. Rahm, Alderman and Ricketts all know it.

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Team Cutler.

This. They're staying at Wrigley. It's time for Ricketts to get creative or flex some muscle, if not both.

the assumption would be that they would be competitive by 2014 for the next ten years. If they aren't, attendance will continue to fall anyway. They should move. Being just west of the city would increase their local drawing power. As it stands, the majority of the fans they seem to draw are from out of town, which is not sustainable in the long run (hence the decreasing attendance).

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

I don't necessarily agree. It's only been the past 10-15 years or so that they've been putting $ and marketing focusing on Wrigley and the experience and the teams been drawing in horrendous years.

Obviously if the team is good they'd draw fans even if they built in Gary, IN, but I tend to doubt that a 3-4 year run of low 70's wins would draw more than 2.3 or so in Arlington Heights.


It really comes down to a stadium in the suburbs has a much lower floor than the one in Wrigley. There's real value to that in terms of budgeting and financial planning.

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Team Cutler.

having been there for a long time and selling tickets for a long time, I can tell you that they didn't draw (read: actual attendance) well in 2000, 2002, 2003 (until July), 2006, 2007 (until August) 2010, 11, and 12.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

The lower floor with a stadium in the suburbs also couples with there is less opportunity for brokers/scalpers/2nd hand sales plus impulse day of purchases. Much more people obviously in the city plus ease of public transport getting to the stadium.

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Team Cutler.

more people in the city? Sure. More people that will attend a Cubs game? Not necessarily. Imagine if the Cubs played as many night games as they wanted to...imagine how many more people would show up. Plus the big money is in the suites, the extra stuff.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Well, the discussion and my opinion would certainly change if the Cubs were not allowed to maximize every square inch of Wrigley for profit. A brand new stadium in the suburbs might actually have a higher floor than a Wrigley that continues to fall apart, literally.

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Team Cutler.

Some won't. A few will go to more games. And a whole bunch will go to less games.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don