I didn't know Biggie and Slappy went to Conant.

Long-awaited Wrigley Field rehab deal expected by Monday’s opener
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com April 4, 2013 5:36PM

Updated: April 4, 2013 6:36PM

The Cubs and City Hall expect to nail down a $500 million deal by Monday’s home opener that will allow the team to renovate 99-year-old Wrigley Field and develop property around the stadium by putting up “at least two” new signs inside the ballpark — including a video scoreboard in left field — and building a 300-space parking garage.

One day after local Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) portrayed an agreement on all of the “moving parts” as nowhere in sight, two sources close to the marathon negotiations predicted an agreement by Monday that would allow rooftop clubs to continue operating for the eleven-year “duration” of their revenue-sharing agreement with the Cubs.

Sources said “a couple” of rooftops would be “minimally” impacted by the decision to locate a jumbotron in left field and at least one more sign in right. But, the sources said negotiators are still working on ways to “soften” the impact. The size of the video scoreboard has not yet been finalized.

The source refused to reveal specifics, but said there would be no extension of the agreement signed by the Tribune Co. that requires the rooftops to share 17 percent of their revenues with the team.

City Hall sources said Mayor Rahm Emanuel also is prepared to lift the 30-game-per-season ceiling on the number of night games to “40 or more” night games and add even more dates for concerts. Six to ten 3:05 p.m. starts could also be part of the mix.

To appease Wrigleyville residents, sources said the Cubs are prepared to foot the bill for more police protection to control game-day crowds and build a new, 300-space parking garage on the gravel cemetery lot the team owns at Clark and Grace.

Tunney has demanded that the Cubs replace the 400 spaces that were supposed to be part of a “triangle building” adjacent to the ballpark that the team has now scrapped in favor of an open-air plaza.

Earlier this week, Tunney raised the prospect of a new parking garage on the cemetery lot and free remote parking.

“Wrigley Field has about 1,400 spaces, which is like the least of any baseball team in America — by far. . . . Boston has 4,500. Same congested neighborhood. So, we’ve got work to do. … You wonder why the neighbors are concerned about parking, traffic and congestion,” he said.

Noting that the gravel cemetery lot at Clark and Grace is “as big as the stadium,” he said, “Can they build [a garage] on that? There’s land [but] building is expensive. . . . They’re exploring all their options — a combination of certain additions in the community and a more robust remote parking plan.”

Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts has offered to bankroll a $300 million Wrigley renovation without a public subsidy — and build a $200 million hotel development on McDonald’s property he purchased across the street from the stadium — if the city agrees to lift restrictions on outfield signs and night games and opens Sheffield Avenue for street fairs on game days.

With Tunney’s support, rooftop clubs that cash in on their bird’s-eye view of Wrigley have countered with a plan to generate $17.9 million-a-year to bankroll the stadium renovation by putting seven digital signs on top of their buildings instead of inside the ballpark blocking their views.

Emanuel has been trying to broker a deal that would allow the rooftops to survive and thrive and still give the Cubs the sign revenue they need to renovate the landmark stadium.

An agreement by opening day that eluded his predecessor would allow Emanuel to score a huge victory and keep the Cubs in Chicago and preserve Wrigley Field for another generation of baseball fans.

It would also allow the mayor to claim at least partial credit for a $500 million project that, the Cubs have maintained, would generate 1,200 permanent jobs, 800 construction jobs and $20 million-a-year in new tax revenue for the city and state.

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I like the idea of the street festival on Waveland or Sheffield. I don't know why they cannot push that idea for Saturday games at least on a trial basis. That would close a non arterial street for a few hours every couple of weeks during the summer. That happens all the time in the city with neighborhood fests and block parties.

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

I don't have a problem with it on weekends either. It would lose its novelty if it were every single game, and grow to be a bit of a pain for the people who do, after all, live there.

I'm really upset about the jumbotron. It was nice to have had one park that didn't forcibly fuck you up the ass with the same old sensory overload--not to mention Monetizing Everything!--as every other sporting event in North America. I'm not saying that a baseball game is a place to enjoy some much-needed peace and quiet, just that it was nice to have labored under the fallacy that we were a bit too urbane and well-versed in our game to need a giant television screen telling us to Make Some N0IZE!!! (Making Some N0IZE is presented by Commonwealth Edison: making some power).

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Don't they do the make some noise bit on the scrolling LEDs?

What is the average number of home night games out of 81? Were getting close

I mean every team has to have at least 25 day games right? Between weekends and getaway day?

Anyone know?

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My sister is a Sox fan. She and her girlfriend are in town from New Mexico. They went to the Cub game yesterday. I asked them if they would have gone to a Sox game if they hsd been in town. "No, Monica wanted to see Wrigley Field." Monica: "It's an icon." I asked her if she would have wanted to go to a Wrigley replica in Rosemont and she looked at me like I was insane. I think a lot of people are off base on this "just move" nonsense.

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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

It's inevitable though that the "magic" of Wrigley Field will be lessened with the new additions. When you start to fill the stadium with advertising, block the rooftops, pump in music, and renovate the interior of the stadium to look different you can't count on selling out your stadium because women from New Mexico buy one ticket to Wrigley in their life.

Soldier Field was a "classic" stadium too, and even though they stayed it lost all of that appeal. Now, everyone laughs at the Bears for not moving to a stadium that doesn't solve the problems they have.

No matter what, it seems obvious that the days of selling Wrigley Field as the same experience you would have gotten in 1930 is gone.

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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!

Rick, we're not just talking about a couple broads from Albuquerque here and there. We're talking about buses from Iowa and Minnesota, baseball fans from Japan and Puerto Rico, probably hundreds of thousands of people each year that won't be going to Rosemont. Is that gonna be made up by IMU going to a couple more games? I doubt it. The canard here is the concept that the Cubs start each sesson at a competitive disadvantage due to Wrigley, when, in fact, they begin with a huge sdvantsge because of it.

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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

Yeah, but will those people still come when Wrigley Field transforms into a modern stadium built on the framework of an old stadium? If Wrigley were staying the same with rooftops and manual scoreboards and no pumped in music I'd be more willing to think that those people will be around still or in the numbers they used to be.

I also think the buses from Iowa and Minnesota will still come because people want to visit Chicago and see baseball and the Cubs are a good excuse. What are all those people going to do now?

Let's be honest. I think Wrigley is a pretty cool experience, but I'm not getting on a bus every year to see any stadium. I'm going for better reasons than that. For the first time, of course I would, but it's kind of like a museum. Eventually, the exhibits that never change become boring.

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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 pretty much agree with you here. I wouldn't compare Soldier Field though. Football stadiums haven't been fetishized the way baseball stadiums are. Lambeau may be an exception because the whole Green Bay thing is so weird. But you never hear about guys trying to visit all 30 NFL stadiums.

Anyway, if they do too much to Wrigley where it is, it may well have the same effect as moving to the suburbs. It probably wouldn't be so drastic though. The location and the surrounding businesses are a major part of the experience and that would still be there. Again, there are all kinds of little pieces that contribute to Wrigley being "the place where baseball is better TM". I wouldn't trade those things to have the fifth or sixth best Jumbotron in baseball. But then, I'm probably not a Really Smart Person like Julian Green.

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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

I'll never understand expending large quantities of time, money, and energy to attend a sporting event so you can watch TV.

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if you don't watch the Diamondvision you won't know when to cheer or that McDonald's has the best breakfast.

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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

It's nice to watch a replay at a sporting event instead of the whole crowd having no idea what happened.

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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!

Why would you miss it if you're watching the game? And if it's a play that needs to be seen again and again, you won't have trouble seeing it when you get home. I really don't think the killer app of Diamondvision is replay.

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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

Blocked sight line or it was a close play you missed the first time or you just want to see it at another angle. Why do you think virtually every television broadcast does replays of even moderately important plays?

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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!

Because television isn't a baseball game. It's television. This goes back to the football argument. Most people are fans of watching football on television rather than being fans of football. And there is a subtle but very clear difference.

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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

No offense intended, but it seems like you just made up some random criteria there.

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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!

Yes. Football is a TV show. All its years of technological upgrades and goofy-ass rule changes are like when sitcoms add precocious adopted sons or take trips to Walt Disney World.

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