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

I see your point(s). However, a person needs to look at the whole picture. Wrigley is not the sole problem here...and no one is saying that. However, the lack of night games and limiting some of the potential revenue streams play as much of a role as shitty drafting and shitty signings and shitty player development. Now as far as the impact on the fans...it is what it is...bathrooms & food aside, if the teams cant get revenue from billboards and jumbo-trons and what have you...guess who pays more for the tickets? The fans of course. Wrigley Field IS part of the PROBLEM for the Cubs.

_________________
Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Don't tell me I don't want the Cubs to win a championship. I would just prefer they did so with minimal self-prostitution. I don't see what's so wrong about that. If the Cubs have to rename Wrigley Field and stop playing day games and put up gaudy billboards and triple their ticket prices and take their games off channel 9 and on and on and on just to maybe win a championship, then at what cost does it come if it does at all? Don't make me out to be some beer-swilling fratboy douchebag. I'm not at all. But following a baseball team day-to-day for six months is an experience, more so than in other sports, and so I don't think I'm wrong in wanting certain elements of that experience to be preserved. If I were confident that any good would come out of this w/r/t a championship trajectory, I'd be cautiously optimistic about it. Rather, I'm all too assured that we'd get the same losing baseball or worse; 100+x years of losing, but now with plywood above the bleachers.

EDIT: Not sure how day baseball is even holding the Cubs back. They draw 41,000 a game at 1:20 without a problem. Their television ratings nearly double that of the White Sox. So many people listen to Cubs games on the radio that it gives the impression that more than six people actually listen to WGN during the day.

_________________

They should build a second deck on the bleachers just to block the view of the stupid rooftop businesses. You could add about 10,000 tickets, generate a shit ton of revenue, and put people who have been riding the coat tails of "The Shrine's" success out of business.

_________________

Oh man.... minimal self-prostitution???? This is Big Business...not high school athletics. Maybe you can become a Kane County Cougars fan. The "experience" there is just "jolly" and "wonderful".

_________________
Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

It's weird how for all the ragging I do on college basketball dopes about "atmophere and integrity" (though in fairness most of that is just coded racism and thus deserving of ridicule), I can't take baseball, the most analytical sport of all, and just boil it down to straight-up CHAMPIONSHIP OR BUST robotics. I'd kinda like my chosen team to be more than Big Business, which ironically it sorta was while under the ownership of a very big business indeed.

_________________

Wrigley Field is a beautiful ballpark. Its homey, neighborhood-y and seein a game there is like steppin into a time machine but it really is time for the Cubs to move on and hopefully start makin plans to move out of there. Its out of date and too small for a team like the Cubs who have damn near the same popularity as the Yankees. This team needs a state of the art stadium of there own where they don't have to worry about landmark, whiney residents and aldermen telling them what's ok and what's not ok. It really is time for the team to think about moving

_________________
"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."

The Cubs are almost as big as the Yankees precisely because of Wrigley Field (and nationally televised games). If you take that away from them, as they've already taken away the nationally televised games, they become the Cleveland Indians.

_________________

Curious, the day game thing is more about it's effects on the players rather than on attendance and revenue, I believe.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Ricketts is going to spend nearly $400 million on Wrigley improvements over the next 4 years. I'd rather Ricketts find additional sources of revenue to pay for the improvements instead of subtracting from the team payroll and minor league/scouting budgets.

Big piece of property in Elk Grove on Higgins. Once rumored to be the next home of the Bears. Part of me would like a "NEW" Wrigley. I still can't seperate my love of the park from my overall love of the Cubs.
What's the diff to me anyway? I prefer my 65-inch Mitsu for baseball .

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

Dan "if it helps the Cubs win the World Series"

IT

WON'T

The Cubs put UnderArmour logos on the outfield doors to help finance the Soriano contract. Now that shitty contract has spent the Cubs right out of a World Series. And if the Cubs do by the grace of God win it all, nobody is going to say that the roof-blocking billboard is what made it all possible. God damn it.

_________________

The Cubs are partners with the rooftop owners & they get about 50% of the rooftop take.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I think it's only 35%. Not sure. Bigfan, do you know? Why can't Ricketts just get a cut from Gramatis?

Now Bernstein is saying the Ricketts family is totally dedicated to putting all their money into the team. But he's gone on the record saying that they'd slash payroll and "be like the White Sox" in terms of spending. If you spend like the White Sox and profit like the Cubs, you're doing a hell of a lot more than breaking even.

_________________

It's 17.5%

I love the historical aspects of Baseball in Wrigley field. However, having been to many new parks, I can easily appreciate having the ability to scan lots of information (what has the batter done in his last 5 games?...what has the pitcher done in his last 3 starts?) as well as the ability to see a REPLAY!! I like those kinds of things. You get that with a modern scoreboard. I'm in favor of what's being done there....all the renovations that will keep the basic charm of Wrigley, while adding things like a Jumbotron and newer expanded bathrooms, which just make the experience better. While I would LOVE to have a park like Miller Park in Milwaukee, for it's retractable roof (we DO get a bit of bad weather in April and even May fairly frequently) as well as the spacious concourses that have much more room for pedestrians, it would come at too great a cost. It would be easier to go to games here in the burbs, but Wrigley is like a home away from home to me. I'm glad they are trying to do things like they are. I just hope they are able to get the new scoreboard, as it seems ridiculous to me that the city should have any say in how the Cubs do business in their own park. Unless the city of Chicago wants to pay the Cubs the money they would be taking in from ad revenue from the Jumbotron, they should butt out.

_________________
Go Cubs!!!!

I believe part of being granted landmark status includes significant tax breaks. So in affect the city is giving back something already....and they have to approve any changes & or renovations to the particular parts of the park that are landmarked. I could be wrong, but basically my take is...

Fuck Chicago politics!

_________________
Proud to be UNVERIFIED.