Wrigley Field Construction Update

It being a gorgeous, sunny day here in Chicago and nearly 50 degrees (probably nicer than it will be on Opening Day), I decided to hie myself down to the ballpark to see what was up with the construction. I had seen them starting to build the new message board underneath the scoreboard when I was in line for wristbands, and as you can see here:



they have made considerable progress. Why the random numbers are on the board, I have no idea. As you can see, the new board is the entire length of the scoreboard, unlike the old one, which was only about 1/3 the scoreboard length. My understanding is that this board can also do color video.

Got lucky today too -- the gate on Sheffield was open about a foot off the ground so I was able to peek the camera in and get this view of the new box seat construction:



As you can see, not only do they have a lot of work to do on the seating area in the next five weeks, but they've also got a lot of resodding to do!

The final photo today:



is of a similar message board to the one under the CF scoreboard, that is being installed on the facade of the upper deck in LF. It's my understanding (though that one isn't visible from the street) that an identical board is going on the RF facade as well. It also appears that the "mini-boards" that were under each upper deck last year have been removed.

These new boards will have scores, stats, and of course, advertising. Well, someone's got to pay for that $88 million payroll!