Maybe its time to let Wrigley go gracefully?

I love Wrigley. But if a new ballpark would represent a clean break from the past and give the Cubs an advantage, bring it.

but I will say well written.

Wrigley Field and Fenway must remain. I am from Cincinnati, and I while I enjoy the modern amanities of Great American Ballpark, it is special when I get to Wrigley.

You. :)

Maybe I’ll read it, but in the meantime, it’s not the stadium’s fault.

Let’s change the team name to the Grizzlies while we’re at it. Cubs = Teddy Bear. Grizzly = Man-killing predator!

however, I do have a beef with one suggestion, and I am only half serious, but . . .

McCormick Place? IMO, that puts us way to close to the White Sox.

I agree 100%, I couldnt tell you the difference b/t Arlington Heights and Athens, Greece though, so I’ll leave that to the Chicagoans to discuss.

I just think its inevitability something is gonna have to give in terms of the Cubs housing situation and is probably the biggest issue for the new owner.

I dont think Wrigley is so amazing just because of the place. I think its ALL the fans, the atmosphere and the surroundings. So if we were to get a new park, I would want it in Wrigleyville. Theres only a few problems.
1. If we get a new park, you know damn well we need a parking facility. Where does that go if your in Wrigleyville? Under the park? I doubt it.
2. If you want parking, bye-bye Wrigleyville.
3. Retractable roof or not?
4. Do we keep anything from before?

Theres other things ive thought about that i cant remember. Like someone else said, this isnt part of the playoff hangover. I was thinking this when I went to Miller for the last game of the year. It was the 4th time ive been there. They have a GREAT facility up there.

Next question!

with the exception of having to play the Friday Day Game after returning from a road trip on Thursday.

All teams play day games on Sunday
Most Teams play day games on Saturday
Most Teams play a day games during the week on a get away day.

I am guessing that the Cubs play 30 more day games than the rest of the league. Is that such a big deal when only a fraction of those day games come during the hot months and most of them are on the weekend when they have already adjusted. When we suck at home, other teams don’t seem to have a problem with the day games.

If they got the city to allow them to play Friday Night Games, the # of day games would go down even more

Its part of what makes the Cubs the Cubs. I don’t want moderh things, I want old fashioned pure baseball.

Than when they introduced the Blue M&M

They have managed to update that place and it still retains the lure and lore that makes it special and unique. Does Wrigley need major renovation—yup. But no reason to build a new park, Heck I’d be for an electric scoreboard and billboards on the Ivy (shudder) before I would want them to build a new one. Your money argument is another reason, as SuperC noted, why it would be a dumb move. Why raise the money (probably by taxpayers — who will never pass the bonds in this economy) when you have a paid for, albeit in need of repair, facility. Naaa…fix the place up, build the office building next to it or whatever and move on. Parking lots??? That is sooo last century.

I dont see whats so wrong about wanting a sports team to have more money in the coffers.

Also I think the Cubs should really consider there own cable network as well.

on most things Cubs, and he’s been to more of the newer NL parks (Milwaukee and St. Louis) than I have. He loves Wrigley as much as any Cubs fan and he told me this year that the Cubs should build a new stadium. He basically said Wrigley was a dump. The seats, restroom facilities, food courts and concourse are so crappy compared to others. The field and bleachers/scoreboard are still the selling point, but the rest must go. Oh, plus no parking if you have to drive to the game.

I would tend to agree. I go to games here at Chase Field, and this place is far from a baseball palace, but on nights early in the season when the roof is open and the outfield windows/doors are open, it’s a great place to watch a game. I hate it when the place is all closed up. The new Wrigley could be like all the retractable roof stadiums and would be nice to play at in April, OCTOBER ;) and rainy days.

Making the original Wrigley a museum would be nice, but I don’t know if they have the deep pockets to sustain a museum instead of selling that property. The sad part of moving to a new home is that all the neighborhood charm and electricity that is there would be lost forever.

I haven’t lived in Chicago for over 8 years now and have no idea what open land would be available or suitably large enough to accomodate a new stadium and parking and probably a hotel/restaurant/bar complex like here in Glendale, AZ.

I love the troughs!

shut it down for a year, play at the cell, and doa massive renovation.

Modernize Wrigley!

New scoreboard, new bathrooms, more seats, but keep the Ivy, etc.

Nothing but bad karma exists in that hell hole. A world series title has not been won there, really only epic failures have occured in that ballpark. Tear it down. I dont care about the “atmosphere”. I would rather have a world series title than “atmosphere”

I think a problem could be this: too many day games

1st off, the Cubs DO NOT play a majority of their games during the day — they play a majority of HOME games in daylight. It sounds like the Cubs are already trying to increase their number of night games, and I’m sure they will.

2nd, who cares what the revenue books look like? The Cubs make more than enough money already! Just like D. Lee said, Wrigley Field is a tourist attraction and lots of people who go to games, go for the experience; therefore, when the Cubs have a horrible season, they can still count on good attendance — I seriously doubt that would be the case in a new park — Just ask the SF Giants, who missed 3 million for the first time at their beautiful, waterfront park — because the team sucked.

Bottom line is, Wrigley Field should be modernized just like Fenway has been. Anybody who blames the ballpark for the team’s performance is making excuses. I admit, a good point is made with respect to player facilities; but I firmly believe, any renovation done to the park, would easily remedy that problem.

CUBS PLAY AT WRIGELY, RED SOX PLAY AT FENWAY… ENOUGH SAID CUBS STAY PUT. Cubs moving into a new ballpark would throw off the laws of nature and destroy our planet. You think global warming is bad. Have the CUBBIES move into a new ballpark that will be apocolyptic

I would have to think long and hard about this.

BUT STILL A NO

NO

The Cubs get decent revenue streams as-is, Klown Kenney has mentioned how they’ve been able to increase these in recent years and that they have ideas for further increases without major renovation. Once you turn it into a Ball Mall or move it out to the suburbs it loses it’s appeal as a classic neighborhood ballpark and the Cubs become as big a draw as the Pirates.

We already have an alternative in town if you absolutely need to drag the rug rats to the park to be distracted from the game — it’s at 35th and Shields.

For a while I’ve wondered if a newer, more modern-style Wrigley could be built in and around the Soldier Field-Museums area of town. Would dumping enough landfill along the lakeside create enough a big enough parcel of real estate to support the necessary acreage?

Furthermore, you could not only keep the original Friendly Confines but REMOVE some of the seating. How or why, you ask? Because a minor league team could be lured in to play there, and they only need about 10K seats to operate profitably.

Many of the new parks that have been made were HUGE improvements from their respective teams old parks. That is, getting away from boring cookie cutter designs and dumpy utilitarian venues. Actually most of the new parks are striving to recreate the views and ambiance of a place like Wrigley Field. Really all we are talking about here is improving parking, concessions, restrooms… Would everyone be talking about a new park if the concourse was lighted and covered in marble? Or if the restrooms included tile floors and chrome plated faucets? Or how about Sushi, Garlic Fries, and Gourmet Pizza? These things are easy — well maybe we’ll have to terra cotta the place instead of marble.

…honesty prevails me to say that I would not miss the ballpark if the Cubs abandoned it for a new place somewhere else. Wrigley is a beautiful ballpark. Nobody questions that. But it also is a borderline dump in need of HUGE improvements. Plus I’m sick and tired of it being about the ballpark as opposed to the ball team.

If Wrigley is to remain viable then an EXTREME MAKEOVER will need to happen. Given the landmark status attached to the ballpark and Mayor Daley’s disdain for the Cubs I bet it will take years to even move an inch on such a project. Hence why I don’t think it is out of the realm of possibility that the new owner abandons Wrigley and starts anew.

…that so many Cub fans would be willing to throw the Cub identity and tradition away to win a world series.

in Arlington Heights, and all I have to say is:

Please dear god no.

And the atmosphere etc etc.

Let me ask you this. Why then didnt Yankee Stadium receive another major overhaul? They built a brand new 1.5 billion dollar stadium next door.

Do you think that Yankee Stadium doesnt have the same history as Wrigley?

I just want people to look at things in a potentially new view. Im not advocating tearing down Wrigley, I love it there. Im just saying what if?

Also

Why are people so hesitant to see the Cubs play somewhere other then Wrigley? Are we as Cubs fans scared of change?

to build a new park — there was land next to the old one. That’s not the case at Wrigley. I stated this before — the only place I can remember with open space on the north side would be in the area near Harlem Ave/Irving Park Rd — The site of the ancient TB hospital. But, that’s far from an “L” line and it’s surrounded by surface streets.

I don’t see how you can rebuild Wrigley within the same footprint. The 70s’ renovation of Yankee Stadium went….up — the new seating bowl was well above the old structure. That would look so awful in Wrigleyville.

The west side (my thunder was just stolen) would be the only site in Chicago where there’s a lot of open land.

It can have a retractable dome like Millar Park so we don’t lose any games to weather. It can have mass transit right into it plus zillions of parking in a garage configuration. Cruise ships can dock behind the scoreboard to provide a luxury game experience without ever having to walk into the stadium. There can be a ring of restaurants around the park that could be always open to enjoy in conjunction with a stadium tour as well as durning games. Most modern technological ballpark in existence that captures the ambience of 1940s baseball with the manual scoreboard,ivy walls and left and right field wells.

Bush’s rating is “all the way up” in the 20’s %, if you wanted to compare to something really unpopular, try Congress… :^)

Wrigley is always associated with the Cubs and so goes the curses or however anyone wants to refer to their failures (e.g. bad players, maybe?)

If they can build a new place with a lot of the similarities to the current ball park, including literally moving the ivy and marquee and replicating the old scoreboard but now holding all 30 MLB team’s line scores, that would be a good start.

Sweeping lines of the grandstands, maybe a 3rd deck (yes there’d be support poles), cleanly fit in the skyboxes (not like the clusterfuck that is the southside shithole), big wide concourses, no team offices in the park, player statues outside (personally I expect to see Billy, Ryno & Ronnie statues go up in the near future at Clark & Addison), tributes to Jack and Harry inside.

But no mammoth TV screen. Put smaller ones in other places. No mascot, keep the blaring sound down and tactfully put in the advertisements. Of course all of this comes along with a capacity increase to beyond 45k, maybe even up to 50k; it’s just where to put the new place that will be the biggest challenge.

1) close wrigley for a year or so
2) build the triangle building and put the gift shop and offices in there.
3) put restauraunts or microbrews or whatever other trendy stuff the people want in the areas vacated by the gift shop and offices.
4) rebuild the Upper Deck and lift it so that the skyboxes don’t interfere with the back rows of the lower level as much.
5) build a second level of skyboxes on top of the current roof.
6) rebuild the scoreboard so that it can hold the score for EVERY game
7) buy buildings across from wrigley and put video replay board up
8) buy up the lots around wrigley and build parking garages.

That’s my plan for wrigley.

I keep going back and forth on this. My gut reaction is NOOO! I’d be heartbroken to leave Wrigley. I’d cry. My husband had to practically drag me out at the last game we went to because I knew it would be the last time I’d see it this season. Can’t imagine how I’d feel if I knew it was the last time EVER. So part of me says fix it. No new park.

Another part says it’s inevitable and that fixing it up would be like filling in potholes when you really need to resurface the whole street. I’ve enjoyed seeing the Cubs at all the other parks we’ve been to for road games. New could be good. A roof would be great.

Then I worry that a new park will have all those distracting things I love to hate about other parks. Things like exploding scoreboards and screens telling me when to cheer and jumbo trons. YUK. I don’t want anything to take away from the game on the field.

I would be curious to know what the reaction to this question would have been if the Cubs would have won the WS this year. Would everyone be in such a hurry to ditch it? I get the feeling some are blaming the park….adding it to the long list of other curses. I just don’t see how getting a new park would have anything to do with us winning or losing. It’s like everyone is upset right now and ready to go storm the castle. And not just about Wrigley….some are ready to trade off the whole entire team(when they won the division the 2nd year in a row!). It’s like everyone’s gone a little nuts and is ready to sell their souls for a WS.

Wrigley is the one thing that links the Cubs to our great former successes. It was opened during a time of continued Cubs domination, the early 1920’s when the team entered into the play offs and World Series once every few years. At least at that point, we were WINNING. Contenders. Wrigley is not the problem. It’s a historic Chicago landmark and the fact that it is actively still running is what makes it special.

A museum??? This team already has a museum-like quality in the way it gets talked about it. To mummify Wrigley Field would add to all of the mystique and curse talk. And THEN we’d have to deal with even more effed up jokes. “No matter where you go, there (The Cubs) are.”

Now…my only last SHRED of semi-barely realized approval might be if someone of the architectural stature of Zachary Taylor Davis or a Columbian Exposition Omstead or some other uber-artist that creates a thing of UNBEARABLE BEAUTY might I then say, “Perhaps.” Again, this would have to be the “David” of baseball parks and ivy would be a requirement and only in place of a Wrigley Field infested with wolverines, etc.

Because nothing strikes cold into my heart faster than the thought of a MODERN (or neo-Modern etc.) granite donut for a baseball park. I think I’d actually lose interest in baseball, period. It’s bad enough that the Sox now have to play in Cellular Field. Let’s thing on a Verizon Dome or Citi Bank Field. gag

“Modern Architecture: Efficient and Beauty-Free”.

I say we fix what we can, beautify Wrigley more, and that the front office and the Cubs players do the best that they can to win baseball games, as they should.

Hoo. End of discussion, for me.

The ballpark didn’t choke. Keep Wrigley, get rid of the superstitions.

I think that if the Cubs played their home games in a field other than Wrigley a parallel universe might be opened up along our current timeline. The paradox of Wrigley field not being used to played baseball by the Cubs and the Cubs playing ball somewhere else would cause a disruption in the space time continuum possibly causing everything to cease to exist. Even if they did build a new park, can you imagine visiting “McCormick Place Stadium”, “T-Mobile Field”, “Hanes Her Way Stadium” or “Google Field” to watch the Chicago Cubs play their home games that might be located in someplace other than Chicago? I really hope that if the Cubs do get their own network, that WGN still gets to broadcast as many games as they do. One of the reasons the Cubs have such a big following is directly related to the vast audience of WGN. A major overhaul that simply updated structural integrity and seating would help Wrigley survive for years to come. As far as parking goes, who says they can’t design an underground parking area. Thats not that far fetched of an idea. They might need to tear out the field completey to complete the work and then redo it all again but at least there would be parking. It’s not so out of the question to renovate and update Wrigley but still make it feel like Wrigley. In the end, I want to see baseball, I don’t need a giant electronic scoreboard telling me that the 3rd baseman up to date hails from Puerto Rico or 60 signs telling me what insurance I should buy or what male enhancement drug I should use. All I’m interested in is baseball. I know in the end it comes down to money, it’s really about money, but in the end it doesn’t have to always be about money.

I’ve been a Cubs fan since before I can really remember…
They are My team… I would watch every game given the chance…
I love My Boys in Blue…
I remember Ernie’s 500th…
I went ballistic When Ryno hit the 2 homers to win the extra inning game
vs. the Cards on the Game of the Week…
I was there with My boys in ‘84…
I’ve been there, Done That…

I hate Wrigley field… and before the masses jump down My throat and start
brandishing their torches and pitchforks let me explain why…

I’m disabled… have been all My life… Electric Wheelchair and all…

Let me list the personal reasons I want to see Wrigley replaced…

Until a few years ago there was no way to get to Wrigley for me except for driving
and even now to get from the NW Burbs to Wrigley it takes 2 train rides and 2 buses…
and about 2 and a half hours…
or I can drive there and pay the $20 for the parking on the stadium grounds or deal with
the mishmash of neighborhood parking options almost none of which have handicapped
parking…

Second… The disabled seating at Wrigley stinks on ice…
you either take the one elevator or go up those crazy steep ramps to the back of the
lower deck and sit behind everyone on the First base or Third base line…
Which would be fine except as soon as anything exciting happens on field all I can
see is the label on the backs of their jeans…

or…

I can sit behind home plate… which is possibly the best wheelchair seating there…
However, you have to go down a ramp that you need a Mount Everest Sherpa to negotiate and then
ride up a rickety wheelchair stair lift…
which as long as you don’t have to go to the bathroom for the 3+ hours that the game
runs is fine…
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find an auxiliary bladder on EBay yet…
Sooooo… it’s back down the rickety lift and back UP the Sherpa assisted ramp and then
once you survive the turn of the century bathrooms it’s back DOWN the Sherpa assisted
ramp and and back up the lift…

Unfortunately, there is no band-aid for these problems…
There is no room for more parking…
No way to drop in better Highway access to get there…
and the handicapped seating is more of a structural problem when anything else
Wrigley was just not built for wheelchair access back in 1914…

Please… New Owners… Give us a new park…