Shuffling Hats game at Wrigley.

they have shuffling cups

Sentimentality doesn’t win World Series. Players do. Maximizing revenue is going to allow the organization to get better players. I would like to know if a tradition of winning World Series could top the tradition of waiting in long lines just to get the opportunity to urinate into a trough with 20 strangers?

Jumbotron on a rooftop would be a great addition, but lets use it for Information and non obnoxious advertising. I dont mind how they use the pitch speed and digital scoreboard that they have now.

DO NOT TOUCH THE REST OF THE BALLPARK

keep the jumbotron outside the park and everyone is cool. I would’ve never been for this idea until I went to the winter classic and saw how it could work there. I mean its 2009 everyone. Just becasue we put a jumbo tron in doesnt mean we lose any of our tradition. we’ll all tell our kids about the non jumboron days and they wont be able to imagine such a thing.
Sooner or later though we will need the total grandstand redux project. that will be a sad day, but necessary to ensure the wrigley neighborhood tradtion continues for another hundred years.

hopefully we get a world series victory by then eh?

You can do a lot with the grandstand itself, but the ivy is untouchable.

I hope you don’t have to negotiate deals as part of your job. You’d probably get fired in one day.

 I understand the feeling of dont change the ballpark period, and i agree to a poin., the point of moving it to naperville or something totally ridiculous like that would change the entire experience more so than just a jumbotron. The little things that will only add to the experience for everyone should be welcomed and not met with the knee jerk reactions of traditionalists, I’e pitch speed and digital scoreboards on UD facade.

we a fans have to face facts we need to be making money to win that world series. and the jumbotron can help that generate dollars, but much like fenway there’s ways to do it while keeping the essence of the wrigley experience, IE the Neighborhood, bicks and ivy, the old manual scoreboard the marquee.
Theres no one that should be against adding the jumbo tron to the rooftops. It make sense and dollars. So im agreeing with you both just not to the extreme position you guys have, maybe read the whole post and think before reacting negatively.

And eventually they have to tear down the entire grandstand and make a new park thats not “smelly”.
but if you two honestly think the park has anything to do with them not winning a world series, then you are off your rocker. Bad baseball can be played anywhere.

There are a great number of Cubs fans that seem to place the value of the “Wrigley” experience over the value of winning a title. I suppose they do this to justify all the time and money they have put into a franchise that has failed to deliver a World Series title in 101 years.

Not everyone can attend games at Wrigley as often as you presumably can. It’s not like if you’re not there, you don’t care.

It’s interesting that people fail to understand that the Cubs is a business and Mr. Ricketts will most likely run it as such.

and not signing that player, then it would be stupid not to have it. Precious Wrigley is great, but it hasn’t won the Cubs jack. If blowing it up meant winning the World Series I would do it in a heartbeat.

Adding a jumbotron has no negatives besides upsetting a few purists who need to wake up and get with the times.

I find the Cubs payroll to be bloated; a really good FO could field a highly competitive team for between $80 & $100-million. The Southsiders are around this mark, and if the BoSox divest themselves of Matsuzaka’s contract, they’ll be around ten-million over that mark.

Somebody here once said, they Cubs take in $1.5-million just in beer sales per game. Over a total season, that’s $125,500,000. Couple that with $120,000,000 in ticket sales (at $40/per and ~3-million fans per season), and the Cubs should be more than flush. $250-million should be more than enough to field a team, coaches, and settle-up the FO. If the rest of the monies that come with revenue sharing, tv deals, other merchandise, and remaining concessions aren’t comparable then I’d be shocked. If you can’t work with all of that, then I don’t know what to tell you.

The bottom-line is, there have been poor baseball related decisions made in the Cubs organization. Certain parties want to mortgage the farm to win it all now, but continuing to throw money at a situation isn’t going to do much of anything.

The place has falling concrete in case you have forgotten. Revenue generated from a JumboTron may be needed for Ricketts to even break even. You can not expect him to go into personal debt to run this team, he’s a business man. I don’t know if you are aware but large video screens were put up for the Blackhawks game and most were in agreement that it worked pretty well. Ricketts should definitely invest in scouting and the farm system on top of the capital improvements the ball park needs and continuing to have a competitive payroll. This team already has major payroll commitments that aren’t going away. You may be against it on principle but it will be a reality in some form.

This team generates more money than God as it is. The team’s popularity is global. Every city they go to attendance goes up because the Cubs are in town. Every away game seems almost like a home gmae. Moreover, this idea that a jumbotron will somehow cure the team’s woes falls right in line with every other cockamamie story that has followed this team. “It took over a hundred years, but we finally figured out that allit took was a really big screen TV.” If that was the case, I invite the Cubs to play in my living room.

This team has blown plenty of money over the years on free agents, we all know that. A jumbotron won’t suddenly make the same guys who did the signings that much smarter. I would strongly suggest, as much as I like Hendry as a person, that he either be replaced or hire some talent evaluators, before the team succumb to the silly notion a jumbotron will cure all the problems.

Ricketts will look to increase revenue streams and it may not lead to a World Series and that still doesn’t mean he won’t pursue it. It’s fantasy to assume a business isn’t going to look to increase revenue.

They need to get an Optimus Prime video screen instead. None of that decepticon crap

IIRC it’s protected by landmark protection or somesuch. Of course people aren’t going to snap their fingers and have this appear, there are always logistics to work these out. I’m sure the rooftop owners are drooling over the $$ that they might be able to get from this deal if it ends up on their building(s)

But its not like they are going to run down to Best Buy and pick up the biggest flat screen they can find and slap it on top of a rooftop. It would cost millions of dollars for one to be created and tailored to work amidst the conditions you suggest. It can be done, has been done, and likely will be done.

If a “MegaTron” goes up on a rooftop – and I think that’s a big if, btw – then I think the only logical place for it is the Budweiser house. Or more accurately, on top of whatever goes up after they tear the Budweiser house town.

That house sold late last season, supposedly for around $8-9M. I think the buyer is the same guy/group that just put up those two brand new rooftop buildings over on Sheffield (where the old Red Top parking lot used to be). And word on the corner (literally) is that a similar type building (big hulking concrete monstrosity) is planned to replace the Budweiser house.

Obviously nothing has happened yet, so I suppose if Cubs/Ricketts were interested, they could enter into discussions with this guy/group and figure out what would it take – structurally and financially – to put a jumbotron on top of the roof. At least they’d have the advantage of being able to start from scratch and do it right.

However, I don’t foresee a rooftop solution happening anytime soon. I just think the logistics (financial, legal, political, and physical) are challenging enough even for a Cubs-only solution. Trying to work a deal with a thrid-party private property owner just seems too much for me. Ricketts will have plenty of other headaches to deal with these next few years.

Nothing is automatically ruined. Its an old building, its cool that we play there but it needs some improvements. Its not a friggin Catherdral! Quit confusing attempts at spiritual bliss with a ballpark.

I go to 30-40 games/year and have since 1980. count me among the ones who thinks minor tweeks are needed, but major rehauling…not really. I am not of the ADAH generation that requires me top be entertained by scoreboards or continual stimulus being pounded at me – and my 12 year old daughter , who has sat either in my seats or the bleachers, watching a game has never complained about being bored there. In fact, the only time she went to the South Side to watch a game, she complained that it was too noisy and people there seemed to be more interested in going to play at one of the “activity” areas than watching the ballgame. I don’t buy food at the park for the most part, so concessions are not of a big concern.

Yes, some of the grandstands need to be improved. Better skyboxes to attract the high rollers. better quality seats, but these major overhauls that people are talking about, major rehabs of the grandstands, both upper and lower, new scoreboards and such…I just don’t think it is really needed.