Having seen on Twitter earlier Tuesday morning that the Cubs were planning on setting up mock video boards (H/T Julie and Will), your intrepid reporter hied himself over to Wrigley Field to see this operation in action.
The Cubs appear to have spent a considerable amount of money renting several flatbed trucks, apparatus to show where video boards would be located on both Sheffield and Waveland, as well as the likely size of such boards.
From what I can tell, the rooftop owners have nothing to worry about. There are no views that I could tell that will be blocked to any significant extent; Cubs officials, including Chairman Tom Ricketts, were on the building at the northwest corner of Waveland and Kenmore, as well as on top of Skybox on Sheffield, and Ricketts was quoted by Paul Sullivan:
Ricketts said there is "minimal" blockage of rooftop view and it was what they expected.
— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) May 28, 2013
Sullivan further tweeted that no construction has yet been scheduled, and the next event is:
Cubs also had Landmarks officials on sight. A hearing is scheduled for next week.
— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) May 28, 2013
Without any specific way of measuring this -- and I'll leave that as a caveat to this -- the mockup's dimensions appeared to me to be somewhat smaller than what the Cubs showed on the renderings they released earlier this month. How much smaller? Again, it was impossible to tell for sure, but that did not look anywhere like 6,000 square feet. A board the size of the Waveland mockup -- and again, it was hard to tell because the tarps they used were blowing around quite a bit on a windy day -- would not overwhelm the ballpark.
Neither would the "see-through" board that was mocked up with some wooden panels on the Sheffield side. They looked like the letter "F", prompting this tweet in response to a tweeted question on what was going on at Wrigley Tuesday:
@willbyington @thewrigleyblog @bleedcubbieblue Grades for performance?
— Jaime Morales (@JMoralesChgo) May 28, 2013
Heh. The Cubs on the field rate better than "F", I'd say. Anyway, the top of these wooden panels representing the Sheffield-side board didn't appear to be more than maybe 12-15 feet high. They would not be higher than the roof level of the buildings behind the party patio in right field, which is where this board would go. No seating areas on any of the Sheffield rooftops would be blocked, in my estimation.
The Cubs appear quite willing to work with the rooftop owners on this issue. Hopefully it all gets worked out. There are other things still to work through; for example:
Cubs also hoping to push the night game proposal on city council agenda so they can schedule some 3:05 pm starts this year.
— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) May 28, 2013
Well, you know how I feel about those. I'd rather not have them; as I've repeatedly said, giving the Cubs a few Friday night home games would be a much better idea.