UPDATE: The winning wristband number for Friday's sale is 01937. The Cubs have announced that people with numbers from there to 04111 can come to Wrigley at 7 a.m. Friday for the sale that starts at 8 a.m. This is a much larger number of people in the first group than in past years -- usually in past years only 500 or so numbers were told to be at Wrigley in the first group; this year it's over 2000.
This week is the week that the Cubs, and presumably some of you, focus on single game ticket sales. They've been handing out wristbands for the last two days -- if you didn't get yours, it's now too late -- and starting at 10 a.m. today, there will be a presale for season ticket holders where people can pay a 20% premium (15% if you use a Mastercard) on tickets for any game.
At 12 noon today, everyone will be let into the room for the premium presale. Personally, I don't think any games will sell out via this presale -- a bleacher ticket for the top priced games will run you about $100 for those games -- but it's your chance to guarantee yourself a ticket for those games if you're willing to shell out the extra dollars.
Cubs officials say that despite what I wrote in this post the other day regarding the season ticket renewal rate being "above 90 percent" and my note that 90 percent seems "low" because in past years it had been above 99 percent, that they have what they term their "strongest season ticket base ever overall". They did bring on many people from the waiting list as season ticket holders, but also many existing season ticket holders cut back on the total number of tickets they hold. That appears true, anecdotally, in both the bleachers and other parts of the ballpark.
It will be very interesting to see what games, if any, sell out on Friday. My guess is we won't see many do that.