Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts addressed the City Club of Chicago and the media Wednesday morning, discussing the team's plans to "restore" (in their words, wanting to bring Wrigley back to what the club considers its glory days pre-1945) Wrigley Field and revealing detailed renderings of the planned changes to the ballpark and the surrounding area, which you can see at the top of this post.
Most of the things discussed by Ricketts at the news conference/presentation have been detailed here before; you can read about them in this StoryStream. You can read more details in this David Kaplan article from CSNChicago.com.
Ricketts did get the crowd murmuring when he stated that if this plan isn't approved, the team would have to "consider" moving. Given the previous blanket statements by the Cubs that they were committed to Wrigley Field, I think you'd have to consider this statement as notice to the city that there are a lot of dollars at stake here, and given the fact that the Ricketts family is willing to put up a considerable amount of its own money, that they want the vast bulk of their proposal approved. Personally, I can't see this happening. Again: where are they going to go? Who's going to pay for it? A completely new ballpark would probably cost on the order of $1 billion. Further, note the "if" in the Ricketts statement. In the end, they'll stay right where they are.
I still don't believe that they'll necessarily get every single thing they want. That's why you discuss these things with all parties involved. As I wrote above, there really wasn't anything jaw-droppingly new revealed Wednesday morning; it was simply a reiteration of what the Cubs stated at the convention, and at their April 15 news conference under the concourse at Wrigley Field.
I've stated on a number of occasions that I'm all in favor of bringing Wrigley Field into the 21st Century, to preserve the best of the past while making the park have top-notch player facilities -- key to attracting free agents, for one thing -- and fan amenities. That doesn't mean the Cubs should get absolutely everything they ask for, nor does it mean that the rooftop owners, who issued new veiled threats at legal action at Wednesday's meeting, should be able to hold up this $500 million project.
It's time for the city and the Cubs and the other parties involved to sit down and hammer this out. It should have been done before the season started. Let's get this thing going.