Wrigley Renovations: Rahm And Tom Meet

I'm going to demonstrate to you how mainstream writers try to stir things up even when there's nothing to stir.

If you recall, there was a report the other day that DuPage County politicians were "preparing" a proposal for the Cubs to move there. No location, no specifics, just a pie-in-the-sky dream. This has about as much chance of happening as me being named the Cubs' next manager.

Late Thursday, Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago Business (free registration required to read this link) wrote this about the Wrigley Field renovation negotiations:

Their meeting was scheduled before DuPage County went public with a bid to lure the Chicago Cubs west. But I'm told that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cubs owner Tom Ricketts had a rather cordial sit-down yesterday about finishing the process of approving plans to rebuild Wrigley Field and keep the team right where it is now.

According to sources who would know, the pair got together in Mr. Emanuel's office at City Hall. There were no histrionics, threats to split for the burbs, etc.

He buried the lede, which is in the last sentence: no histrionics or threats. But that isn't a very good story, is it? The first sentence says "bid to lure the Chicago Cubs west". There's no bid. There were no specifics at all in the stories about DuPage. It appears, from Hinz's story, that all is going according to plan regarding the Wrigley rehab:

But there was general agreement that the "framework" the two agreed on a while ago for $5OO million in work around and inside Wrigley will be on a fast track, with final approval of at least the Wrigley-proper portion of the deal — signage, Jumbotron, et al. — before the City Council breaks for the summer. In other words, well before Labor Day.

Great. No story here, right? But Hinz can't resist, in his conclusion:

However, if both the team and the alderman are on the same page as much as sources on both sides are saying, the fat lady might want to warm up. If not, beautiful DuPage, Rosemont or some other suburban locale is waiting.

I really wish these writers would stop doing this. Just report the story. There's no story in "some other suburban locale", nothing to see here, move along. The real story here is that the Cubs and the city are getting along fine and a deal's going to be completed soon. Hinz buried it, so I thought I'd tell you the truth here.