Cubs File For Permit For Right-Field Sign

Crain's Chicago Business has the story:

The Chicago Cubs today formally requested permission to install a large advertising sign in right field — an action that almost certainly will set off a legal war with neighboring rooftop club owners.

The action came when the the team filed an online application for rights to install a 650-square-foot sign in right field, something the team had been granted under a recent city ordinance but which had been withheld pending further talks with the rooftops.

"An out of court agreement is always desirable," said Dennis Culloton for the team-owning Ricketts family, "but in the meantime, we need to act."

The sign, which will look similar to the one pictured above (except with a sponsor's name instead of "Wrigley Field"), was shown to rooftop owners in this mockup posted last October. The sign, according to most observers, didn't get in the way of most views from the Sheffield rooftops, and even then, it would likely only affect one or two of them.

This sign could probably be in place by Opening Day -- barring an injunction from a judge, which is probably where we are heading, at least to some sort of court hearing. Stay tuned.