Cubs, Giordano's Sign New Pizza Deal

Danny Ecker of Crain's Chicago Business reports on a food choice change for Wrigley Field:

The Chicago Cubs and Giordano's struck a sponsorship deal that will make the restaurant chain the exclusive pizza partner of the team and Wrigley Field.

The new agreement, which will be announced today at Giordano's flagship location on Rush Street by CEO Yorgo Koutsogiorgas and Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, marks a switch from the team's previous deal with locally owned D'Agostino's Pizza, a three-year deal that expired after the 2013 season.

Under the new deal, Giordano's will be the only pizza served inside the ballpark, and its own chefs will operate the pizza-cooking kitchen inside the Friendly Confines.

Giordano's also will have signage in and around the ballpark and in Cubs publications and will be the only pizza served at the Cubs' new spring training ballpark in Mesa, Ariz.

Cubs VP of sales and partnerships Colin Faulkner was quoted in Ecker's article, stating the reasons for the change, although he also said the team was "pleased" with D'Agostino's:

"Giordano's from a scale standpoint is in a different position from D'Agostino's, given the number of locations they have, their size and ability to activate (the Cubs brand) at all their locations," he said.

The D'Agostino's pizzas served at Wrigley the last three years were of good quality and generally came (reasonably) hot, with prices that were actually decent, compared to some concessions at Wrigley that I consider overpriced. If Giordano's can do the same -- and they should be able to, if they are actually making the pizzas at Wrigley as noted in the article -- this should be a welcome addition to food choices at the ballpark, particularly if they can keep the prices down. Rising concession prices are a real problem at ballparks everywhere, not just Wrigley Field.

Like I said, it's a slow news day. And now I'm hungry.