Crane Kenney: Cubs Considered Playing A Season In Milwaukee

Cubs President of Business Operations Crane Kenney made an appearance on 670 The Score Wednesday morning, and the most interesting thing he said was this:

Cubs talked to Brewers about playing entire season in Milwaukee to speed up renovation project. Crane Kenney live on @670TheScore now.

— Mitch Rosen (@MitchRosen670) March 4, 2015

If you think you've heard something like this before, you have. Two years ago I wrote this post which cited a Sun-Times article in which Cubs spokesman Julian Green was quoted as saying:

Cubs spokesman Julian Green said the plan — which called for all home games in April and May in 2014 and 2015 to be moved to Miller Park in Milwaukee — was just one of "a number of different options" being considered and is now "off the table."

For now, the Cubs say they’ll play all their home games at Wrigley Field while the anticipated work is completed.

But the Miller Park plan was considered seriously enough that the Brewers were consulted and at one point late last season Cubs business executives apprised the baseball-operations side about the possibility.

That, of course, was still when the Cubs had hoped to begin their construction project when the 2013 season was over. Crane Kenney's statement indicates that they had considered playing an entire season -- perhaps 2015? -- at Miller Park, which would have given them from September 2014 to April 2016 to do significant work at Wrigley Field.

Logistically, this would have created significant issues for Cubs season-ticket holders who live, say, anywhere south of the Lake/Cook county line in Illinois. Even that line is about 70 miles from Miller Park; those season-ticket holders who live in the city of Chicago would be faced with a 90-mile drive to every game. The Bears did something like this when they played a year in Champaign while Soldier Field was being redone -- but that was just eight games, once a week, mostly on Sundays. Baseball is a daily commitment. Further, since the Cubs and Brewers are in the same division and are often home at the same time, scheduling might have been difficult.

The Cell would have been, in my view, a better answer if the Cubs wanted to vacate Wrigley for a year to complete the project. At least it's in the city of Chicago and accessible by public transit. There is a small subset of Cubs fans who refuse to go there. I know some of these people personally and I simply don't understand that position. It's a major-league ballpark with (mostly) good sightlines and natural grass.

Anyway, none of this is likely ever going to happen but since Kenney said something about this on the radio today, I thought you might want to talk about it.