The Cubs made a lot of money on concerts in 2018, per their neighborhood report

The Cubs released their annual neighborhood report Friday and as always, I headed right to the section detailing the Wrigley Field concerts.

$3.4 million in amusement taxes went to the city of Chicago and Cook County from the concerts held at Wrigley Field in 2018. Those taxes amount to 12.5 percent of gross revenue, which means that the Wrigley concerts generated approximately $27.2 million.

Now, not all that money goes directly to the Cubs. The music acts have to be paid; stadium workers have to be paid. Let’s assume — ballpark figure, ha ha — that half the total revenue goes to that. That would leave approximately $13.6 million going directly into Cubs coffers from concerts in 2018.

So far, the only announced concerts at Wrigley for 2019 are Dead & Company on June 14 and 15.

The report also notes that 55,000 cars parked at the Cubs’ remote lot at 3900 N. Rockwell and 126,000 fans rode the shuttle back and forth to the park for the concerts and 54 night and weekend games. That’s about 570 cars and 1,250 people per date on the shuttle. In addition, about 4,400 bicyclists used the bike check available next to the CTA Addison L stop.

The report also includes details on the Cubs’ charitable giving in the neighborhood:

Many of these contributions were directed to the Lakeview community. This year, our donations helped support neighborhood organizations and investments at local schools, parks and nonprofits. Through our 2018 School All-Star Grants, we also granted a total of $500,000 to every Lakeview-area preschool and elementary school plus Lake View High School and Lane Tech College Prep High School for the second straight year.

Also detailed are the Cubs’ efforts to help increase security around the ballpark during and after games, the cleanups they make in the neighborhood both during games and at other times as well as other neighborhood outreach.

You can read the entire report here (link opens .pdf).