Wrigley Field Landmark Articles
Cubs expanding bleachers at Wrigley
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
The Associated Press
These materials may not be republished without the express written consent
of The Associated Press
June 18, 2001, Monday, BC cycle
SECTION: Sports News
LENGTH: 683 words
HEADLINE: Cubs expanding bleachers at Wrigley
BYLINE: By NANCY ARMOUR, AP Sports Writer
DATELINE: CHICAGO
BODY:
No, there won't be a Jumbotron looming over center field. And yes, the
ivy is staying put.
The Chicago Cubs plan to renovate the outfield bleacher section and add
seats behind home plate, none of which will make the historic park look
much different than it has since it opened in 1914.
"Our goal was to design a project ... that at the end of the day,
people look at it say, 'It looks like it always was there, that it fits
in Wrigley Field,"' Mark McGuire, the Cubs executive vice president
of business operations, said Monday.
"We have no intention of playing with the icon scoreboard, ivy,
marquee - the things we all could agree are really the core elements of
Wrigley Field."
The renovations will add 2,300 seats to Wrigley, which currently has
a capacity of 39,059, and cost $11 million. The changes will be completed
by the start of next season, assuming approval by the city of Chicago
approves the plans.
Mayor Richard M. Daley was in Europe on Monday, but Alderman Bernard
Hansen said he doesn't anticipate any problems.
"On a scale of A through D, I'll give them an A-minus," said
Hansen, whose district includes Wrigley.
The plans call for the addition of 2,100 seats in the outfield, most
of which would be located near the foul poles. The current three rows
of seats would be replaced with 10 to 12 rows that would be the same height
as the rest of the bleachers.
The second tier of bleachers, directly underneath the scoreboard, would
be left untouched.
"The scoreboard will not be affected in any way," McGuire said.
The street entrance to the bleachers would be expanded, and more bathrooms
and two new concession stands would be built. Two balconies would be built
overlooking the corner of Waveland and Sheffield avenues, allowing for
the existing concourse to run around the entire outfield.
The Cubs also want to build a concession area beneath the "batter's
eye," currently filled with juniper bushes. Some of the bushes would
be taken out and replaced with tinted glass so fans could get refreshments
but still watch the game.
"Restaurant is a bit of an overstatement. It will have food,"
McGuire said. "What we wanted was something that feels like the bleachers."
Plans also call for adding three rows of seating in the semicircle behind
home plate, an addition of 200 new seats. A private lounge and restrooms
also will be built beneath the existing club seats.
The Cubs also want 30 night games a year, up from the 18 allowed under
their current agreement with the city that expires after next season.
The additional games would give the team more flexibility in scheduling,
particularly in the spring and fall, when kids are still in school and
daytime crowds are small.
"We are committed to staying in Wrigley Field, but we feel we have
to do some things to compete and stay in Wrigley Field," McGuire
said.
That could include increased signage in the ballpark, though McGuire
said the ivy-covered outfield walls and the brick wall behind home plate
won't be touched.
Selling naming rights to the ballpark is out of the question, too.
"None of us has the courage to pursue that," McGuire said.
"Wrigley Field is a very, very special place, and it's known as Wrigley
Field. To tamper with that is just too much to take on."
The Cubs also unveiled a long-term proposal for a multipurpose building
on land just west of the ballpark. It would house a parking garage, a
restaurant that would be open year round and a Hall of Fame, among other
things.
But the building is still in the conceptual stages, McGuire said.
The Cubs plan to hold neighborhood meetings to explain their proposals
to residents. While some might object to the additional night games, the
renovations shouldn't be of great concern.
The new bleacher seats will be 35 feet high, which means they won't obstruct
the views of the rooftop decks across the street.
"The calls I've been getting have been very much in favor of it,"
Hansen said. "There will always be the naysayers ... but they really
don't speak for the majority of the community."
LOAD-DATE: June 19, 2001
Wrigley Field close to becoming landmark
Copyright 2002 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
These materials may not be republished without the express written consent
of The Associated Press
November 22, 2002, Friday, BC cycle
SECTION: Sports News
LENGTH: 393 words
HEADLINE: Wrigley Field close to becoming landmark
BYLINE: By GEOFFREY WHITE, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: CHICAGO
BODY:
The Cubs are closing in on a deal that would allow them to expand Wrigley
Field and would make the famous ballpark a landmark.
"Agreeing to a landmarking of any kind, in our view, is a tremendous
concession," Cubs president Andy MacPhail said Friday, noting that
no other major league park has such a designation.
Permission to expand the ballpark has been debated for nearly two years
as the team, residents and City Hall argued over traffic, safety and a
city commission's proposal to designate the Friendly Confines a historic
landmark.
"I think we're 99.9 percent of the way there," said Alderman
Bernard Hansen, whose ward includes Wrigley Field.
MacPhail and Cubs executive vice president Mark McGuire said during a
taping of WBBM-AM's "At Issue" program that the plan would protect
key architectural features, including the center-field scoreboard, marquee
and ivy-covered walls.
In exchange, the Cubs - who don't want landmark protection - would get
to renovate and expand the bleachers. The number of new seats is uncertain
but would be fewer than 2,000, the Cubs said. The ballpark's capacity
currently is 39,059.
Hansen said the landmark process and the bleacher expansion are separate.
Normally, designating a building a landmark means any changes must get
special city approval. Hansen said the Wrigley deal would exempt concession
stands, washrooms and business offices in the park's lower concourse from
such restrictions.
Mayor Richard M. Daley's office did not answer messages seeking comment.
The team also has proposed expanding the number of night games from 18
to 30 each season, arguing that later games are more convenient for fans
and easier on players.
Some Wrigleyville neighbors object to expansion and more night games,
arguing the moves would worsen problems ranging from traffic tieups to
drunken fans.
The Tribune Co., owner of the Cubs, has proposed spending a minimum of
$100,000 a year to address those concerns. The team has offered to take
more steps, including hiring a full-time community liaison officer.
"I'm becoming an expert on the spirit of compromise," MacPhail
said.
Also Friday, the Cubs said they are encouraged by reports that owners
of buildings overlooking Wrigley Field might agree to pay licensing fees
on tickets they sell to watch the game from those rooftops.
LOAD-DATE: November 23, 2002
Cubs Sue Neighborhood Bars on Rooftop Use
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
December 18, 2002, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section D; Page 4; Column 2; Sports Desk
LENGTH: 528 words
HEADLINE: BASEBALL;
Cubs Sue Neighborhood Bars on Rooftop Use
BYLINE: By JODI WILGOREN
DATELINE: CHICAGO, Dec. 17
BODY:
After two years of negotiations over the proposed expansion of Wrigley
Field, talks among the Chicago Cubs, city officials and the owners of
bars that sell rooftop seats to home games have fallen apart, with the
team filing a lawsuit claiming the rooftop businesses are stealing its
product.
Though the lawsuit alleges copyright infringement and misappropriation
of Cubs property, the core of the dispute is how many rooftop seats would
be blocked by new bleachers at Wrigley, and how much the rooftop owners
should pay the Tribune Company, which owns the Cubs. Filed on Monday,
the suit follows a decision Friday by the city's planning commissioner
clearing the way for the stadium to officially become a landmark, and
the twin developments are likely to delay the $11 million expansion until
2005.
"They are selling tickets to our product, they are selling admission
to our games, when they don't bear any of the costs," Andy MacPhail,
the team president, said. "It's evolved from Weber grills and lawn
chairs to a multimultimillion-dollar process."
Ken Jakubowski, a consultant who represents the 13 businesses licensed
to sell rooftop seats, all named defendants in the suit, questioned MacPhail's
leadership by pointing out that the Cubs have not had consecutive winning
seasons in 30 years.
As long as there has been a Wrigley Field, fans have watched games from
the neighborhood's rooftops. The Chicago Historical Society has photographs
of the phenomenon dating to 1914. But in 1998, the city formalized the
tradition by requiring $1,000 licenses for the rooftops and certain safety
measures. Bar owners upgraded their facilities, and their admission prices,
which the lawsuit pegs at as much as $150 a game, though the owners say
it is $100.
The lawsuit accuses the bar owners of "posing as small-time friends
of the common fan," while they are actually "unlawful free riders
on the Cubs' investment." Besides selling unauthorized tickets to
the games, the lawsuit alleges, the rooftops violate copyright by tapping
into the team's broadcast of instant replays and game commentary, and
by using the Cubs and Wrigley logos.
The conflict erupted when the Cubs announced plans to add 2,600 seats
to Wrigley's 38,500, effectively putting the rooftops out of business
by blocking the view. City officials tried to engineer an overall agreement
that would resolve not only the rooftop issue, but also the question of
landmark status and other neighborhood concerns like parking.
Some believe that Mayor Richard M. Daley has made the Wrigley expansion
more difficult to get back at the Tribune Company for opposing, through
editorials in The Chicago Tribune, an expensive renovation of Soldier
Field, home of the N.F.L.'s Bears.
Over 14 negotiating sessions with the rooftop owners since June, the
Cubs have lowered their expansion plans to between 1,600 and 1,900 seats,
obstructing the view from 4 of the 13 rooftops. But the Cubs balked at
the rooftop owners' latest proposal to pay $13 a head in the summertime
and $6 a head in April, May and September, and asked instead for a percentage
of the gross receipts.
http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: December 18, 2002
Names in the Game
Copyright 2003 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
The Associated Press
These materials may not be republished without the express written consent
of The Associated Press
March 1, 2003, Saturday, BC cycle
SECTION: Sports News
LENGTH: 873 words
HEADLINE: Names in the Game
BYLINE: By The Associated Press
BODY:
CHICAGO (AP) - The Cubs are opposed to giving Wrigley Field landmark designation.
The Chicago Department of Planning and Development laid out its plan
to give Wrigley, the second-oldest major league ballpark behind Boston's
Fenway Park, the designation. A public meeting is set for March 12, when
a committee of the city's Landmarks Commission will discuss the designation.
Cubs CEO Andy MacPhail reiterated his opposition.
"No other ballpark is landmarked nor has any other municipality
used landmarking as an effective means of preserving a ballpark,"
MacPhail said in a statement received Friday. "The reason for that
is simple. Ballparks that don't evolve to meet their customers needs wither
away only to be eventually torn down."
MacPhail said the proposed landmarking would subject needed changes at
the ballpark to a political process and would deny the team the flexibility
it needed to carry those out.
Discussions to landmark the ballpark began in October 2000.
"We felt it was important back in 2000 to try and landmark the building
so it won't be torn down," department spokesman Pete Scales said
Friday.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=1721692&type=story
retrieved 2-6-2004
Chicago council to vote on issue
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Associated Press
CHICAGO -- Wrigley Field is closer to landmark status after a Chicago
City Council committee unanimously approved a plan that would declare
the ballpark a landmark but still allow some changes.
The stadium opened in April 1914.
The Committee on Historical Landmarks and Preservation recommended Tuesday
that the council approve the ordinance, but with provisions that would
allow the Chicago Cubs to build about 200 new box seats and make other
possible alterations.
The council is expected to take up the issue on Feb. 11.
Cubs spokeswoman Sharon Pannozzo said the team would not comment.
Alderman Thomas Tunney, whose ward includes Wrigley, said the team doesn't
plan to block the proposal.
The Cubs are not wholeheartedly in support of the ordinance, but "they
are not opposing it," Tunney said.
Preservation groups said they were happy with the committee's compromise
recommendation.
"We have found that what the Cubs were proposing in terms of expansion
was reasonable and did not necessarily affect the historic fabric and
structure" of the ballpark, said David Bahlman, president of the
Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois.
The Cubs and the city have been negotiating for nearly three years on
the landmark designation.
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