[Mister Uptempo]

Why A Jumbotron At Wrigley Field Is A Super-Sized Mistake

by Philip Bess Apr 19, 2013
http://chicagosidesports.com

Bad generals plan for the last war. But good generals plan for the future with a sure grasp of the history of politics, warfare and human nature; and as with generals, so with baseball executives. There is reason to believe Tom Ricketts and Theo Epstein are on course in terms of Cubs player personnel and development, but on the verge of a mistake with respect to Wrigley Field.

It is always good to understand the value of genuine assets. In light of the so-called “Fenway Plan”—a term floated a year ago by Mayor Emmanuel’s office—for Wrigley now being proposed by the Cubs and the city, all parties should recall the last major makeover of the ballpark three decades ago, as well as the recent history of Fenway Park.

The Cubs were dreadful in 1981, and sold mid-season by the Wrigley family to the Tribune Company. Dallas Green came to Chicago as the new general manager, one year removed from managing the Philadelphia Phillies to their first-ever world championship. Green almost got the Cubs to the World Series. Almost as significantly, he got lights in Wrigley Field and created the neighborhood phenomenon now known as Wrigleyville. Victory-starved Cubs fans had made Wrigley Field a hopping place in the late ’60s and early ’70s, but Wrigleyville is a child of the ’80s. What had been a working-class Lake View neighborhood—one with rental apartments regularly available in the three-flats and six-flats opposite Wrigley—became upscale Wrigleyville by virtue of Boomer demographics, and the neighborhood presence of the Cubs. Tensions arose between the Cubs’ desire to increase revenue and competitiveness by allowing night baseball at Wrigley, and their neighbors’ desire to protect their quality of life and property values. But in the end, a compromise allowed limited night baseball, property values continued to rise, and Green came to understand Wrigley’s value as a unique asset integral to the Cubs’ identity.

The rest of the article is available here, at Chicago Side Sports



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