Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts is threatening to move the team out of Wrigley Field and perhaps even the city after talks with top city leaders over proposed renovations hit a snag earlier this week.
Over the last several months, Ricketts has intimated the 99-year-old ballpark needs some $500 million in renovations, including a new video screen, new clubhouses and improvements to fan accommodations, if the team is to remain viable and profitable.
To pay for the changes, Ricketts claims the team needs to earn millions more in ad revenues, an issue that can be addressed by the team be allowed to schedule more night games and make structural changes to other venues and properties bordering the North Side landmark.
"The fact is that if we don't have the ability to generate revenue in our own outfield, we'll have to take a look at moving -- no question," Ricketts told reporters after outlining renovation plans to city business leaders.
Indeed, the most hotly contested issues remain the team's proposed plan to erect a 6,000-square-foot video screen over the left field bleachers, an undertaking not uncommon among most major league owners. In the case of Wrigley, the ballpark is surrounded by privately owned clubs with rooftop bleachers whose owners object to any changes that could block their bird's-eye views into the stadium.
To date, those owners and rooftop business leaders in general have been largely left out of all renovation discussions, even though they have a contract in which they share 17 percent of their revenue with the team.
Earlier this week, Ricketts shared his vision for a new Wrigley in a speech to City Club of Chicago leaders, where insisted all internal architectural studies have concluded the proposed changes would have minimal, if any, impact on the neighborhood or the views of concerned rooftop owners.
"All we really need is to be able to run our business like a business and not a museum," Ricketts he said, adding that the team was now losing out on some $20 million a year in potential ad revenue.
While most deemed Ricketts's tirade a negotiating ploy, the team would certainly have options if in fact he chose to make good on it. Several weeks ago, the mayor of nearby Rosemont said that the village near O'Hare International Airport has a 25-acre chunk of land that the Cubs could have for free if they wanted to build a replica of Wrigley Field there.
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