Hey, have you checked out the Wrigley Field webcam lately? As the Chicago Cubs construction crew scrambles to get the park ready for Monday’s Opening Night, you can see that the marquee is up and functional, and there are new metal detectors lining the gate at Clark and Addison. They appear to be testing the metal detectors, you can see them blinking green, with trash cans flanking each detector. I’m guessing there are similar setups at the other entrances as well, so like the Cubs have been saying for a while, best you get to the ballpark earlier than in days past.
Another familiar sight will be the rooftop properties past Wrigley Field along Waveland and Sheffield. If you missed the news earlier, the Ricketts family had started buying up the rooftop properties, culminating in full ownership of nine rooftops by the time the Cubs Convention rolled around, with a controlling interest in 10 of the 16 buildings. Now, if my math is right, the Ricketts family will own 10 rooftops and control 11:
Mark Schlenker, the longtime owner of the Brixen Ivy rooftop business and building at 1044 W. Waveland Ave., just beyond the Cubs’ left-field bleachers, on March 31 sold the three-story building to an entity controlled by the Ricketts family for $2.65 million.
It’s unclear if the transaction included the business in addition to the property. But the Ricketts family’s previous purchases of rooftop properties have only included the property.
The purchase means Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts and his family now control 10 of the 16 iconic rooftop clubs surrounding the 102-year-old stadium.
The 11th rooftop should be owned by a rooftop partner, so I’ll wait for news to see what the final tally is. It would appear the other 5 rooftops are blocked hard by the video boards so who cares about them, right? Anno and I were pondering what Tom Ricketts will do with the rooftops whenever the other businesses fold and just sell to the Cubs. Anno surmises that Ricketts may try to rebuild the rooftop experience by razing the buildings to the ground and setting up totally new buildings, but I think that the rooftops are very much a part of the Wrigleyville experience, like the warehouse across the street from Camden Yards. It wouldn’t be too hard to rebuild the stands on top of their rooftops, since the Cubs had intended to run the rooftops as they’ve always been run anyway. I personally think the rooftop seating looks really shoddy, as if the owners just bought some stuff from Home Depot and did it themselves (even though everything obviously has to be up to code). Now that the Cubs are in control, I believe the rooftop experience can be seamlessly integrated into the overall Wrigley Field experience, better than in the past when the rooftops were more of a parasite upon the main product.
I’m looking forward to more news on what the plan is, as construction all around Wrigley Field continues.
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