Wrigley Renovation Thread

[d_money]

And Rahm has been putting his foot down for a couple years on this? What?

Does anyone know Rahms shoe size?

[USSoccer]

Bernstein expanded on his Tweet on air.

 

Says the Mayor has put pressure on Tunney to put pressure on the rooftops and that the Cubs feel stronger than ever in their position in this. Says they aren't going to try to play the good neighbor anymore because that hasn't gotten them anywhere. Says the meetings have been hindered by one particularly obnoxious rooftop owner making things difficult who doesn't "get it" in terms of the big picture of what little leverage they have and what will happen if they don't come to agreement with the team.

 

In interest of confidentiality, let's juts call her Beth M

 

That's too obvious...let's say, oh, B. Murphy.

[jersey cubs fan]

I thought the story was the trouble maker guy was an out of town based newer owner.

[USSoccer]

I thought the story was the trouble maker guy was an out of town based newer owner.

 

And it's going to turn out to be Crane Kenney in disguise.

[Guest]

I thought the story was the trouble maker guy was an out of town based newer owner.

 

And it's going to turn out to be Crane Kenney in disguise.

 

Krane Cenney

 

Wait.

[SouthSideRyan]

And Rahm has been putting his foot down for a couple years on this? What?

Does anyone know Rahms shoe size?

 

Boys 12

[SouthSideRyan]

I thought the story was the trouble maker guy was an out of town based newer owner.

 

And it's going to turn out to be Crane Kenney in disguise.

 

Krane Cenney

 

Wait.

 

Enarc Yennek

[KingCubsFan]

They have to start the renovations with the advertising, what does that tell you about their finances?

That they want to make sure they have the revenue generators in place before flushing $500 million down the toilet? If this renovation isn't going to make the team money, what's the point of it?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

They have to start the renovations with the advertising, what does that tell you about their finances?

That they want to make sure they have the revenue generators in place before flushing $500 million down the toilet? If this renovation isn't going to make the team money, what's the point of it?

 

Preventing them from losing money when Wrigley Field collapses into a pile of rubble.

[KingCubsFan]

They have to start the renovations with the advertising, what does that tell you about their finances?

That they want to make sure they have the revenue generators in place before flushing $500 million down the toilet? If this renovation isn't going to make the team money, what's the point of it?

 

Preventing them from losing money when Wrigley Field collapses into a pile of rubble.

If it cost that much to keep the thing from collapsing, the better options (from a business perspective) would probably be (1) sell the team, or (2) continue the patchwork repairs until it somebody offers you a good deal for a new stadium.

[Ryne Ween]

Gotta get these signs up! Absolutely have to get these massive revenue generating signs up or may as well not have a team. Revenue generators!!! I wonder if the triangle hotel bar is gonna be a Tom Rickettscorn and will do the bison stuff. Thats vertical integration! I wonder if the menus can have some ads for local businesses on the back thats a revenue generator.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

They have to start the renovations with the advertising, what does that tell you about their finances?

That they want to make sure they have the revenue generators in place before flushing $500 million down the toilet? If this renovation isn't going to make the team money, what's the point of it?

 

Preventing them from losing money when Wrigley Field collapses into a pile of rubble.

If it cost that much to keep the thing from collapsing, the better options (from a business perspective) would probably be (1) sell the team, or (2) continue the patchwork repairs until it somebody offers you a good deal for a new stadium.

 

It doesn't cost that much to keep it from collapsing into a pile of rubble.

 

It costs that much to prevent it from collapsing into a pile of rubble, modernizing the facilities to keep it from being a competitive disadvantage, expanding the revenue-generating portions, and doing some significant real-estate development outside the park.

 

The Cubs aren't spending $500m on Wrigley Field, though they like to spin it that way.

[SouthSideRyan]

They have to start the renovations with the advertising, what does that tell you about their finances?

That they want to make sure they have the revenue generators in place before flushing $500 million down the toilet? If this renovation isn't going to make the team money, what's the point of it?

 

Preventing them from losing money when Wrigley Field collapses into a pile of rubble.

If it cost that much to keep the thing from collapsing, the better options (from a business perspective) would probably be (1) sell the team, or (2) continue the patchwork repairs until it somebody offers you a good deal for a new stadium.

 

Tell me more about option 1

[Guest]

FWIW, I honestly wouldn't want the team sold. Yeah, I have some complaints about ownership and how they've handled a lot of the big limiting issues they've been faced with, and they're not Mark Cuban or Magic Johnson by a long shot, but it could be a lot worse and I wouldn't want to risk getting a nightmare owner (not to mention what a cluster [expletive] starting over with a lot of these plans would be).

 

Overall, I'm much happier with the direction of this organization than I've ever been and, despite some missteps, I fully believe that it's going to end up in a great place in just about every way within a couple of years. Better and healthier than we've ever seen it, both from a baseball standpoint and a business standpoint. The growing pains have sucked, and a more competent owner would get it done quicker, but at the same time, I'm very happy it's being done at all.

 

Bring someone else in, and I'm not so sure that's the case.

 

Obviously, if you told me he'd be selling to an awesome owner that would throw money around at everything (roster, infrastructure, development, etc.), I'd be all over that [expletive].

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm not sure what a nightmare owner is if it's not what's happened since Ricketts took over.

 

I guess he could have kept Hendry.

[Guest]

I'm not sure what a nightmare owner is if it's not what's happened since Ricketts took over.

 

I guess he could have kept Hendry.

 

How about the previous ownership that left this organization in the state it was in (and with all of the hindrances it had) when it was sold?

 

The fact that Zell directed them to spend a ton on payroll for the last 3-4 years while they sold the team doesn't absolve them of all their prior terribleness.

 

But, seriously? Look around baseball.

[SouthSideRyan]

 

Overall, I'm much happier with the direction of this organization than I've ever been and, despite some missteps, I fully believe that it's going to end up in a great place in just about every way within a couple of years. Better and healthier than we've ever seen it, both from a baseball standpoint and a business standpoint. The growing pains have sucked, and a more competent owner would get it done quicker, but at the same time, I'm very happy it's being done at all.

 

Bring someone else in, and I'm not so sure that's the case.

 

I just can't agree with any of this.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm not sure what a nightmare owner is if it's not what's happened since Ricketts took over.

 

I guess he could have kept Hendry.

 

How about the previous ownership that left this organization in the state it was in (and with all of the hindrances it had) when it was sold?

 

The fact that Zell directed them to spend a ton on payroll for the last 3-4 years while they sold the team doesn't absolve them of all their prior terribleness.

 

But, seriously? Look around baseball.

 

When the Tribune sold the team, the Cubs were a year removed from a top-10 farm system, were drawing 3.2m fans, and had come off three consecutive winning seasons.

 

I long for that sort of terribleness.

[Guest]

I'm not sure what a nightmare owner is if it's not what's happened since Ricketts took over.

 

I guess he could have kept Hendry.

 

How about the previous ownership that left this organization in the state it was in (and with all of the hindrances it had) when it was sold?

 

The fact that Zell directed them to spend a ton on payroll for the last 3-4 years while they sold the team doesn't absolve them of all their prior terribleness.

 

But, seriously? Look around baseball.

 

When the Tribune sold the team, the Cubs were a year removed from a top-10 farm system, were drawing 3.2m fans, and had come off three consecutive winning seasons.

 

I long for that sort of terribleness.

 

I'm not even going to address how flawed that argument is because I know you know it is.

 

Did the 90's just not even happen?

 

Did the decades of neglect to everything (from facilities to personnel) outside of the MLB team not happen?

 

There are good reasons this team has the history it does and those things are among them.

[SouthSideRyan]

I'm not sure what a nightmare owner is if it's not what's happened since Ricketts took over.

 

I guess he could have kept Hendry.

 

How about the previous ownership that left this organization in the state it was in (and with all of the hindrances it had) when it was sold?

 

The fact that Zell directed them to spend a ton on payroll for the last 3-4 years while they sold the team doesn't absolve them of all their prior terribleness.

 

But, seriously? Look around baseball.

 

Look around baseball? Name me a no doubt worse owner outside of Loria. I'd argue Crane is but really what makes their "process" different from ours? Angelos maybe?

Edited February 13, 2014 by SouthSideRyan

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm not saying I loved the Tribune ownership, but I don't think I'd call it a nightmare. They produced more success than Ricketts has.

[Guest]

Even when we were winning for a couple of years, I knew that it would be short lived, I knew that there was nothing resembling good player development and that the amateur scouting was horrible, I knew that our front office was trapped in a time-warp at least 25 years behind and that our GM was an old school moron. I think we all knew most of that stuff.

 

So, I'll take where we are even with all the [expletive] that has accompanied it because it's going to be incredibly awesome soon enough. Buzzwords or not, improving that other stuff is all going to help in achieving sustainable long term success which is not something we have EVER seen this team do. Ultimately, I believe we are going to be there.

 

If I didn't believe that, then, yes, I'd be feeling pretty hopeless right now.

[Guest]

I'm not saying I loved the Tribune ownership, but I don't think I'd call it a nightmare. They produced more success than Ricketts has.

 

Take out the Sam Zell directed free agency splurging to help jack up the sale price and where would you have them?

 

And yeah, the Tribune had more success in 28 seasons than the Ricketts have in 4, there is no question about that.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm not going to deny that we needed all this modernizing.

 

But when you get to "and that's going to lead to sustained success" that's where you lose me. They haven't shown me anything that says they can pull off sustained success with this team.

 

First, there's the little problem of losing a bunch of years in a row at the beginning not really being sustained success. But even putting that aside, all they've managed to do to date on the baseball side is put together a pile of young players that is arguably the third-best in the division. I still don't know why I should like the 2017 Cubs more than I like the 2017 Cardinals or Pirates (and while the Reds face some challenges, I don't think they should be ruled out of the conversation entirely).

 

The whole plan seems to be "once we get things going, even if it takes us longer than we hoped, it'll be a non-stop express train to awesometown because we're just that good," and I don't see it. This is the still the front office that hired Dale Sveum, paid Gerardo Concepcion and broke Starlin Castro. It's the front office that punted on an entire offseason, not being able to find anything productive long-term to do. Once the goals are finally a bit loftier than moving up the prospect lists, these are the kinds of mistakes that are going to stop them from running off three or four division titles in a row.

 

And that's just on the baseball side, which is the more competent of the two halves of the operation. I don't know if or when we'll ever see an end to the business side's bunglings.

[Guest]

I'm not sure what a nightmare owner is if it's not what's happened since Ricketts took over.

 

I guess he could have kept Hendry.

 

FWIW, a nightmare owner to me would've been someone who, in the case of this franchise, would have left it on autopilot, not addressed any of the rest of the organization and just kept the team interesting enough to print money while not really having a long term vision of any sort.