Morrissey: "Wrigley Field is still a dump"

[cheeses_h_rice]

Originally Posted by WizardsofOzzie

Gotcha, I wasn't aware of that

From a Cubune article on Zell:

Tribune Co. management will manage the process of selling the Cubs, which is planned to be completed before Zell closes on the Tribune Co. deal late this year. Having the team sold before Zell finalizes his deal eliminates any need for Major League Baseball to approve Zell as an owner. It also avoids any controversy over the fact that Zell owns a minority stake in the White Sox.

[wdelaney72]

Originally Posted by fenway

I think it is telling that when the Red Sox were at Wrigley 2 years ago, Jerry Remy went into a 5 minute on-air rant at what a dump Wrigley Field was.

Fenway was getting that way in 2001 as Harrington was not putting any money into the park, but John Henry and Friends have now put $100 Million back into the park and it shows.

Fenway still has cramped seating, lousy leg room, too many obstructed view seats but it is 1000% better than Wrigley.

I can't speak for Fenway now, but I was there in 2000 for 2 games, and it was WAY WORSE than Wrigley. At that time they were still pushing a new stadium elsewhere in Boston and they were most certainly letting the place go right down the crapper. My father-in-law lives in Haverhill and I've been told it's in much better shape now.... but still cramped and obstructed.

[FielderJones]

Originally Posted by DumpJerry

You are correct. A couple of years ago when The Urinal was falling apart and Daley was threatening to bulldoze it, a plan to have the Cubs play at Comiskey was floated and the Sox shot it down.

Let's see, another 81 days of revenue from tickets, concessions, and parking. An opportunity to show Iowa tourists that your park is a great place to see a ball game. Yeah, what a terrible idea. Let's shoot that sucker down right away.

Sorry, but I'm missing the logic here. Help me out.

[Fenway]

Originally Posted by wdelaney72

I can't speak for Fenway now, but I was there in 2000 for 2 games, and it was WAY WORSE than Wrigley. At that time they were still pushing a new stadium elsewhere in Boston and they were most certainly letting the place go right down the crapper. My father-in-law lives in Haverhill and I've been told it's in much better shape now.... but still cramped and obstructed.

Next year they are going to replace the wooden grandstand seats and knock out three rows to increase legroom. They can do it now with the new seats on the roof.

[SBSoxFan]

Originally Posted by Iwritecode

It was before that but certainly after they were bought by the Cubune. It's amazing what can happen when you have a national paper printing daily stories about "beautiful Wrigley Field". Of course Morrisey nelects to mention this at all and blames the flocking on WGN being a superstation.

I think he's partially correct. WGN being a superstation meant that if people in central Indiana, for example, wanted to watch a baseball game it would be the cubs long before the Cubune started pimping for them. I forget if TBS was a superstation and also broadcasting Braves' games back then.

[cheeses_h_rice]

Originally Posted by SBSoxFan

I think he's partially correct. WGN being a superstation meant that if people in central Indiana, for example, wanted to watch a baseball game it would be the cubs long before the Cubune started pimping for them. I forget if TBS was a superstation and also broadcasting Braves' games back then.

WGN's been a superstation since at least 1978 -- that's when my family moved out of state and 'GN was our main connection back to Chicago.

I believe 'TBS has been a superstation since the early '80s, at the very least.

[Fenway]

Originally Posted by cheeses_h_rice

WGN's been a superstation since at least 1978 -- that's when my family moved out of state and 'GN was our main connection back to Chicago.

I believe 'TBS has been a superstation since the early '80s, at the very least.

TBS was the first and it happened by accident.

Ted Turner was in Rhode Island all summer as he was defending the Americas Cup and he asked his enginering staff at Channel 17 in Atlanta if there was any way he could watch the Braves games in Newport. They told him he could build an expensive ground station and beam the games on satellite.

Turner didn't care about the expense and then asked the question that changed everything.

Can anybody else watch this? They replied Yes, anyone with an antenna.

The light bulb went off in Ted's head and Channel 17 became a superstation.

[Iwritecode]

Originally Posted by SBSoxFan

I think he's partially correct. WGN being a superstation meant that if people in central Indiana, for example, wanted to watch a baseball game it would be the cubs long before the Cubune started pimping for them. I forget if TBS was a superstation and also broadcasting Braves' games back then.

Yes, partially correct. But it's still a bit glaring to leave that obvious fact out.

[Fenway]

Red Sox showed off the 2007 "improvements to Fenway" to the Mayor this morning

http://www.boston.com/partners/world...ontinuous=true

[ode to veeck]

There's still a number of interesting angles in the whole Zell buys the Trib deal and the Trib sells Cubs and tries maybe to sell or lease Wrigley separately.

Financially, I'm glad I'm not a TribCo. shareholder, as I don't see what TribCo. gets outa the deal, which creates a few $B of new dept for a struggling media conglemerate while Zell only puts up $300M--other than the fact that they go from public to privately held and Wall Street scrutiny on their piss poor management goes down (replaced by monthly reviews with the banks holidng all the new paper I guess). Oh yeah, Tribco. execs get their bonuses outta the new cash, but more significant staffing cuts loom at their prize periodicals (which still have some of the best staffs in the country in some regards). I think the board and then the shareholders still have to approve the Zell deal.

The thinly veiled attempt to sell the Cubs without Wrigley per se makes for more mayhem. First of all, the place is literally falling down, and probably in much worse shape than say old Comiskey was when Jerry held the state hostage for the sweetheart deal for the Cell, as it seems the deep pockets of Tribco could overspend for worn out pitching and build more bleachers, but haven't really done anything to the failing ancient structure in general. I'll bet it will take at least $150-200M to fix the place in the very very near future, just to keep it a safe place for baseball fans. So what new owner wants a 3rd party slumlord to fight over needed repairs with for the next how ever many years they're around. Sure the Cubs are an attractive franchise, but who in their right mind would want them without Wrigley and the 3M annual fans the park guarantees. Coangelo, Ruban and the various other interested parties are certainly business savvy enough to understand the value Wrigley adds to the team. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

The whole lurid story of Tribco is like something that ought be reported by the Enquirer or the Star vs the Wall Street Journal or The Economist.

[Fenway]

as I don't see what TribCo. gets outa the deal

They get rid of the Chandler family

[ode to veeck]

Originally Posted by fenway

They get rid of the Chandler family

Like I said, I'm glad I'm not a shareholder as they look even worse on paper after the deal, just minus the Chandlers

[ws05champs]

Originally Posted by ode to veeck

The thinly veiled attempt to sell the Cubs without Wrigley per se makes for more mayhem. First of all, the place is literally falling down, and probably in much worse shape than say old Comiskey was when Jerry held the state hostage for the sweetheart deal for the Cell, as it seems the deep pockets of Tribco could overspend for worn out pitching and build more bleachers, but haven't really done anything to the failing ancient structure in general. I'll bet it will take at least $150-200M to fix the place in the very very near future, just to keep it a safe place for baseball fans. So what new owner wants a 3rd party slumlord to fight over needed repairs with for the next how ever many years they're around. Sure the Cubs are an attractive franchise, but who in their right mind would want them without Wrigley and the 3M annual fans the park guarantees. Coangelo, Ruban and the various other interested parties are certainly business savvy enough to understand the value Wrigley adds to the team. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

The mind boggles at the possibilities here. There is only so far you can go to repair an aging stadium. Even the Yankees know this. The land around Wrigley is terribly expensive. You just couldn't build something new next to Wrigley like the Sox did. Plus the land that Wrigley sits on is very valuable. So here is what I am hoping for. The new Cubs owners decide that it is just not cost effective to keep repairing Wrigley. They sell Wrigley and the land around it to a real estate developer. They move the team to Las Vegas and build a new stadium with the money they got from the sale of Wrigley.

[LongLiveFisk]

Originally Posted by FielderJones

Let's see, another 81 days of revenue from tickets, concessions, and parking. An opportunity to show Iowa tourists that your park is a great place to see a ball game. Yeah, what a terrible idea. Let's shoot that sucker down right away.

Sorry, but I'm missing the logic here. Help me out.

I was questioning it myself....granted, the Cubs organization would probably get a huge chunk of that but IF AND ONLY IF the Sox could get a nice chunk of change from allowing the use of their ballpark, I'd be surprised if they'd pass it up.

Disclaimer: I, in no way, would ever want to see the Cubs use US Cellular Field as their "home park". In fact, the thought makes me cringe. I am just trying to be objective here.

[LongLiveFisk]

Originally Posted by ws05champs

The mind boggles at the possibilities here. There is only so far you can go to repair an aging stadium. Even the Yankees know this. The land around Wrigley is terribly expensive. You just couldn't build something new next to Wrigley like the Sox did. Plus the land that Wrigley sits on is very valuable. So here is what I am hoping for. The new Cubs owners decide that it is just not cost effective to keep repairing Wrigley. They sell Wrigley and the land around it to a real estate developer. They move the team to Las Vegas and build a new stadium with the money they got from the sale of Wrigley.

Sounds like a plan to me.