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MLB

Should Cubs Replace Wrigley Field?

Posted Apr 05, 2009 9:30PM By Matt Snyder (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Cubs, NL Central, MLB Fans

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After gazing around the new cathedral that is Yankee Stadium, part deux, Cubs' ace Carlos Zambrano couldn't help but offer up his opinion that he wishes "Chicago'd build a new stadium for the Cubs." As a lifetime die-hard Cubs fan, I can tell you the immediate reaction is to scream "NOOOOOOOOOO" at the top of your lungs if someone suggests the Cubs will ever play home games outside of Wrigley Field. That's our home. We love that place.

Really, though, we should look at it from a different point of view. The facilities for the players don't match up to any other park, and the place has become a wreck in several different areas over the years.

The problem, though, is that you can't just up and leave Wrigley for a new state-of-the-art facility. Wrigley is the Cubs. The Cubs are Wrigley. They are the ivy, the gigantic scoreboard, the red marquee out front, the Cubbie Bear, Murphy's Bleachers, the rooftops and the statues of Harry Caray and Ernie Banks.

You also have some red tape involved. First of all, good luck getting public funding passed to tear it down. It's a shrine to many of us. Secondly, there are three historical landmarks -- the aforementioned red marquee (pictured above right), the ivy and the scoreboard -- you couldn't get rid of without approval from the local government. The work involved to get all this done adds significant opportunity cost to the actual monetary cost -- which would be gargantuan.

I do believe there is a compromise, though.

Remember, a few seasons back the entire bleacher area was torn down and rebuilt. The playing surface was also completely rebuilt last offseason. The remaining part of the ballpark would be the grandstands and locker room facilities underneath.

I would propose that the Cubs new ownership puts together plans sometime within the next decade to tear it down and rebuild it in the exact same place. I'm not a contractor, but I believe it would probably take an entire season, and the Cubs would be forced to play home games somewhere else. If that was possible, you could rebuild a state-of-the-art Wrigley Field back in the same place. You slap the same landmark marquee out front, move the statues back in place after it was built and build the grandstands to exactly resemble what they are now.

Inside, though, you create locker room facilities to rival any park in the bigs. You make the concourses a bit bigger and make sure there are more fan-friendly seats. Restroom and concessions facilities could be upgraded -- and multiplied (there are some seats where you have to walk five aisles over to find your gender-assigned trough).

This would be the best of both worlds -- although the surrounding bar, restaurant and rooftop owners would not take this news well -- as the players and fans would love the upgraded features, all the while still getting to keep "our" shrine intact.

Tags: carlos+zambrano, CarlosZambrano, wrigley+field, WrigleyField

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