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| New Wrigley RF scoreboard bleacher project |
New owner Tom Ricketts is apparently falling into the same renovation trap, with the same old emphasis of creating more business revenue.
The announcement of the new 10 foot by 75 foot LED scoreboard in right field was clearly to increase advertising dollars at Wrigley Field. This park has the least amount of ad signage in the major leagues. After the brouhaha of the LF fence Toyota sign, the flood gates were open for more marketing prospects. Traditionalists will curse the conventions of advertising banners within the confines of their baseball cathedral.
This new RF building project falls under the domain of business operations maven, Crane Kenney. He is the one who announced it at the Cub convention. This is a revenue enhancement so he believes that he controls it. But this project will cost money that Ricketts claimed months ago he did not have (he asked the state and city for hundreds of millions of tax dollars for renovations for Wrigley and the Triangle parcel). This is on top of Ricketts family buying the McDonald's property across the street from Wrigley for approximately $23 million.
The new RF stands replaces the current 107 group box seats with 150 group seats and standing room party patio (sponsored, of course). No ticket prices were announced for this new area, but speculation is that it will be in the neighborhood of Red Sox Monster seats of $117.00. Ricketts obsession with the Red Sox is apparent in this out of character multilayered six to seven foot mini-wall seat tiers. (The artist rendering is so bad and amateurish it is hard to see the proper dimensions in perspective.)
The Wedge looks to have the following shape: the RF wall is approximately 16 ft. tall. The new scoreboard dimension are 10 ft tall by 75 ft. wide. On top of the scoreboard is the first section which is backed by an apparent 6 foot plus wall; on top of that wall is more seating backed by another 6 foot plus wall; which leads up 3 or 4 feet to a patio section. The artist's rendering shows this wedge at a vertigo incline of 45 degrees. If you add up these wedge segments, this new structure would rise minimally 42 to 45 feet about the field. That is putting up a 4.5 story building in the RF corner of Wrigley. What will be clear is that the eye-sore underside steel girders will be visible to the homeowners on Sheffield Avenue. All this construction to add 43 seats and standing room area?
The old RF box seats, even if using the overall average ticket price of $85, equated to $9,095.00 per game. However, this section was rarely sold out last season. If you have 150 new party seats at $117, you could command $17,550.00 per game. If you could sell out the new party patio for 162 games, the revenue increase would be $1.37 million. But who would pay more than the people in the bleachers in the right center field bleacher section, who would be at a more gradual eye level to the playing field? And how many years (decades?) will the increase in revenue pay off the construction costs?
It seems Ricketts is more focused in on adding Wrigley amenities or vending locations than sinking money in the actual ball club, i.e. player payroll. The current Cub payroll will be down from $140 million in 2011 to approximately $100 million for 2012. One can readily see that the payroll differential has been spent on new executives, land acquisition and Wrigley Field projects.
Most Cub fans at the team convention were hyped up by the new regime's "rebuilding" mantra to be lulled into another off-season of the rhetoric of hope and a competitive team.
