Wrigley Field turns 100 years old in 2014.  It is the second oldest stadium in MLB behind Fenway Park which turned 100 in 2012.  Wrigley is the only stadium probably in any sport that is smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood.  It is definitely the only stadium that is so entrenched into a neighborhood that buildings have a perfect view into the stadium from across the street.  As you can imagine in the world that we live today, this has caused a tremendous problem for years.  There were ALWAYS at least a handful of people that would go up on top of the buildings and watch the game.  However, what started off as a handful of people in lawn chairs has turned into a multimillion dollar business complete with bleachers and restaurant service.

If the Wrigley Field had an ounce of brains when they owned the team from 1920-1981, there would not be a problem with the rooftops today.  If they had an ounce of foresight, they would have bought up all the property around the stadium.  Over the course of the 61 years that they owned the team, I’m certain that almost every building along Waveland and Sheffield had been on the market at least once.  They saw people on top of the buildings watching games and should have known that it could become a problem.  They should have seen the same opportunity to make money with the rooftops that the local bar owners did when they bought the rights and put the bleachers up there.  Of course, the bleachers didn’t get added to the rooftops until after the Chicago Tribune had already bought the team but the Wrigley family had plenty of time to buy up the neighborhood.  They should have been smart enough to know that the stadium would need renovated and possibly expanded.  They oversaw two or three expansions and renovations during their tenure and should have known more would be needed.  Then again, Phillip Wrigley is the same baseball genius that thought night games were just a “passing fancy” and wouldn’t catch on.  Lights were going to go up at Wrigley Field for the 1942 season but he donated all the lighting to the Glenview Naval base near Chicago after Pearl Harbor so they could practice night flying and landing for the war effort.  He didn’t see a need to replace the lights since night games wouldn’t last and at no time over the next 40 years that he owned the team did he try again to put up lights even though it was OBVIOUS that night baseball was here to stay.

After the Cubs nearly made the World Series in 1984, one game away, local bar owners saw how more and more people were gathering on the rooftops and watching the games.  They approached the owners of the buildings and bought the rights to the roofs.  They put in bleachers and began charging money for people to sit across the street from Wrigley Field and watch the game.  Only leeches, thieves and horrible human beings would have thoughts in their mind along the lines of “here is someone else’s business that we can profit off of and start making money off their hard work.”  For the better part of 20 years, these rooftop owners pocketed every single dime they made in sales while selling tickets to watch Chicago Cubs baseball games.  For 20 years, the city of Chicago allowed it to happen and the Chicago Tribune did not do enough to end it from happening.  When the Chicago Tribune finally tried to sue the rooftop owners, these cretins and scoundrels tried to claim they were just throwing a party and that the Cubs just happened to be playing while they had their parties.  Were any of these parties happening when there was not an event happening at Wrigley Field?  NO.  So it was just pure coincidence that these scumbags were charging (sometimes) hundreds of dollars to attend their “parties” at the same time and only at the same time that the Cubs were playing.  In 2004, a settlement was finally reached where the rooftops would have to give a whopping 17% of their ticket sales to the Cubs.  The Tribune was going bankrupt and needed any scrap of cash it could get its hand on because the internet was killing the newspaper industry.  They gave a lot of power to these piece of garbage thieves and even agreed to call them “business partners” in order to get that measley 17% commission.  Of course, they also knew that they were going to be selling the team and that it would be someone else’s problem to deal with for the remainder of the 20 years on the deal they signed.

After the Ricketts family bought the team in 2009, they started making plans for Wrigley Field expansion as the park neared 100 years old.  Every other team in MLB is getting millions upon millions of dollars each season from naming rights to the stadium and advertising signs all over the place.  Since Wrigley Field is a landmark, the Ricketts family can’t just put up whatever they want and reap the same rewards that the other 29 teams in MLB and all the teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL even MiLB, Arena League Football and everything in between can.  They came up with a $500 million expansion project for Wrigley Field and the Wrigleyville area.  They want to build a hotel across the street since there are no hotels near Wrigley Field for tourists to stay when they attend games.  Fans have to stay downtown and take the Red Line to get to the games. $200 million of that $500 million plan is for expansion and renovation of the actual stadium.  They are not asking for tax payer money to do this $500M expansion project.  They are just asking for the right to put up a sign in right field:

And a jumbotron in left field:

The sign and the jumbotron would produce advertising revenue to fund the expansion project and keep the Chicago Cubs in Wrigleyville for the foreseeable future.  The city of Chicago city council approved the plans and approved the signage with an unanimous vote 49-0.  The Wrigleyville Rooftops pitched a fit however because the right field signage would block their views and limit their ability to be thieves and steal the game from the Chicago Cubs.  They have done the same thing with every attempt to increase the amount of night games and now they are being jerks about the signs.  They complain that the night games will take business away from their bars.  The only reason their crappy bars have any customers to begin with is because of the 2 – 3 millions fans that attend Cubs games!  Most of these places are hardly open in the winter time because there’s not much business when the Cubs aren’t playing.  The Wrigleyville Rooftops have threatened to sue to block the signage so they can continue to make money hand over fist from a product that is not theirs…that they stole from the Cubs.

David Kaplan has gotten ahold of the contract because the Wrigleyville Rooftops morons think the contract shows that the Cubs can’t block their views.  They point to Section 6.6 which says this:

6.6 The Cubs shall not erect windscreens or other barriers to obstruct the views of the Rooftops, provided however that temporary items such as banners, flags and decorations for special occasions, shall not be considered as having been erected to obstruct views of the Rooftops. Any expansion of Wrigley Field approved by governmental authorities shall not be a violation of this agreement, including this section.

While it does say that the Cubs cannot erect barriers to obstruct the views of the Rooftops, there is an addendum that says that any expansion approved by government shall not be a violation of this agreement.  The Wrigleyville Rooftops pond scum owners are grasping at straws trying to say that signage is not expansion.  HOWEVER, the Cubs are expanding out the walls, expanding the patios, expanding the concourses and increasing the size and scope of Wrigley Field.  They call it an expansion.  The government calls it an expansion.  A band of thieves trying to hold on to a cash cow that they kept 100% of the revenue for two decades and 83% of the revenue from for the last 10 years is calling it just signage to block their view.

Instead of being satisfied with all they have immorally gained over the last 25 – 30 years, they want more more more.  They know that once the contract expires on December 31, 2023 that they are out of business.  Instead of playing nice like the Ricketts family has tried to do since buying the team, they have decided to act like the dbags that they are and have always been.  If they force the Ricketts family’s hand and they take the team to any of the dozen suburbs that have offered them free land and the right to build whatever they want, they can all sit atop their rooftops and look into an empty stadium and wonder why they were so damn greedy that they killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

While this fight continues, true Cubs fans should boycott the Rooftops.  They should boycott the bricks and mortar bars that the Wrigleyville Rooftops owners also own.  Cubby Bear.  Vines.  The Sports Corner.  Murphy’s Bleachers.  Do not give these jerkstores one dime of your money if you are a Cubs fan.  They are trying to hurt and cripple the attempts to make the Cubs a competitive team on the field.  These revenue streams that the expansion project would bring are needed for the Cubs to compete against the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox and Phillies for the best free agents.  If you want to come to a game, buy a ticket and watch from INSIDE the ballpark.  After the game, if you need to get more to drink, go to one of the 100 bars in a four block radius that are not owned by horrible human beings.  A Cubs fan has started a Boycott Wrigleyville Rooftops page on Facebook.  You should go and like the page and help spread the word.

The Wrigleyville Rooftops can go to hell.