Peter Gammons calls Wrigley Field a dump:
“The problem that [Tom Ricketts] has, and the Ricketts family has a serious issue, is they’re going to have to understand it’s not only rebuilding personnel,” Peter Gammons, of the MLB Network, said on the Mully and Hanley Show. “They got to make that ballpark livable, it’s a dump, Wrigley Field. They’re going to have to spent $200-and-something million on re-renovating Wrigley Field, do what the Boston owners did with Fenway Park. And the investment is far greater than, I think, maybe they realize. That the amount of work that Wrigley Field needs is, I mean, there’s a ton of money that has to go into rebuilding that.”
I have not been to Wrigley Field so I can’t compare it to Fenway. When I regularly attended game in Boston in the 1980s, there were dump like sections of the ballpark. The Red Sox have done an amazing job over the last two decades of improving things, but they’ve also put winning teams on the field to make the fans want to attend. The Cubs haven’t done the latter lately.
Like it or not, stadiums do have life spans. I’m not sure how much of the original Fenway exists. I remember seeing a juggler who used an axe. His line was, “This is the same axe George Washington used to chop down the cherry tree. The handle is new, and the head was replaced, but it occupies the same space.” That’s pretty much Fenway right now. Sometimes it’s worth it remodel, sometimes, however, buildings need to be replaced. The Cubs will need to decide which way they go.
I’ve been to both, although my visit to Wrigley was maybe seven years ago. I pains me to say so, but Gammons is…
Peter Gammons is..
He’s right.
There, I said it. I feel dirty, but there it is.
I know how much Wrigley is important to baseball history, but… maybe it would be best to tear it all down & rebuild it from scratch. Not just a renovation. A modernized replica of the original (and I mean 100 years ago original) would really work.
The key importance of any Wrigley rebuild or renovation though, is to keep the neighborhood view beyond the outfield! If that’s lost, then Wrigley loses it’s appeal. The Cubs would be separating themselves from their neighborhood.
So I’m thinking, the Rickett’s family would do good to rebuild Wrigley from the ground up, on the very spot it is on right now. I realize this would take a lot… including schedling exclusively away games during September one year & April the next, in order to have enough time to build, but hey…it can work.
Also, does anyone ever realize how awful the parking is for Wrigley? I saw it on undercover Boss a few months ago and was astonished that a major league stadium used a parking lot of dirt that’s hard to squeeze cars into.
Devon & His 1982 Topps blog » They could also do what the Yankees did in the 1970s and play at the other major league park in town for a couple of seasons.
The Yankee Stadium wasn’t that successful to some I know. That place was still a dump afterward.
Guess I’m the fly in the ointment. I love Wrigley and make it a point to get there every time I’m in Chicago. There’s nothing like it in baseball. I’ve been to several parks and Wrigley is my favorite place to watch a game. It goes w/o saying that the amenities are few and far between; those that do exist are outdated (i.e. troughs instead of urinals). I suspect that Gammons has greater access than most of us and is also talking about the clubhouse facilities. But when it just comes to watching a game, I love it there. Makes me feel like I stepped back in time (a feeling I never got from Fenway) – the bleachers, the old time scoreboard, the ivy, the surrounding brownstones, etc., I’d take Wrigley anyday over the over-priced monstrosities that have been built in the last few years (though I enjoyed San Francisco a lot). I’d wish Gammons were more specific in his criticism. Sure, Wrigley could use some work but I think “dump” is a bit strong. And I agree with a previous poster: any renovation should be in keeping with tradition. Wrigley still retains it’s soul. Let’s keep it that way.