Cubs net OK from city to play ball at Wrigley
Structural engineers' report, safety mesh persuade officials to allow Friday's game

By Liam Ford and Gary Washburn
Tribune staff reporters

July 31, 2004

Baseballs were flying as scheduled Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field after city officials deemed the 90-year-old ballpark structurally sound and safe for the usual rush of blue-clad fans, most of whom seemed more concerned about rainfall than falling concrete.

Buildings Commissioner Stan Kaderbek reviewed an inspection report by structural engineers hired by the Cubs after pieces of the upper deck dropped into lower deck seats on three separate occasions. Early Friday, he inspected safety netting installed as a precaution against any further loose concrete and declared Wrigley safe just hours before the first pitch of a three-game weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

"The netting is a prudent precaution intended to make the ballpark's seating areas safe for the general public," Kaderbek said. "With that precaution in place, Wrigley Field is ready for the fans."

Hours after this declaration, the Cubs announced the resignation of Wrigley's director of stadium operations. Paul Rathje said his decision to end a 22-year career with the organization had nothing to do with the concrete controversy.

The report from the Structural Shop Ltd. of Glenview said the Cubs have an appropriate repair program in place to address the structural issues that come with age, extensive use and exposure to the elements.

"As you know, concrete [breaks off] and sometimes cracks," the structural engineers wrote in their report. "Considering its age, exposure and number of times it is in use, the park is in better condition than buildings half its age."

Black nylon mesh with a polyester liner was installed to protect all seats below the stadium's concrete upper deck and the areas underneath the facility's winding pedestrian ramp. The report said this netting will be sufficient until further repairs and inspections can be done in the off-season.

More inspections planned

Andrew MacPhail, Cubs president and chief executive officer, said that in the last few years the team has spent "millions" on repair work, spending more each successive year. He said the Cubs now plan to conduct visual inspections of the ballpark before each game and engineers are developing "an aggressive program" of inspections and testing for steel structural components and concrete in the park.

He also said the organization would report any additional incidents of falling concrete immediately to the Chicago Department of Buildings.

"We would never open the park, nor would others allow us, as they should, if we weren't 100 percent confident that we had created as safe and secure and enjoyable an environment as we possibly can," he said.

The netting that will hang from the upper decks for the rest of the season is designed to handle the weight of a 350-pound hunk of concrete falling 50 feet. That didn't keep a number of jovial fans from sporting toy hardhats, some bearing the words "Wrigley Safety Inspector."

Mary Joe Mallon of Cedar Falls, Iowa, took her husband's yellow hardhat--he's a contractor--slapped some white tape on the front and scrawled "Go Cubs."

"We're under the nets, but I'm not worried," she said, relieved just to be at the game after a 4-hour bus ride. "This is just for fun."

MacPhail admitted Friday the team made "an incorrect judgment" in not reporting the first incident of falling debris on June 9 and not immediately reporting the most recent chunk of concrete discovered July 21.

"We were slow to process information," he said. "[We] need to act on the information, share on the information and get it out more quickly than we did."

Both the Cubs and Wrigley Field are owned by Tribune Co., which also owns the Chicago Tribune.

The new report said the upper deck in front of the mezzanine suites was an area of particular concern. Pooling water from blowing rain, snow and routine washing can wear on the cement and cause corrosion in the steel portions of the structure, the report said.

Still, the cracks and signs of wear inspectors found were "below normal for concrete of this age and usage," and the engineers said repair could wait until the off-season.

The report also found many of Wrigley's pedestrian ramps to have cracks that could allow water to seep in and create further erosion. Again, the engineers said the ramps are safe for public use and the problems can be addressed at a later time.

While the ballpark repairs can wait until after the baseball season is over, the man who has overseen operations at Wrigley since 1998 announced Friday that he wouldn't wait until then to resign. Rathje insisted his departure--which becomes official next Friday--wasn't related to the recent problems.

"People who have known me 20 years, they know me well enough to believe me. It had nothing to do with the building situation," he said. "It was strictly a personal decision. Lots of things come from this job, and for whatever reason, I'd had enough and wasn't having fun."

City permit fees unpaid

In reviewing the current state of Wrigley, the city Buildings Department uncovered another problem. Kaderbek said the Cubs failed to obtain city permits for some repair work on the ballpark over several years.

"Along the lines of just about every other homeowner in the city of Chicago, they did not pull permits, and they should, and they will have to come in and get them," Kaderbek said.

MacPhail said the Cubs organization didn't realize permits were necessary for repair work, but that the team had obtained proper permits any time new construction was done.

Sabrina Miller, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Construction and Permits, said the Cubs in the last few years received permits for a variety of projects, including construction of a cellular phone tower and ground-level box seats between the dugouts. But no permits have been issued for any structural repair work, she said, and the fees the team might face for obtaining permits retroactively could be in the thousands of dollars.

The concerns of the last week seemed to melt away once fans settled into Wrigley for Friday afternoon's game. Scott Krieg, a Phillies fan from Huntington, Ind., shrugged off the ballpark's age-related problems.

"It happens," Krieg said. "I think it's a sound stadium. Overall the best place to see a ballgame."

Some structural problems are inevitable in a stadium as old as Wrigley, said David Schulz, director of the Infrastructure Technology Institute at Northwestern University. He recalled how falling concrete once plagued the Milwaukee Brewers' former home, Milwaukee County Stadium, which Schulz oversaw when he was parks director for Milwaukee County in the late 1980s.

"Every year the consulting engineer would crawl around and inspect the underside of the upper deck, but still we would have a piece of concrete fall now and then," Schulz said of the stadium, which opened in 1953. "It's the nature of these older structures."

Dave Weigand of Chicago Ridge certainly thought the city made the right call letting the game go on Friday. Sitting under the black netting with his young son and daughter, Weigand watched the Cubs pull out a 10-7 victory, with no rain, no falling concrete and no complaints.

"Well, we survived," Weigand said as the game ended. "In another week, we won't even be talking about this."

Tribune staff reporters Robert Becker, Patrick Rucker, Paul Sullivan and Jeremy Manier contributed to this report, which was written by Rex W. Huppke.