Deal in works for Cubs to add night games, premium seats

January 23, 2004

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

A City Council committee has scheduled a hearing next Tuesday on landmark designation for Wrigley Field, signaling that a deal is in the works to phase in 12 more night games and allow the Cubs to build 200 premium price seats behind home plate.

Cubs president Andy MacPhail said last month that he had given up on the idea of adding more night games in 2004 after an agreement empowering the team to play 30 night games by 2006 -- up from 18 -- stalled in a council committee at Mayor Daley's behest. That put City Hall on the hot seat.

The mayor's 2004 budget does not include any money for neighborhood protections in the now mistaken assumption that the Cubs would inherit the cost of services such as residential permit parking and shuttle busing. But without the additional night games the Cubs have said they intended to maintain the status quo on neighborhood protection. That means the city would have to come up with money that it doesn't have or leave residents hanging on such vital issues such as sanitation, parking and congestion.

In recent weeks, talks between the Daley administration and the Cubs have heated up, City Hall sources said.

The decision by Landmarks Committee Chairman Arenda Troutman (20th) to put landmark designation for Wrigley on the Tuesday agenda signals a deal is close to being finalized.

The designation would pave the way for the Cubs to generate $3.2 million in annual revenue by building three rows of seats behind home plate stretching from one dugout to the other. The tickets would cost $200 to $250.

Schedules have already been printed and season tickets have been sold for 2004, and it was not known whether the agreement would come soon enough to add the first four night games this season.