Daley gives encouraging nod to more bleachers

June 23, 2004

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

If the Cubs can build 1,980 new bleacher seats as seamlessly as they installed 200 premium-priced seats behind home plate, the latest plan to expand Wrigley Field looks like a home run to Mayor Daley.

Four days after the Cubs took the wraps off their latest plan for Wrigley, Daley took a public liking to it, signaling an end to the three-year stalemate over expansion of the 90-year-old shrine to Major League Baseball.

Earlier this year, the City Council gave the Cubs the go-ahead to phase

in 12 more night games after the team agreed to finance an array of enhanced neighborhood protections. At the same time, aldermen also approved a limited landmark designation for historic Wrigley that opened the door to a future bleacher expansion and gave the Cubs immediate approval to install the seats behind home plate.

A die-hard Sox fan who rarely sets foot in Wrigley, Daley said he went there for a private presentation recently and was amazed at how well the 200 new seats blend into the old design.

"Those back seats fit in perfectly. . . . It seems like they were always there. No one ever said that was new. Even the brick they put in there -- it's a little newer, but it's almost equal to the first-base and third-base lines. . . . They really fit that in well," the mayor said.

Daley expressed confidence the same architectural sensitivity would be used to install the new bleacher seats.

"They know they've got a gem [in Wrigley]. ... This is a landmark," he said. "They cherish that landmark just as much as anybody else. ... They know they can't change it because it's the only park of its kind in the country. It's so unique and different -- that's why it's sold out every game."

"The other [night game] issue has worked out. It shows you once you get

the process moving along, people come back, make suggestions and work it out."

Pressed on whether 1,980 new bleacher seats was too many for area residents to absorb, Daley said, "It all depends how they fit it in. ... They need another x-amount of seats ... because they're sold out every game."

Last week, Cubs officials unveiled their latest plan to expand the Wrigley bleachers and transform city-owned land next to the stadium into a Fenway Park-style pedestrian promenade bustling with shops and restaurants.

The plan also addressed longstanding community concerns. Instead of supporting the new bleacher seats with a series of sidewalk columns along Waveland and Sheffield, the number of columns has been reduced to two on each street. Lighting and surveillance cameras would be installed to prevent the overhang from becoming a magnet for vagrants and crime.

The Cubs would also replace unsightly concrete on the stadium's exterior walls with more pleasing ivy-covered brick and improve pedestrian access by doubling the width of Clark Street sidewalks between Addison and Waveland.