Sunday, January 20, 2008

Chicago Cubs looking at Wrigley Field name change

For over 25 years, the Tribune Company has owned the Chicago Cubs. It bought the team from William Wrigley, grandson of the man for whom the the "Friendly Confines" is named.

And like many other sports stadiums, Wrigley Field, which technically does not a corporate appellation, may be getting renamed as the team plans to sell the park to the same state agency that owns US Cellular Field (formerly Comiskey Park), where the White Sox play.

From the Daily Herald:

Look for the Tribune Co. to continue its ownership of the Cubs at least through the 2008 baseball season.

And look for Wrigley Field to bear a different name in the not-too-distant future.

Those were two of the main items to come out of Saturday morning's "Meet Cubs Management" session with fans during Day 2 of the team's annual convention.

The likely first step is for the new Tribune Co. to attempt to sell Wrigley Field to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and have the Cubs play there under a lease.

Last month Chicago Mayor Richard Daley dismissed the proposal, saying "They've made money every year and it's very profitable and some way we're supposed to bail them out?"

The state doesn't get its money's worth out of US Cellular Field, and besides that, Illinois, fiscally speaking, should be declared a disaster area. Governor Rod Blagojevich keeps the state afloat by selling state-owned buildings and borrowing from pension funds. He's a smoke-and-mirrors trickster.

And there is a crucial difference between the Sox stadium and Wrigley Field. At least the state was building a new stadium for the South Siders, in the case of Wrigley Field, it is almost 100 years old. It could turn into, perhaps literally, a real sink-hole for for the 12 million residents of the Land of Lincoln.

Rod Blagojevich, the embattled "governor who cannot govern," is enthusiastic for the idea.

Illinoisans like myself should watch their wallets.

Disclosure: Just as with Mayor Daley, I am a White Sox fan.

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