"that lust for winning...has led Cubs fans to accept a Faustian bargain"
April 8, 2017 6:17 PM Subscribe
RIP Wrigleyville. Welcome to Rickettsville. It appears small businesses not directly affiliated with the Cubs can no longer afford to exist in a neighborhood that, as Crane Kenney, the Cubs' president of business operations, said on an ESPN podcast last year, is being developed to cater to the scions of the corporate class.
I lost faith that this article would be anything but a sop to the change-sucks crowd when I read this: "The lot where a McDonald's once stood was a hole in the ground, the site of what will eventually be the Ricketts-owned Hotel Zachary." O, where are those storied Golden Arches of my youth, selah, selah. The Alley was several blocks away. The Ricketts clan don't seem that great generally--major league sports franchise owners tend not to be--but you have to dig pretty far into the article to find out that Ricketts senior gave money to a #NeverTrump group before he was a supporter, and Laura supported Clinton. If one of the new hoity-toity places ends up displacing a Wrigleyville sports bar--just like the ones in your hometown, only much larger and louder--it will be for the good.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:15 PM on April 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:15 PM on April 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
How out of touch do you have to be to quote Ed Burke of all fucking people as a cry for the dignity of the working fan?
posted by chimpsonfilm at 7:29 PM on April 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by chimpsonfilm at 7:29 PM on April 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
but how will i bring my seven destitute children to the Cubby Bear for $12 burgers
posted by beerperson at 7:35 PM on April 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by beerperson at 7:35 PM on April 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
You could always root for the White Sox.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:12 PM on April 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 8:12 PM on April 8, 2017 [7 favorites]
protocoach, thank you for sending me on the Lincoln Park Trixie Society adventure of self discovery
It is all
so
fantastic!
posted by durandal at 8:17 PM on April 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
It is all
so
fantastic!
posted by durandal at 8:17 PM on April 8, 2017 [4 favorites]
Oh come on, while the title of "Wrigleyille" might mean to some the blocks nearest to Clark that fills up with drunk fans before, during, and after the games, the entire neighborhood has been affected by this. The Cubby Bear has always been Chads and Trixies but the rest of Lakeview has been something quite different, and they've been able to exist in a bit of successful co-dependency that made the area a flawed-but-cultured-with-more-than-just-sports because Wrigley and the Cubs paid their fucking taxes.
Yes, Lakeview always been primarily white and those who have lived there have been (often well) above the median income of the city, but the steps taken to eliminate any hope of the middle class living there or anybody having any sort of business not related to the Cubs have been accelerated over the past decade and a half*, and the razing of the last year and a half are the pinnacle of that plan, and it’s making all the problems that the neighborhood has always had quite a bit worse.
* The increased police harassment of people in Boystown, especially non-white and genderqueer people, coincides with all of this and it's not accidental.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:30 PM on April 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
Yes, Lakeview always been primarily white and those who have lived there have been (often well) above the median income of the city, but the steps taken to eliminate any hope of the middle class living there or anybody having any sort of business not related to the Cubs have been accelerated over the past decade and a half*, and the razing of the last year and a half are the pinnacle of that plan, and it’s making all the problems that the neighborhood has always had quite a bit worse.
* The increased police harassment of people in Boystown, especially non-white and genderqueer people, coincides with all of this and it's not accidental.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:30 PM on April 8, 2017 [15 favorites]
Whatever happened to the plan to move Wrigley to Naperville? I'm on board with that.
posted by jordemort at 9:07 PM on April 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by jordemort at 9:07 PM on April 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm just glad I got to see the real Wrigley field before it got the faux Wrigley facade. I walk by it all the time and the vibe I get from it now is pure shopping mall.
posted by srboisvert at 9:53 PM on April 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 9:53 PM on April 8, 2017 [3 favorites]
Once upon a time, you could be taking a cab home after a long business trip and between Belmont and Addison you might have to pause to let not one but two different underwear-only all-male conga lines cross Halsted.
...the area has been a long time dying.
posted by aramaic at 11:18 PM on April 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
...the area has been a long time dying.
posted by aramaic at 11:18 PM on April 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
You could always root for the White Sox.
posted by leotrotsky
That should always be the case.
posted by Carillon at 12:13 AM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by leotrotsky
That should always be the case.
posted by Carillon at 12:13 AM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
My first-ever White Sox ballcap showed up in the mail the other day because of all of this. As late as 2007, it was tough to find advertising in Wrigley, except for Soriano's contract-mandated Under Armor logos on the outfield doors. It's very hard to go to Toyota Presents Wrigley Field anymore.
But whoever calls for the Sox on the radio can't hold a candle to Pat Hughes. I TRY to keep score while listening to the radio, and the Sox guys feel like it's just two guys hanging out at a ballgame who might tell you what's going on.
posted by hwyengr at 5:53 AM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
But whoever calls for the Sox on the radio can't hold a candle to Pat Hughes. I TRY to keep score while listening to the radio, and the Sox guys feel like it's just two guys hanging out at a ballgame who might tell you what's going on.
posted by hwyengr at 5:53 AM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Is this the reason that Cubs fans can't afford tickets to home games and so take over my ballpark when the Cubs play the Reds and they're so fucking RUDE in SOMEONE ELSE'S ballpark I can't even?
posted by cooker girl at 6:21 AM on April 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by cooker girl at 6:21 AM on April 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
I waited 35 years for a Cubs World Series victory. The universe agreed to give it to me, in exchange for a Trump presidency and turning the Cubs into the 2005 Yankees.
I have regrets.
posted by littlerobothead at 6:49 AM on April 9, 2017 [25 favorites]
I have regrets.
posted by littlerobothead at 6:49 AM on April 9, 2017 [25 favorites]
cooker girl, don't worry, they're that fucking rude in their own ballpark too. For that matter, they were that fucking rude one the year I went to Spring Training and the Sox played at the Cubs' park.
I grew up in Central IL and was a Cubs fan because (a) my grandfather was a Cubs fan and (b) my dad was a Cardinals fan. This continued until I got admitted to the University of Illinois at Chicago and moved and started occasionally attending Cubs games. I was used to going to minor league games and, you know, watching baseball and talking to random strangers in the stands next to you and having a nice time on a summer evening. Cubs games, in contrast, were this bizarre cross of trying to watch a game, realizing you were one of, like, five people paying much attention, and getting beers spilled on you by idiots who were blown away by their own awesomeness. Shortly thereafter, I went to my first White Sox game, and it turned out that I could bullshit with random strangers sitting next to me about the actual game we were actually watching again, and nobody dumped so much as a single beer on me. It was charming and it made it fun to go to games again, and I switched allegiances with a swiftness. I literally changed teams because I couldn't stand the other fans of my own team. (This was ca. 1998, so it certainly wasn't because the Sox were knocking 'em dead.)
And yeah, Sox fans take a lot of shit for being fighty, but apart from Disco Demolition (which was thinly disguised homophobia) it's more or less straight-up classist bullshit. I want to hang out with the people who are super excited to get to walk their dogs on the warning track, not someone who's more worried over where they're going to take their client for cocktails than how the starting pitcher is doing, and I want to bitch about the bullpen and sketchy ump calls with some random dude I've never met before and will never meet again, and I want to be able to enjoy the experience of watching the game even if the game sucks.
But to take it back to the article -- it strikes me as a damn shame that one of the oldest and most classic parks is being transformed into a lame salesguy+client date destination and the neighborhood is taking the hit. There are (my experience notwithstanding) still lots of actual baseball fans who are Cubs supporters, and people who live in the area because they like the team or they liked other aspects of living in that area, and this descent-into-salesbro-commodization takes something away from them. It's just a damn shame.
posted by sldownard at 7:20 AM on April 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
I grew up in Central IL and was a Cubs fan because (a) my grandfather was a Cubs fan and (b) my dad was a Cardinals fan. This continued until I got admitted to the University of Illinois at Chicago and moved and started occasionally attending Cubs games. I was used to going to minor league games and, you know, watching baseball and talking to random strangers in the stands next to you and having a nice time on a summer evening. Cubs games, in contrast, were this bizarre cross of trying to watch a game, realizing you were one of, like, five people paying much attention, and getting beers spilled on you by idiots who were blown away by their own awesomeness. Shortly thereafter, I went to my first White Sox game, and it turned out that I could bullshit with random strangers sitting next to me about the actual game we were actually watching again, and nobody dumped so much as a single beer on me. It was charming and it made it fun to go to games again, and I switched allegiances with a swiftness. I literally changed teams because I couldn't stand the other fans of my own team. (This was ca. 1998, so it certainly wasn't because the Sox were knocking 'em dead.)
And yeah, Sox fans take a lot of shit for being fighty, but apart from Disco Demolition (which was thinly disguised homophobia) it's more or less straight-up classist bullshit. I want to hang out with the people who are super excited to get to walk their dogs on the warning track, not someone who's more worried over where they're going to take their client for cocktails than how the starting pitcher is doing, and I want to bitch about the bullpen and sketchy ump calls with some random dude I've never met before and will never meet again, and I want to be able to enjoy the experience of watching the game even if the game sucks.
But to take it back to the article -- it strikes me as a damn shame that one of the oldest and most classic parks is being transformed into a lame salesguy+client date destination and the neighborhood is taking the hit. There are (my experience notwithstanding) still lots of actual baseball fans who are Cubs supporters, and people who live in the area because they like the team or they liked other aspects of living in that area, and this descent-into-salesbro-commodization takes something away from them. It's just a damn shame.
posted by sldownard at 7:20 AM on April 9, 2017 [7 favorites]
Yeah, I agree with sldownard, especially that last paragraph. I realize the shift from 'organically arrived at bro-y sports bar neighborhood that non-sports people still ventured into sometimes for various reasons' to 'corporatized chain simulacrum of bro-y sports bar neighborhood that non-rich people won't enter' is perhaps subtle, but it exists. I'm no Cubs fan, but I can still lament the Ricketts-ization of Wrigley and Wrigleyville without launching into snarky "oh Wrigley has always sucked, no surprise/loss here."
posted by misskaz at 8:11 AM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by misskaz at 8:11 AM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Just, you know, putting this here. I realize that those dates are all decades ago, but friends in local bands have played the Cubby Bear even recently, and long live the Metro. (If they didn't own their building they and Gman would probably have been pushed out in recent years.)
I LIKE that there are people and institutions that fight the tide of drunk wealthy Cubs bros to diversify the entertainment options and demographics in the neighborhood by their very existence... and have always done so. It creates a balance to the Wrigleyville ecosystem. I think this Ricketts stuff has the potential to throw that ecosystem out of balance. Now maybe those forces were always going to go in that direction, but maybe it's ok to lament the speeding up of that process.
posted by misskaz at 8:24 AM on April 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
I LIKE that there are people and institutions that fight the tide of drunk wealthy Cubs bros to diversify the entertainment options and demographics in the neighborhood by their very existence... and have always done so. It creates a balance to the Wrigleyville ecosystem. I think this Ricketts stuff has the potential to throw that ecosystem out of balance. Now maybe those forces were always going to go in that direction, but maybe it's ok to lament the speeding up of that process.
posted by misskaz at 8:24 AM on April 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
I went to Lane Tech in the early 90's. We might have loved the Cubs, but holy-hell did we hate sharing the Addison Avenue bus with the suburban fans. It was especially infuriating when the best buses in the CTA fleet would be brought to carry the fans out to "$TREE-park/lawn/forest/whatever", while every morning we were lucky if our bus didn't have bald tires when it carried us to school (Western Avenue buses especially).
If anything, there was an improvement on this in the aughts.
posted by ocschwar at 8:25 AM on April 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
If anything, there was an improvement on this in the aughts.
posted by ocschwar at 8:25 AM on April 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
But "sports team is owned by shitty rich people" is a story you could write about basically every pro sports team on earth.
Except the mighty Baltimore Orioles, of course.
posted by escabeche at 9:20 AM on April 9, 2017
Except the mighty Baltimore Orioles, of course.
posted by escabeche at 9:20 AM on April 9, 2017
Well, the Green Bay Packers, as well. Which is one of the things that occurred to me as I was reading this article: how hard would it be (if it was even possible) to set something like this up nowadays? If the idea is that the community is being hurt by billionaires using the team to extract the maximum amount of profit, as billionaires tend to do, then maybe the community should own the team.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:44 AM on April 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:44 AM on April 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
There's awful fans following a good number of professional teams (especially in the NFL) but Cubs fans take a special prize. A good friend of mine is from the South Side and his rants about the Cubs and their fans is somewhat similar to sldownard's. I know several Cubs fans and while my polling pool is shallow, only one was a true baseball fan. The rest followed the Cubs because they were into the whole "lovable loser" experience. Oh, and one was a real Trixie. Sigh.
The main reason I rooted for the Cubs to win this past WS is because I am sick and tired of all the talk of "the curse of the goat" and all that other bullshit. I am confident that the Indians will take their prize in this season or the next and we'll be done with that albatross too. And I can go back to following my miserable Twins.
posted by Ber at 10:24 AM on April 9, 2017
The main reason I rooted for the Cubs to win this past WS is because I am sick and tired of all the talk of "the curse of the goat" and all that other bullshit. I am confident that the Indians will take their prize in this season or the next and we'll be done with that albatross too. And I can go back to following my miserable Twins.
posted by Ber at 10:24 AM on April 9, 2017
I graduated Lane Tech in '89 and my mom used to take us to Cubs' games in the 80s, bleacher seats on sale day of game only, for $3.50/ ticket.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:50 AM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:50 AM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
how hard would it be (if it was even possible) to set something like this up nowadays? If the idea is that the community is being hurt by billionaires using the team to extract the maximum amount of profit, as billionaires tend to do, then maybe the community should own the team.
A lot of leagues (including the NFL) explicitly or implicitly prohibit that. Here's a good Sports on Earth article about it from a few years back. I do think it'd be a better option than a small ownership group that has a high likelihood of being terrible.
posted by protocoach at 11:47 AM on April 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
A lot of leagues (including the NFL) explicitly or implicitly prohibit that. Here's a good Sports on Earth article about it from a few years back. I do think it'd be a better option than a small ownership group that has a high likelihood of being terrible.
posted by protocoach at 11:47 AM on April 9, 2017 [4 favorites]
A lot of leagues (including the NFL) explicitly or implicitly prohibit that. Here's a good Sports on Earth article about it from a few years back. I do think it'd be a better option than a small ownership group that has a high likelihood of being terrible.
Somebody should start a community sports league, where all teams MUST be owned by the underlying community, or some contingent of the community that can't be hijacked and privately owned.
That'd be neat.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:55 PM on April 9, 2017
Somebody should start a community sports league, where all teams MUST be owned by the underlying community, or some contingent of the community that can't be hijacked and privately owned.
That'd be neat.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:55 PM on April 9, 2017
I'm just glad I got to see the real Wrigley field before it got the faux Wrigley facade. I walk by it all the time and the vibe I get from it now is pure shopping mall.
NB: I am not from Chicago, or a Cubs fan, BUT this is the direction every single MLB stadium has been going for the last 20 years. Walk the concourse at AT&T Park in San Francisco (or any other stadium of recent vintage but it really stood out there) and there are more offers to separate you from your money than at a casino. That is part of how teams make money.
The bargain for doing this on the North Side wasn't the Cubs winning the World Series, it was continuing to play in that shitbox of a stadium while still being able to field a competitive team in today's professional sports league. Take away the extra revenue streams, and the Cubs are the Oakland A's until the end of time (sorry, A's fans).
Just do us all a favour, Cubs fans, and acknowledge that you are now baseball's version of the Golden State Warriors. You have inherited the earth. Best not to go on acting like the meek.
posted by dry white toast at 8:58 PM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
NB: I am not from Chicago, or a Cubs fan, BUT this is the direction every single MLB stadium has been going for the last 20 years. Walk the concourse at AT&T Park in San Francisco (or any other stadium of recent vintage but it really stood out there) and there are more offers to separate you from your money than at a casino. That is part of how teams make money.
The bargain for doing this on the North Side wasn't the Cubs winning the World Series, it was continuing to play in that shitbox of a stadium while still being able to field a competitive team in today's professional sports league. Take away the extra revenue streams, and the Cubs are the Oakland A's until the end of time (sorry, A's fans).
Just do us all a favour, Cubs fans, and acknowledge that you are now baseball's version of the Golden State Warriors. You have inherited the earth. Best not to go on acting like the meek.
posted by dry white toast at 8:58 PM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
the improv olympic got kicked out of their space because of this nonsense a few years ago. Their new space is certainly nice, but it's also always been emptier when I venture over there than it was off of clark.
posted by garlic at 9:28 PM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by garlic at 9:28 PM on April 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Aw, garlic, I'm sad to hear that. My improv "career" began and ended there. "Jedi! A Musical Tour De Force" got run (and then shut down by LucasFilms) there. UCB used to do shows there, before they made it big. Charna used to harass me about reminding her of Andy Dick there. That was a great space, despite being across the street from Wrigley Field (and always having the outside playbill boxes vandalized, over and over and over.)
posted by davejay at 10:46 PM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by davejay at 10:46 PM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
the improv olympic got kicked out of their space because of this nonsense a few years ago. Their new space is certainly nice, but it's also always been emptier when I venture over there than it was off of clark.
What happened to their old space?
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:39 PM on April 9, 2017
What happened to their old space?
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:39 PM on April 9, 2017
Are you absolutely sure that wasn't just a scene from an audience suggestion of "construction site"?
posted by hwyengr at 10:50 PM on April 10, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by hwyengr at 10:50 PM on April 10, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by protocoach at 7:06 PM on April 8, 2017 [23 favorites]