High-priced ballpark luxury
The Cubs and White Sox gave media tours of their new ballpark renovations while I was on the road covering the two teams, so I conducted my own tour.
Here are takeaways from the biggest fan additions to Wrigley Field and Guaranteed Rate Field:
Wrigley Field
In the not-so-distant past, the Wrigley Field patio overlooking the corner of Clark and Addison streets was a ghost town.
Fans would sometimes visit the patio before or during games to take photos with the Chicago skyline or the Cubby Bear in the backdrop. Otherwise it was wasted space. During the Dusty Baker era when every Cubs game started selling out, I told President Andy MacPhail he should put a TV and tub of cold beer on the patio and sell the section as a separate ticket.
MacPhail never much appreciated unsolicited advice, but the Cubs eventually made the patio a go-to place for bored fans, installing a stand for grilled sausages and a few cocktail stands for fans who only wanted to enjoy the sun and scenery while ignoring the game. They kept it free, however, so any fan with a ticket could use it.
Now the area is part of the Catalina Club, a new premium club built under the press box with access to the patio. The padded upper-deck seats that come as part of the Catalina Club ticket cost $235 to $325 per game, a significant increase that forced many longtime fans to either relocate or give up their tickets.
The club replaced a concession area where the Cubs sold barely edible hamburgers and other food and drink. When it caught fire one day last year, the media cheered, hoping it would mean a brandnew press box. Alas, the fire was contained and the press box remains outdated and untouched.
The Catalina Club is a large suite with small tables that hold tiny decorative plants. The windows slide open for nice days such as last Monday and remain closed for freezing days such as Wednesday or Thursday.
During a brief trip to the Catalina Club before the home opener, I spoke to a Cubs fan on the patio, who explained her single season ticket cost around $20,000 but was well worth the price. She brought up a media narrative she found baseless — that the new premium clubs were dividing Wrigley Field into a ballpark of the “haves and have-nots.” The Ricketts family has the right to make money off of their investment, she said, and Cubs fans have benefited from these new revenue streams with their long-sought championship and contending teams.
Before she could elaborate, a Cubs employee stopped the conversation and informed me I would have to leave because I didn’t have a ticket to the club. She let me finish my burger, which was quite tasty, and told me to contact a Cubs spokesman if I wanted to return for a guided tour with a Cubs official.
Another club I visited without a Cubs official was the Maker’s Mark Barrel Room down the first-base line, which is reserved for fans with seats near the visiting dugout, priced from $395 to $495 per game.
We used to call this area “the catacombs.” The Cubs used the space for postseason news conferences, and it was dark, cramped and difficult to find. But the new club is much brighter and more spacious, with a dozen flat-screen TVs on one wall and lots of old photos and newspaper clippings. Of course there also are several barrels, which makes sense, so you can pretend it’s a speakeasy.
Unlike the Catalina Club, you can’t watch the actual game in the Barrel Room, but if it’s too cold in April and May or too hot in July and August, it’s a perfect place for weather-challenged fans with plenty of money to stay comfortable.
Another plus was no one kicked me out.
Guaranteed Rate Field
On the South Side, the new right-field bleacher section called The Goose Island (as opposed to Goose Island) opened before the April 5 home opener with great fanfare.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opening the island was televised live during the “WGN Morning News” with reporter Ana Belaval hilariously stating it was “cold” as Sox marketing guru Brooks Boyer shook his head and insisted it wasn’t.
The Goose Island has 326 seats, including three rows of seats with white leather chairs, TVs, cup holders and charging stations for cellphones.
The Sox and Goose Island brewery, a subsidiary of Budweiser, apparently are riding the wave of the “patio-ization” of baseball parks — creating ballpark spaces for fans to interact without having to watch the game.
Tickets run from $23 for the regular seats to $100 for the comfy chairs closer to the field.
Aside from the troughs of water surrounding the “island” that make one wonder where the water source is, the signature of the new section is a glaringly kitschy 10-foot-tall fiberglass goose hovering in the back near the beer stand.
Broadcaster Jason Benetti nicknamed the goose “Greg” during Wednesday’s telecast. Analyst Steve Stone thought a better choice was “Garfield” after the old WGN-TV children’s show “Garfield Goose and Friends.”
Let’s go with Garfield, a name we all know and trust (except for Garfield’s frenemy, the late, great Frazier Thomas).
Whatever it’s called, I suspect the goose will be the backdrop of many selfies this summer, and rightly so. It definitely draws one’s attention, like those old Magikist-lip signs on the Chicago expressways.
Sure, it would be cooler if it moved its beak or quacked after a Sox home run, but that’s quibbling.
During my visit to the island before Tuesday afternoon’s game, I spoke to a group of Sox fans sitting in the more expensive area with the leather seats. The cup holders still had rain in them, but it was a minor inconvenience on a sunny day.
The four middle-aged men said they enjoyed getting the tickets, which they received free from a Sox employee as they entered the park.
One complained about the selection of stations — mostly sports — available on the TVs. He then asked why there wasn’t a station on which he could “watch Stormy Daniels,” meaning adult entertainment. His friends agreed it would help sell tickets to The Goose Island, and I assured them I would pass their idea along to Sox management.
But even on a beautiful spring afternoon, the island was mostly uninhabited. And during the cold, rainy Wednesday game, it was completely empty.
Surely as the season goes on, The Goose Island will become a more popular destination, though $100 for a comfy chair with a phone charger seems a bit much, unless you’re one of those people always on lowpower mode.
Hopefully a left-handed power hitter will one day homer off the goose’s beak, which would officially christen the island.
Until then, it’s just another bleacher section with a very big goose.