MLB Network analyst calls Wrigley Field 'a dump'
And adds ownership underestimated rebuilding costs
By Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune reporter
10:43 PM CDT, June 10, 2011
PHILADELPHIA — MLB Network analyst Peter Gammons asserted in a radio interview Friday that the Ricketts family has underestimated the cost of renovating Wrigley Field and referred to the 97-year-old ballpark as "a dump."
"The problem that (Chairman Tom Ricketts) has, and the Ricketts family has a serious issue, is they're going to have to understand it's not only rebuilding personnel," Gammons said Friday on WSCR-AM 670.
"They have to make that ballpark livable. It's a dump, Wrigley Field. They're going to have to spend $200-and-something million on re-renovating Wrigley Field, do what the Boston owners did with Fenway Park."
Ricketts declined via a team spokesman to comment on the criticism.
The Cubs have committed to renovating Wrigley, though they continue to look at ways to finance proposed changes. The franchise has been generating new revenue streams at Wrigley over the last five years, but have yet to get as much cooperation from Chicago as the Red Sox did from Boston.
A plan to shut down Sheffield Avenue, a public street outside the right-field bleachers, for a Cubs-sponsored street festival during three weekend series featuring the Yankees, White Sox and Cardinals met some resistance. Instead, the Cubs are planning a scaled-down version of a street party in a smaller area on their own property on the west side of the ballpark, with family activities and booths selling food and beer.
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