We can rail all we want about greedy athletes in professional sports, but no one, NO ONE, in sports is greedier than the owners of professional sports teams. This was proven true yet again with the announcement by Tom Ricketts, the gajillionaire owner of the Chicago Cubs, that the Cubs needed to put in a giant modern video scoreboard in Wrigley Field in order to generate sufficient revenues that are needed in order for the Cubs to be competitive with the competition in Major League Baseball (sound familiar?). And, if the team is not allowed to install such a board, then he, Ricketts, would have to consider moving the Cubs out of Wrigley Field.
Now, Ricketts didn't specify exactly where he would move the Cubs (Comisky Park? A new taxpayer financed stadium in the suburbs? Las Vegas?), but ballpark junkies have no doubt worked themselves into a lather over this because, let's face it, the occasional Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, or Ryne Sandberg aside, the real STAR of the Cubs franchise in my lifetime, at least, has been the ball park, not the team (whether or not this is a good thing for a franchise is an interesting discussion point for another day), so Ricketts threat to move the team somewhere else is akin to selling advertising on the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
Normally, I would take a stance foursquare against Ricketts on this, but then I read who is leading the main opposition to this new scoreboard. Turns out that it is the owners of those buildings across the street from the outfield wall of Wrigley, the buildings that have built seating on their roofs to which they charge admission for their patrons, and none of said revenue, to my knowledge, goes to the Cubs. If such a board is built atop the wall at the back of the left field bleachers, it would block the view of these freeloaders.
Talk about chutzpah!
Talk about a battle where you want both sides to lose!
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