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Report: Mayor Interested In Cubs’ New Wrigley Funding Plan

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CHICAGO (CBS) – Cubs owner Tom Ricketts has put together a new funding plan to rebuild Wrigley Field and unlike last time, the mayor is interested, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley blocked Ricketts’ last plan, which included public funding from taxes. According to the report, the new plan still calls for “as much as $200 million in public help for a $400-million rebuild of Wrigley” but new Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “people have been much more interested than Daley’s were.”

The report stresses that no deal has been reached and it still could be a ways off, but it’s certainly significant that the city is being more cooperative now.

It also probably helps that Emanuel is a Cubs fan who lives on the North side, while Daley was a White Sox fan who has been a frequent visitor to U.S. Cellular Field for years.

Reaction was mixed Thursday among Chicagoans.

“I think it’s great,”  Mary Runge told CBS 2′s Kristyn Hartman. “Wrigley is an institution.  It’s Chicago.”

“I’m a Cubs fan.  It’s a nice team, but we don’t have money for that. We could use it elsewhere,” said Chris Lymberopulos, a Chicago public school teacher who didn’t get a raise this year. 

But Lakeview Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Heather Way says any renovation would be a boost to the local economy.

She takes issue with the way the public financing has been portrayed. She if the new plan is like the old one, “They’re looking to leverage tax dollars from ticket sales in the amusement tax.”

A Cubs spokesman said last fall the project would depend on growth in the amusement tax paid by Cubs patrons – not the existing base that would still go to government.

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  • http://www.chicitysports.com/forum/chicago-cubs-forum/16126-tom-ricketts-wants-your-help-again.html#post332965 Tom Ricketts Wants Your Help……Again. – CHI CITY SPORTS l #1 Chicago Sports Fan Message Board

    [...] Ricketts Wants Your Help……Again. Report: Mayor Interested In Cubs’ New Wrigley Funding Plan [...]

  • Dr. Zaiius

    Well, I’m interested in making apes smarter so they can destroy civilization (do I have to say “as we know it?”)
    Give me $200 million dollars, also

  • Just Axin

    This is the time to tell your Alderman-NO public $ for Wrigley. Let them threaten to go to Naperville.

    • StupidPeopleFTW

      …and lose far more revenue than they’re asking to borrow, brilliant idea…

  • JeanSC

    Is the correct word “rebuild” or “renovate”? Even a gut rehab isn’t a “rebuild.” There are many things wrong with Wrigley Field that I don’t think can be solved without a new building – that has a bigger footprint. For example: it needs a service corridor. These concerns are aside from the funding discussion.

  • Malcom

    lets the cubs fold. tear down wrigley and put some condos there. It will be cheaper for the city besides. the cubs aren’t ever going to win. Cancer will be cured before the cubs win and polticians stop taxing for worthless ideas. And if this does pass, you better follow the money trail. who decides who gets what contracts etc.? kickbacks and payoffs the chicago way.

    • StupidPeopleFTW

      Yup, losing the revenue from Wrigley, the team, the businesses around it, and the drop in property values and resulting tax rates will clearly be cheaper than a loan for one of the biggest revenue generators in the state. Do you have to think about breathing?

  • Just Axin

    SPFTW-Maybe if you’d stick to the point and not try to insult people, you would be taken seriously. I don’t think taxpayers want to be extorted from a multimillion dollar enterprise. If you want to see them stay, mail them a check.

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