Levine: Cubs' Crane Kenney Outlines Wrigley Field Changes
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The six-year plan to renovate historic Wrigley Field and parts of the surrounding area is progressing in its third offseason, and president of business operations Crane Kenney outlined many of the changes to the 103-year-old ballpark for 2017.
The hope is to complete all the major repairs by 2019.
"This is a really big year for us as far as the quantity of work done at the park," Kenney said while on "Inside the Clubhouse" on 670 The Score while at the Cubs Convention on Saturday. "Interestingly, it will probably be the least impact on the fans. Year one, we had the bleachers empty to start the season. Year two, we put in the video boards. That had a dramatic reaction. There were a lot of pros and cons on the video boards and their impact. This year we tunneled below ground for the work to our new seating behind home plate."
The Cubs are putting in a luxury seating area from dugout to dugout. The new section will have waiter service and sunken seats that will start at $440 a game. This area will take until 2018 to complete.
During 2017, temporary seating will be reset for the season. The area will be finished in 2018, with additional changes to the dugouts.
"The food stand behind home plate is gone," Kenney said. "We have torn out the entire lower deck of the bowl. We have gone 30 feet below ground. Below the merchandise stand (behind home plate), there was just deep sand. That had not changed from 1914, when the ballpark was first built. We just excavated out truck loads and truck loads of sand. We then dug down 30 feet and created this new club. This will be called the 1914 American Airlines club. While the fans are watching the games this season, below that we will be finishing out the new club and seating area for 2018."
Kenney also spoke to the end of an era in which the bullpens down each foul line will be moved under the bleachers.
"We are moving the pens under are bleachers, now they have been expanded," Kenney said. "That one is a little contentious for some fans. People like to see the players warm up. I have held my breath every time a ball is hit toward the bullpen. I for one will feel a whole lot better and sleep better without (Kyle) Schwarber having to run toward that bullpen after last season's injury and surgery. Every year we see two or three players who have taken a massive tumble. We have our MVP Kris Bryant take some tumbles. So whole idea protects me on many different levels. We will shift the dugouts slightly toward the foul poles for the 2018 season."
Other changes will have the Cubs' office building ready this year by Opening Day. The plan for the current building used for office space on Clark just north of Waveland will be to house the team's new cable network venture after the 2019 season.
A new Starbucks reserve and a merchandise store will also open in the office building, according to Kenney. The team will have a trophy room just outside the ballpark plaza to display the World Series trophy and other artifacts from the team's history that they have purchased the last four years from private collections.
"We will have the trophy and a display of those artifacts in our new lobby, which will be open to the public once the craze goes down," Kenney said.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
