The search for a new Boise Hawks (short season A; Northwest League) ballpark site by local business leaders will focus on downtown Boise, as a third feasibility study will compare potential sites for review by the city and the team. The group of local business leaders, Better Boise Coalition, unveiled their plan yesterday. It’s pretty […]
Tag Archives | chicago cubs
Wrigleyville West delays possibly extended
The Chicago Cubs won’t be building a Wrigleyville West entertainment complex at a new Mesa spring-training complex until 2014 at the earliest, as city and team officials work to come to some sort of game plan in terms of scope and scale. The enormity of the task in creating a retail complex at a spring-training […]
Gammons rips Wrigley Field, defends Ricketts
Usually Peter Gammons is the smartest guy in the room when it comes to baseball, but comments he made about Wrigley Field being a “dump” and Cubs owner Tom Ricketts not knowing the true renovation price of the ballpark are ridiculous — and are generating lots of heat in the Windy City. Gammons, now an […]
Populous, Hunt land Cubs spring-site design
One of the biggest ballpark deals to come down the pike in recent months has been announced, as Populous landed the contract to design the new Chicago Cubs spring-training facility in Mesa, Arizona, while Hunt Construction will build it. Mesa Mayor Scott Smith made the announcement today. About $84 million is budgeted for the spring […]
Crane group lands Astros
Jim Crane, who lost out to Nolan Ryan in a bid for the Texas Rangers, has perhaps the next best thing for someone in the Lone Star State: he’s heading a local group buying the Houston Astros from Drayton McLane in a deal announced today. No word yet on the purchase price, though we expect […]
Cubs to honor Pete Vonachen
Nice honor for Pete Vonachen: the owner of the Peoria Chiefs (Low Class A; Midwest League) will be honored by the Chicago Cubs during a Wrigley Field pregame ceremony before Wednesday night’s game; he’ll also lead the crowd in the Seventh Inning Stretch festivities. On May 11 at Wrigley Field, Pete and his family will […]
The Week That Was: April 10
The preservation of a historic playing field, franchise shifts and sales in the independent-baseball ranks, a San Francisco ballpark visit, and some bad news from Clark and Addison were the biggest stories this week. A look at the top stories on Ballpark Digest this week, as measured by page views. Giants fan severely beaten in […]
Cubs notch lowest attendance since 2002
The Chicago Cubs have been a box-office machine in recent years, but yesterday Wrigley Field saw its smallest crowd in nine years, with only 26,292 showing up for a matinee against the Arizona Diamondbacks on a chilly, windy Monday. Harbinger or aberration? Of course, many teams would be happy with announcing 26,292 fans in the […]
The Week That Was: April 3
The opening of the Major League Baseball season, the end of the Spring Training season and some potential shifts in the independent-baseball world made headlines this last week. The top stories on Ballpark Digest for the past seven days, as measured in page views. From the Frontier League to Cubs PA announcer Moreno: Time to […]
Parsing the spring-training attendance numbers
With Spring Training 2011 now over, it’s time to look at the winners and losers in the annual tune-up to the Major League Baseball season, with over 3.5 million fans attending games in Florida, Arizona and other exhibition venues. There are actually a few different sets of spring-training numbers floating around out there: MLB tallies […]
Mayor Rahm: No to city aid for Wrigley Field
Acknowledging that Wrigley Field needs a lot of TLC, incoming Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the city can’t afford to give up proceeds from an amusement tax to fund improvements to the home of the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs had floated a plan where revenue from the amusement tax would be diverted to pay off […]
From the Frontier League to Cubs PA announcer
Former Rockford RiverHawks (independent; Frontier League) public-address announcer Andrew Belleson is the new PA announcer for the Chicago Cubs and is slated to make his Wrigley Field debut on April 1. The 24-year-old Belleson spent part of five seasons in multiple broadcasting roles with the RiverHawks. At 15, Belleson joined RiverHawks home radio broadcasts in […]
Ricketts: Not so fast on Wrigleyville West
Despite telling Mesa voters that development would be part of the mix at new Chicago Cubs spring-training complex, owner Tom Ricketts now says Wrigleyville West will need to wait until the new ballpark opens — if it happens at all. The issue is pretty simple: early feedback indicates there’s little demand from retailers and restauranteurs […]