Cubs oppose proposal for Wrigley

By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com

02/28/2003 10:24 pm ET 

MESA, Ariz. -- Chicago Cubs president and CEO Andy MacPhail said Friday the team remains opposed to landmark status for Wrigley Field despite the city's revised designation proposal.

The Chicago Department of Planning and Development issued a release Friday stating it had altered its proposal, which originally was a blanket designation to cover the entire ballpark.

The Landmarks Commission now wants to limit the designation to such significant features as the scoreboard, the exterior walls, the ivy and the general configuration of Wrigley Field. The commission also wants to preserve the view from home plate looking out onto the neighborhood.

DPD spokesman Pete Scales said the commission does not want to have a negative effect on Wrigley Field's historic character through its landmark designation nor hinder the Cubs from being able to function.

"We're keeping in mind Major League Baseball operations," Scales said.

The commission was silent regarding the proposed bleacher expansion. Scales said the landmark designation would not prohibit such an expansion project but that the Cubs would need approval from the city council.

MacPhail, in Arizona to watch Spring Training, issued a statement in response to the DPD's release.

"We have made no secret of our opposition to this landmark designation," MacPhail said. "No other ballpark is landmarked, nor has any other municipality used landmarking as an effective means of preserving a ballpark. The reason for that is simple. Ballparks that don't evolve to meet their customers needs wither away only to be eventually torn down.

"Without the burdens of landmark designation and its processes, which I have now observed firsthand for 2 1/2 years, Wrigley Field has been maintained and improved for baseball fans everywhere," MacPhail said. "In the past 20 years, Wrigley Field has been modernized through the addition of mezzanine suites, relocation of the press box, the addition of food courts and a Stadium Club restaurant and the introduction of night games.

"Each of these changes improved baseball operations without changing the fundamental architectural characteristics of Wrigley Field," he said. "Under the proposed ordinance, each of these changes would be subject to a political process that would either delay or deny us the necessary flexibility to make needed improvements.

"We have worked diligently with the City to reach some accommodation on a proposed landmark ordinance that would allow Wrigley Field to remain competitive and preserve the essential elements that distinguish the ballpark, without being subject to the political whims of the day," MacPhail said.

The city will hold a public hearing on the proposed landmark status on March 12.

Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to approval by Major League Baseball or its clubs.