It's not shocking that you posted a strawman to bash the current ball team, as opposed to addressing the issue, which is Wrigleyville and a neighborhood that depends on baseball. They could build a new retractable roof stadium with easier access from several interstates in the south/west burbs, and keep Wrigley for the Class A franchise. Baseball and concerts. That wouldn't help the rooftop owners though. They would be SOL.
And I did address the issue by clearly stating the Cubs would be SOL by building a stadium in the suburbs and losing a large percentage of their attendance.
You are delusional if you think the Cubs sold 2.5M tickets last year because people wanted to come see the Cubs play.
They sold 2.5M tickets mostly because people wanted to see baseball at Wrigley Field and in the unique neighborhood setting it has.
You take that away, you are left with bad baseball in a cookie cutter suburban setting. Yawn.
Dont be stupid. Moving out of Wrigley Field and Wrigleyville would be a crushing blow to the franchise.
The $20M they spent on the parking lot across from Wrigley would be virtually valueless. Attendance would plummet to Miami and Tampa levels which would drastically reduce the value of the franchise. It would also greatly impact the TV deals that are coming up for renewal as people will even watch Cubs game because it is Wrigley Field. Wrigley Field is more integral to the value of the franchise than any other North American sport franchise with maybe the exception of the Red Sox and Fenway Park.
The Cubs can still charge the 3rd highest average ticket price in all of baseball. Is it because of the quality, winning team on the field or is it because of the ballpark?
You prospect nerds like to come home from your college classes and sit in your dorm rooms alone and make claims that moving to the suburbs would have no impact on attendance but you are wrong and the Ricketts know that. They are smarter than you are. Wrigley Field is not filled with hard core baseball fans. It is filled with casual fans who go mainly for the atmosphere. You take the atmosphere away and you will lose the casual fans as well.
Sure the Cubs moving would hurt the rooftop owners and they would lose millions of dollars, but moving the Cubs would cost the Cubs hundreds of millions of dollars.
