Ricketts changes the Wrigley argument: ‘We’re not a museum’

Got that right…because the true Svengoolie is at The Museum of Classic Chicago Television!

Chairman Tom Ricketts reset the public-relations campaign on Saturday at the Cubs Convention, with his executives revealing conceptual designs for a $300 million restoration project in front of a standing-room only crowd packed into a downtown Sheraton ballroom.

Ricketts signaled that using amusement taxes to help fund construction is off the table.

The negotiations will center around allowing the Cubs to put up more advertising signage, a move that would take aim at the rooftop owners, and schedule games at times that would maximize revenue. In this light, Sheffield Avenue could be turned into their version of Yawkey Way, the pedestrian space outside Fenway Park, and the Jumbotron-type video board(s) could be in play.

Given that kind of flexibility, president of business operations Crane Kenney said the Ricketts family would be “prepared to write the entire check themselves.”