CHICAGO - Wrigley Field (41,019)

[dande]

What´s the neigbourhood like around Wrigley´s? There are a lot of private residences, is it a good neighbourhood to live in?

[KingmanIII]

Originally Posted by dande

What´s the neigbourhood like around Wrigley´s? There are a lot of private residences, is it a good neighbourhood to live in?

It's a fairly affluent, upper-middle class area, for the most part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_View,_Chicago

Many of the buildings facing the stadium allow patrons to watch the games from the rooftops.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/ballpark/rooftops.jsp

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by dande

What´s the neigbourhood like around Wrigley´s? There are a lot of private residences, is it a good neighbourhood to live in?

Up until the early 1980's I would say much of the area was middle class or even lower-middle class. I remember walking around the stadium with my dad as a kid and there was some definite down and out blocks around the stadium which there isn't today.

Today it is decidedly middle-upper class with a very large bar/restaurant district around the stadium.


Typical residences around the ballpark...............

[nomarandlee]

A football game between Northwestern University and University of Illinois being played this weekend. Should be a fun.

This will be the first football game played at Wrigley in over 40 years (the Chicago Bears used to make Wrigley their home).


http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/m-fo...042310aag.htmlCHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs and Northwestern University today (April 23) announced the Northwestern Wildcats football team will host the University of Illinois at Wrigley Field at 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010. The matchup will mark the first college football game at Wrigley Field since 1938, when DePaul University played home games at the ballpark. The contest will be the first football game of any kind at the Friendly Confines since the Chicago Bears last played there in December of 1970.

"Having Wrigley Field as the backdrop for a college football rivalry with such a rich history is exciting since the ballpark has gone nearly 40 years since last hosting a football game," said Cubs Executive Chairman Tom Ricketts. "It is terrific to partner with Northwestern University and an honor to play host to college football and great programs like NU and the U of I.".........

This will be the first time in more than 87 years that Northwestern and Illinois will play at Wrigley Field. On October 27, 1923, the Wildcats and the Illini squared off at the Friendly Confines (then called Cubs Park) in front of 32,000 fans. This year's Northwestern-Illinois game with mark the 104th game between the Big Ten Conference rivals since the two first met in 1892.

Wrigley Field, built in 1914 and home of the Cubs since 1916, regularly hosted football games from 1916-70, including roughly 370 NFL games. The primary football tenants were the Chicago Bears, who called Wrigley Field home from 1921-70, but the ballpark also hosted the Chicago Tigers (1920) and the Chicago Cardinals (1920, 1931-39). Besides Northwestern, DePaul and the University of Illinois, other colleges to play at Wrigley Field include Loyola (Chicago), which in 1926 hosted Arkansas Tech before playing DePaul a year later.


First I've heard that DePaul and Loyola used to have football programs. Wish they would bring them back.


via the Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...3.photogallery

[nomarandlee]

Again, thanks and via the Chicago Tribune of some great old photos



http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...7.photogallery


Wrigley in 1928


A game at Wrigley Cubs vs. Pittsburgh in 1936


Wrigley vendors back in the day


Opening day 1933


Charlie Grimm, 1932


Mr. Al Capone taking in a Cubs day game


Billy Goat being denied entry from th park duing World Series, 1945


Bears vs. L.A. Nov. 13, 1955


1984 after winning division crown. First playoff appearance in 39 years.


Harry Caray in 1980s


Wrigley Today

[mrakbaseball]

Several weeks ago, an episode of Undercover Boss featured a member of the Ricketts family as a Cub employee. One of his jobs was to "clean" the restrooms. The supervisor proceded to "clean" by spraying the restroom interior, troughs, stalls and toilets with a hose. Absolutely disgusting with all the splashing of God knows what. Stay away from Wrigley Field restrooms. Hold it in.

[pentru]

Amazin photos.Very nice

[nomarandlee]

old Chicago Bears photos at Wrigley Field

George Halas


Gale Sayers vs. 49ers


Dick Butkus

[nomarandlee]

Game photos of Illnois vs. Northwestern this past Saturday

Illinois wins

Clark and Addison Streets at the front of Wrigley, pregame


Chicago Tribune photos




Addison and Sheffield

[nomarandlee]

via forumer Spyguy

A new proposal by the owner to rehabilitate Wrigley and build adjoining building next to the property.

Originally Posted by spyguy

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....-wrigley-.html

As they push for state aid, the Cubs promise to upgrade Wrigley
By Blair Kamin

As the Cubs continued their controversial push Tuesday for Illinois to float up to $200 million in bonds for Wrigley Field renovations, new wrinkles emerged in the team’s plans to revamp the 96-year-old ballpark.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....-wrigley-.html

November 16, 2010
As they push for state aid, the Cubs promise to upgrade Wrigley

As the Cubs continued their controversial push Tuesday for Illinois to float up to $200 million in bonds for Wrigley Field renovations, new wrinkles emerged in the team’s plans to revamp the 96-year-old ballpark.

Beyond the promise to shore up the structure of the ballpark, the second oldest in the major leagues, for another 50 years, the team is dangling the possibility of wider and maybe taller concourses (above), plus an in-stadium kitchen. Wrigley doesn’t have one now. That would allow a broader selection of food to be sold at concession stands.

Offices inside the ballpark could be moved outside Wrigley, freeing up space for baseball-related activities like batting cages and weight rooms. Currently, neither the Cubs nor the visiting team have batting cages near their dugouts.

The team also will study building the Cubs' clubhouse beneath left field in order to expand the clubhouse, which the team says is half the size of those in new stadiums (click on drawing to expand clubhouse renderings).

The changes would occur, the team insists, without altering aspects of Wrigley that are protected by city landmark law.

“Whatever is happening, we will not change the structure of the ballpark. It won’t go before landmarks. We are not asking for any landmark changes to the building,” said Lissa Druss Christman, chief creative officer of Culloton Strategies, the public relations firm that is advising the Ricketts family, the team's owners.

The Cubs continue to be vague about their plans for the so-called “triangle building,” a mixed-use structure that would be built on land built bordered by Waveland Avenue on the north and Clark Street on the west.

There is talk of putting a Cubs museum, shops and restaurants in the building—all possibilities that had been raised by the Cubs’ previous owners, the Tribune Co.

The team made public an architectural rendering of a “Cubs Alley” (above) between the triangle building and the ballpark, another feature that had been floated by Tribune Co. Besides picturing shops and restaurants lining the alley, the rendering offers little in the way of specifics.

The Ricketts family and the Cubs are working with a few different architectural firms, including D'AIQ Architects of Somerville, Mass., a team official said. D'AIQ worked on the renovation of Fenway Park.

What was new Tuesday, as was made clear in an aerial photo of the Wrigley property that the team released (left), is that the Cubs are also targeting the open space at Addison Street and Sheffield Avenue, now a public plaza, for “future development.” No detailed plans were unveiled, however.

It’s also clear that the development of the triangle building, which had been promised in exchange for approval of Wrigley's 2006 bleacher expansion, now appears to depend upon passage of the state funds.............

[Anubis2051]

image hosted on flickr

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Football:
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Hockey:
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[nomarandlee]

via .baseball-fever.com
http://www.baseball-fever.com/showth...an-Field/page7

1914



Opening Day 1914

image hosted on flickr








1927





1915



1927



1929






1929 WS




1930

[nomarandlee]

1945
image hosted on flickr


Bears game 1967

image hosted on flickr

[nomarandlee]

21 Oct 1995,




image hosted on flickr

[nomarandlee]

photos via diggerodell

1985


Today

[nomarandlee]

[bing222]

Nice photos

[mrakbaseball]

I've never seen a pic of the interior of Bobby Dorr's old apartment here.

[mrakbaseball]

from Wrigley Field: a celebration of the friendly confines

One section of Wrigley's history is hidden in plain sight. That's the nondescript building next to the Waveland entrance to the left field grandstand. The building, now used by Aramak, the concession company, used to be the six-room apartment where head groundskeeper Bobby Dorr lived with his family. The house was built in 1923 on the orders of William Wrigley, and one nickname for the ballpark in the old days was "Bobby Dorr's house." After groundskeepers stopped using the house, it was converted to Cubs office space. Cubs carpenter Fred Jacobs recalled doing renovation work there in 1989. "They were looking for more space," Jacobs said. "There was this wall in there. I thought, 'What the heck is that there for?' I opened up the wall and found this bathtub in there."

[nomarandlee]

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/secti...#ixzz1VP4uPNjN

Cubs float new Wrigley funding scheme — and Rahm's interested

Posted by Greg H. at 8/18/2011

Owners of the Chicago Cubs have quietly launched a new campaign to rebuild Wrigley Field with public help — and this time, City Hall wants to be helpful.

Sources close to the matter say that team chief Tom Ricketts in recent weeks has met with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other government officials about a funding scheme that could be put before state lawmakers as soon as the Legislature's fall veto session.

According to sources, the plan envisions as much as $200 million in public help for a $400-million rebuild of Wrigley, with officials given a menu of potential funding options to get the needed cash.............

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