Cubs Announce New Bleacher Features At Wrigley Field
By Jim Bochnowski in News on May 5, 2015 6:00PM
As Wrigley Field renovations keep going on and on (and on), the Chicago Cubs recently revealed their plans for the modernized bleacher experience.
The Tribune reports that next week, when the Cubs play the New York Mets, the bleachers will finally be open for the first time. Cubs president of business operations, Crane Kenney, had the following to say about the bleachers:
"If you think about the history of the bleachers and their importance to the character of Wrigley Field, they're important. I think there will be some new views from new spaces that were created for our groups. … We're going to have a great re-opening of a very important part of the ballpark."
Beginning Monday, most of the left field bleachers, and perhaps more importantly the bleacher bathrooms, will finally be open for business. Additionally, there will be two new standing room only sections in the left field bleachers. One, known as "the porch," will be located underneath the video scoreboard in the left field. The other, directly above the left field wall, will be known as "the well." Because if there's one thing I know, it's that allowing people to stand around directly above the field of play at Wrigley Field is an incredibly good idea. Regardless, these new seating areas will be targeted at satisfying demand for group ticket sales, which will increase bleacher capacity by about 500.
Kenney mentioned that similar standing room space will be available when the right field bleachers finally open on June 11, which will coincide with the installation of a 2,250-square-foot video board in the area. He also was clear to talk about how the creation of additional space had a very important side effect: much more space to prepare food in-house:
"One of the limitations of Wrigley Field is we don't have a lot of food-prep operation. We actually bring in most of the food already prepared. This is going to allow us to make fresh food in the bleachers."
So while tradition is important, I'm going to be very happy to be able to sit in the new bleachers with more food choices than day old hot dogs.