Dear Sam Zell,
You recently bought Tribune Co. and, along with it, everything that Tribune Co. owns.
That includes the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field.
But, you see, I have also heard that you want to sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field separately from the Chicago Cubs, which would likely give Wrigley a corporate name.
This is a problem to me, and all the North Siders that live in the city, and anywhere else.
You see, Wrigley is not just any old ratty old ballpark, it's OUR ratty old ballpark.
Did you have a little dog when you were a kid Mr. Zell? I'm sure you did. You probably loved that thing with all your heart.
Imagine if somebody decided to change the name of that dog without your will, changing it to something like Betsy when it's name used to be Tiger.
That would make you mad, wouldn't it?
This is the same thing, only much, much more important.
Giving Wrigley Field a corporate name is like giving Clay Aiken a MMA Fighting Award.
It's shouldn't happen, and all the people that love MMA would be devastated because of how commercial they are getting.
NASCAR can give themselves a corporate name because they have to run expensive cars and maintain multiple tracks.
What do you need? Some bats, gloves, uniforms, and basic upkeep.
Hell, we don't even care if Wrigley is clean, as long as it is Wrigley, we are happy. We are mostly simpletons, we Cub fans.
We have lived 100 years without a World Series, I think we can handle a little dirt on the floor.
But Wrigley has to be Wrigley. Wrigley has to be Wrigley. Wrigley HAS to be Wrigley. Do you hear me Mr. Zell?
I can't say that I'm going to go spend the day at Viagra Park. It doesn't have the same folk lore that Wrigley has.
(Insert Corporate Name Here) Park/Field isn't what Wrigley is, and we all know it.
Wrigley is as American as apple pie, not apple pie presented by Pepsi Co, just plain old apple pie.
If you change the name, all of Chicago will be mad at you, hell, the world will be.
You don't see them changing the name of Fenway Park, do you know why? Because they know that the fans won't support the team the way that they used to.
Besides, you're #52 on the Forbes 400 anyway; do you really need more money?
And if you don't want to do it for me, do it for the little kid that is never going to get to say, "I spent a day at Wrigley Field."
I'm Joe W.
15 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Darec Edwards about 1 year ago
Great job joe you really spoke out for all north siders including me. Will you be my bride
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Darec Edwards about 1 year ago
no but really great job and by the way (in sweet singing voice) go cubs go, go cubs go, hey chicago what do you sa the cubs are going to win today!
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Darec Edwards about 1 year ago
oh and apple pie came from england
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Thomas Barbee about 1 year ago
Nicely done-- I really think Zell is going to get enough opposition on this issue that he might very well have to come up with another way to generate revenue. Could we see a Bears-like situation with Zell getting a "presenting partner" for the Chicago Cubs?
Anyway, I hope they don't change the name of the ballpark, (Sox fans know far too well what that's like) because any money made is just going to go into Sam Zell's pocket-- not to help the Cubs pursue Johan Santana or whatever other pipe dream Cubs fans have been conjuring up as of late.
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Bruce Campbell about 1 year ago
"Imagine if somebody decided to change the name of that dog without your will, changing it to something like Betsy when it's name used to be Tiger."
"Giving Wrigley Field a corporate name is like giving Clay Aiken a MMA Fighting Award."
These analogies are so far off the mark it's not even worth making fun of them.
First off, it's not like it would be your dog, it would be like getting mad at your friend for renaming his dog for $10,000,000. I am pretty sure you would rename your dog too.
The latter analogy I quoted, I won't even get into how non-sensical that is, except to say that it is completely non-sensical.
Give me a break dude, you need to realize it isn't your stadium. Just get over it and move on...
You can either ride change or change will ride you and right now you seem to be a little miniature horse at a carnival.
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Bob Warja about 1 year ago
Nice article Joe. I personally am not against change and I am the biggest Cubs fan you will ever find.
I hope you weren't opposed to lights at Wrigley, were you? Or night games. Because you see, unless the Cubs get more of these modern day conveniences, they can't compete. Oh they could if they didn't' care about the bottom line & had a guy like Steinbrenner running things with a burning desire to win. But since that's not the case, we have to let them do what they need to do to be competitive. Unless you don't want to win. I know there are Cubs fans that don't care if they win it all, just go out there and drink and enjoy the park. Well, that's not me. I'm sick of the losing and I say do what you have to do to bring us a winner. Wrigley is a corporate name anyway if you really think about it. Wrigley Gum Company.
Keep up the good work, look forward to more contributions from you!
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Joe Willett about 1 year ago
lights on the field is a convenience. a corporate name isn't a convenience, it's a tragedy.
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Matt Bosley about 1 year ago
I'll probably get flamed for this, but isn't "Wrigley" a corporate name?
Granted, it's been "Wrigley Field" since at least 1927, but that doesn't change the fact that it was named after a chewing gum mogul.
That being said, I agree that the name should not be changed.
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John Fennelly about 1 year ago
Yes, it is...I said that a long time ago. They get a pass because the family owned the team since 1926.
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Joe Willett about 1 year ago
I realize the Wrigley is the same as the gum, but we get no money for it, which is why the rights are up for sale, and I think that the nostalgia that Wrigley brings with it is just to much to give up. Maybe I'm just sentimental like that.
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John Fennelly about 1 year ago
Its going to be hard for him to do
first - the fans will revolt , as you have outlined
second - what corporation or entity would want their name associated with such a highly-protested event?
Sam Zell won't be the object of the fan's ire, they'll take it out on whoever's name is on the stadium.
Thanks, but no thanks
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Joe Willett about 1 year ago
Companies these days want any sort of publicity that they can get, and Zell just wants his money, but I hope that you are right that it won't happen. I would be crushed
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JJ Stankevitz about 1 year ago
From a money standpoint, it's not like the Cubs need any extra revenue. When the Sox sold the naming rights to Comiskey, I wasn't all that mad about it--I mean, the franchise needed the money.
In fact, selling the naming right to Wrigely might ultimately hurt their attendance in the future. Lots of fans go to games for the "Wrigely experience." Are fans really going to go for the "Sprint Stadium" experience?
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Matt Berge about 1 year ago
What Sam Zell really needs to understand is that this is a business decision. That's right; I said Sam Zell needs to understand this is a business decision. While I could make all the impassioned arguments in the world about nostalgia and tradition purely from the emotional point of view, I know that a man like him will not listen to or be swayed by such "illogical" statements.
You are providing me a service and I am your customer. The first rule of business is to keep the customer happy/the customer is always right. Now your decision to sell the naming rights irks me because it tells me that while you are head of a business out to make money, you no longer care about even pretending this organization is about pride, tradition, and by golly providing fathers and sons something to talk about to show they care without saying those three silly words "I love you." To you this is about money, greed and the bottom line, and I don't know about you, but when somebody I do business with is not passionate about what they do I usually try to avoid doing business with them. Can you imagine an uninspired architect designing your building? How about a casually indifferent lawyer representing you in court? A cop who didn't give a damn about people and didn't respond to a domestic battery or child abduction incident quickly?
If all these people do is put in time for a paycheck they oftentimes aren't doing their job to the fullest. There are some out there who are like this, we all know it when we meet them, and we all know they are the last people we want to do business with. People who are only in it for money and don't even pretend to be passionate about what it is they are doing. So if you sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field Mr. Zell, I, your client will walk and stop doing business with you because you have shown me that you are not interested in this team as a passion, but only as a gimmick to make money. I did it once after the 1994 players strike because the greed between owners and the players union disgusted me so. It’s a miracle I made it back at all when the Cubs went to the playoffs in 1998, but if you do this I'm done. I can cheer for the Bears or take up other summer hobbies. You provide a luxury, a form of entertainment, and I DO NOT NEED YOU. YOU NEED ME (as in the millions out there like me.)
So let me lay out the dollars and cents for you Mr. Zell. The New York Mets received $400 million dollars for the rights to their new ball park from Citi Bank for 20 years of naming rights. That comes out to $20 million dollars a year, and for purposes of the remainder of this essay I will assume that's a "ballpark" estimate of what you'll get even though there are so many potential complications to this situation that could make that number higher or lower.
So you are brining in $20 million dollars a year in revenue. But what you're losing is $100 a year from me in lost purchases of Cubs tickets, memorabilia and apparel. Advertisers of Cubs games on television and radio are also losing 1 viewer to whom they can pitch their goods and services to. Now, while you only make say 10% profit from that $100 when I buy your products, you do take a 100% loss if that stuff sits there unpurchased.
So if the average Cubs fan spends about what I do $100 a year (some are a lot more I'm sure i.e. season ticket holders, and some a lot less) it would only take 200,000 irate Cub fans not spending $100 to wipe out the gains from that $20 million. When you think about the millions upon millions of Cub fans out there and the fact that you only have to lose 200,000 of them for this to be a bad decision I think you'll see that this is a bad business decision. I believe you will lose more than 200,000 fans, but you will also see a reduction in interest and purchases from your other, oh, how man Cub fans are there? Over 3 million fans came through the Wrigley Field gates last year, but who knows how many of us there are in rural Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and scattered across the country. Maybe 10 million? (Seriously the US Census Beauru should track us like the do race just so we can have an estimate). So if 200,000 fans quit buying your product, and 4,000,000 of the remaining 9,800,000 fans see a reduction in interest in your organization because of this issue you have just made a poor business decision, and I know your ego would never let you live a poor business decision down, so please Mr. Zell, for your own sake and the sake of your huge pocket book do not make this very bad business decision.
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Joe Willett about 1 year ago
Don't forget tourists who don't even care about the Cubs but come just because of the fact that it is Wrigley Field and the Cubs that they are watching. The lure of that brings in at least 1,000 fans to games a year that don't even care about baseball.
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