Can Ricketts handle the challenge of Wrigley?

Previous Cubs owners have been like a Kinks lyric: They want to fly but they can't even swim.

So come on down, Ricketts family, and show us your wings.

Tom Ricketts, who officially began running the Cubs this week, could have taken on a lesser Chicago challenge like, say, sanitizing politics or eliminating winter.

Instead he'll try to win a World Series without converting Wrigley Field into what he refers to as "a corporate experience."

Ricketts, a registered Wrigley romantic, does seem to understand the newest family business can't be a mom-and-pop shop. But does he understand baseball economics yet?

Tribune Company didn't exactly give Ricketts a tough act to follow. Overall this franchise through the years has shown a knack for messing up everything from pitching changes to ownership changes.

For a while now my suspicion has been that the Cubs need a new ballpark. I only play an economist in the newspaper but Wrigley Field doesn't seem to generate enough revenue - per capita revenue, as former club president Andy MacPhail used to say - for the Cubs to consistently compete with the game's big spenders.

Remember, the Cubs already cost the Ricketts $845 million and will cost them untold millions more to renovate Wrigley Field.

With limited financial resources from the likes of parking, advertising signage and luxury boxes, in my world the only remaining option is to raise ticket prices to even more obscene levels.

During a recent sit-down with the Daily Herald, Ricketts was asked how much he would compromise Wrigley Field to win a World Series?

"It's a tough question - it's a good question," he said. "There are certain things that maybe you don't want to sacrifice just to win a World Series.

"But I think if you survey fans and said, 'OK, well, if you call it XYZ Park at Wrigley Field or whatever, would you care if it got you to the World Series?' I think people would be like, 'I could get over it.'"

The Cubs haven't sold naming rights yet but recently added revenue from rooftop deals, in-park ads, additional seating, party areas and, yes, higher ticket prices - nearly everything but pay toilets.

"I can't tell you exactly where the revenues from the stadium rank (in the major leagues)," Ricketts said. "I'd imagine it's Top 10 but I don't know the exact number."

Then he repeated, sounding either brilliant or naïve, "It's not really our goal to make it a more corporate place."

Ricketts indicated that he doesn't plan to include among Wrigley upgrades luxury suites that would make the place less intimate by raising the upper deck. Nor does he plan to install a JumboTron, abandon free-TV, stump for more night games or build a replica Wrigley Field in the suburbs.

"We do want to do things that increase revenues," Ricketts said, "but only in the context of stadium improvements and improvements in the value of the experience of the game for fans."

While wanting to hug the man for saying that, you suddenly realize the Cubs are much like the Red Sox were when new owners had to decide whether to leave Fenway Park.

They stayed by increasing ticket prices to the majors' highest level (until the new Yankee Stadium's prices made Fenway look like a dollar store).

So don't be surprised if Wrigley Field remaining unincorporated means a Cubs fan one day will have to exchange his Google stock for a grandstand seat.

"We think there are things we can do to stay close (to where ticket costs are now)," Ricketts said. "We'll look at those opportunities."

If Tom Ricketts can pull it off he probably can fly, too, but if he can't he'll be just another Wrigley romantic who can't swim.

mimrem@dailyherald.com

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=332928">Ricketts' one goal: 'Best franchise in baseball' <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=332985">Excerpts from Tom Ricketts' interview with the Daily Herald <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=332929">As owner, Ricketts looks to keep a fan's perspective <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=332919"><B>Burt Constable:</B> Ricketts turns from die-hard fan into owner <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=332930"><B>Mike Imrem:</B> Can Ricketts handle the challenge of Wrigley? <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> </ul> <!-- Start of Brightcove Player --> <div style="display:none"> </div> <!-- By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C found at http://corp.brightcove.com/legal/terms_publisher.cfm. --> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script> <object id="myExperience46550033001" class="BrightcoveExperience"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="width" value="300" /> <param name="height" value="254" /> <param name="playerID" value="18011347001" /> <param name="publisherID" value="1659832549"/> <param name="isVid" value="true" /> <param name="@videoPlayer" value="46550033001" /> </object> <!-- End of Brightcove Player --> </div> </div> </div>