Chicago aldermen accept Cubs offer for playoff tickets

With the Chicago Cubs favored to win their first World Series title since 1908 and end the longest drought in the history of professional sports, the cost of playoff tickets can be sky-high. That is, unless you happen to be a Chicago alderman.

For the second straight year, "more than 70 percent" of Chicago's 50 aldermen - and many state lawmakers who represent Chicago districts - have accepted the Cubs "courtesy" offer to purchase two terrace reserved or upper deck tickets for each home playoff game at Wrigley Field through the World Series.

The perk comes three years after the City Council gave the Cubs the go-ahead to rebuild Wrigley and develop the land around it and less than four months after the Cubs won the limited right to sell beer and wine on an open-air plaza next to the stadium.

"They are paying for these tickets. They are not being given a discount or free tickets," Cubs spokesman Julian Green said.

Green said the tickets are being offered for "personal use" only and that elected officials are not allowed to resell them at a profit.

"We plan to monitor the online secondary market for resales of tickets," he said. "If we find that any of those tickets are being resold, we would ask that elected officials to please remove those tickets from StubHub."

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