MESA, Ariz. — It’s happening Cubs fans. After months of speculation, you will be able to see baseball at Wrigley Field this season.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Monday that the Cubs would be allowed to host fans at Wrigley Field at 20% capacity, starting on Opening Day vs. the Pirates. The team will be able to sell 8,274 tickets in pod-style seating arrangements.
The Cubs had no fans at Wrigley Field during the 2020 regular season and only a handful of team employees, staff and families of players during the team’s two-game series against the Marlins in the postseason.
“One of the things that’s different from last year to this year and we used this with MLB as well as the city and state is now we have some experience with outdoor events,” Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney told the Sun-Times. “Last year, we were trying to convince the league or the city and state to let us reopen during the season. We didn’t have any experience with this and I think that was somewhat concerning to everyone.
“This plan was many months in the making and it is really it has revolved around understanding the science of transmission of this disease,” said Dr. Robert Cintronberg, an infectious disease specialist affiliated with Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. “Knowing what we know about how far the virus can travel, where it lands, the effects that masks have on reducing the spread of the virus, we were able to draft a plan that really is completely science based. I was a little skeptical when the NFL had their season. I didn’t even know if they would get through it, but they very successfully applied the science of transmission to mitigate any chances of large outbreaks and it was an enormous success.”
Modifications are already underway at Wrigley Field as the Cubs make sure their home ballpark follows city, state and CDC guidelines and ensure that the roughly 8,200 fans who will be welcomed back to the corner of Clark and Addison can return safely.
Fans will enter Wrigley Field and be screened in a touchless process before being allowed into the ballpark and all tickets will be handled electronically. An additional feature that can be expected at the modified Wrigley Field is the introduction of cash-free concessions.
The ballpark will also include sanitizing stations throughout the concourse and in various locations in and around Wrigley Field. The Cubs have been using the system this spring at Sloan Park in Mesa.
“I think what’s really important to emphasize here is our number one priority is to safely return fans back to the ballpark,” Kenney said. “I mean, one thing we know is if any public health official traces a COVID transmission back to our games, we will go from whatever level of fans we have at that moment to zero.”
Fans will now be placed in zones as they enter the ballpark and will have concessions, retail and restrooms designated to their zone. The new plan is designed to limit contact points between fans.
While Cubs tickets are usually a hot commodity, with only a select number of tickets available to begin the season, there have been some questions on if fans would have to pay premium prices.
The Cubs were unable to generate any gameday revenue in 2020 due to the pandemic.
“From a ticket price standpoint, our plan is to keep prices flat,” vice president of sales and marketing Colin Faulkner said. “So not planning to increase prices. As far as access with limited capacity, we also had thousands of season ticket holders who left their money on account with us for the last 18 months. So we’re going to prioritize allowing our season ticket holders to have access to purchasing first.
“It is also important that we continue to provide access tickets to the general public. So while the majority of the tickets will go to season ticket holders, we are going to have a process for people to enter for the opportunity to purchase single game tickets to the public. So there will be an opportunity for the public to get single game tickets, it’ll be limited, as the majority are going to the season ticket holders, but we’re trying to balance both.”
Season ticket holders will receive priority access tickets starting next week. The Cubs will also be doing a raffle for available tickets for the general public in their “Wrigley Field pre-sale access program” announced on Tuesday.
Other amenities like the Wrigleyville rooftops will be open to fans this season. The rooftops fall under the city’s bar and restaurant guidelines, they’ll be able to operate at 50% capacity. The rooftops were open to select fans last season.
Gallagher Way, which was closed during the 2020 season, will be open next season, but in a different capacity. Unlike years prior, where fans would be able to mingle and have concessions, it will be strictly used as additional room for people enter and leave the ballpark.
Monday’s announcement of fans returning to Wrigley has already increased excitement from the fanbase and given many hope to have even more fans at the park by season’s end.
As city and state COVID-19 numbers continue to fall with the rollout of the COVID vaccine and general population vaccinations expected to begin in May, increasing the number of fans as the season goes along isn’t an unrealistic expectation.
“Anything is possible and a lot of that will just simply depend on how far the pandemic continues to recede,” Cintronberg said. “One of the things that we’re worried about is the spread of these variants and is that going to cause another surge in the cases, we just don’t know.
“I will tell you this right now, with the pace of vaccinations, we’re one step ahead of the virus and the variants. And with the numbers of vaccinations nationally, approximately three million people a day are getting vaccinated. We are hopeful. I’m hopeful and if you look at the mathematical models, by the second half of the season, we should be able to increase capacity based on the science. Of course, it depends on what the city and state allow, but if the science says [we can], yeah, we should be able to.”
