March 24--With opening day on the horizon and the Wrigley Field bleachers resembling an erector set, some denizens of the most famous section in sports are wondering if life would ever be the same.
The bleacher season-ticket holders are temporarily without a home, and some blame the Cubs for catering to a younger crowd that drinks more and pays more attention to their smartphones than the game itself.
"It's all about the party," veteran bleacherite Linda Eisenberg said.
The Wrigley bleachers have been gutted this offseason to add lucrative patio sections, two jumbo-sized video boards and signage as part of the Ricketts' family's $575 million renovation plan known as the "1060 Project."
Team management misjudged the effects of a harsh Chicago winter on the construction timeline, ensuring the bleachers would not be ready for the start of the season, which begins April 5 against the Cardinals.
The Cubs insist the left field bleachers will be ready by May 11, with the right field bleachers slated to open sometime in June. Bleacher season-ticket holders were offered refunds or down payments on next year's tickets, or relocation to seats in the "bowl" area which some found lacking.
"The seats that were available weren't that good- either upper deck or back of terrace," bleacher season-ticket holder Donna Wakefield said. "Not good."
So what to do?
Wakefield, who is part of group that calls themselves "Bleacher Refugees" and have had buttons and T-shirts made with the moniker, took the money. Tim Shockley, another bleacher-season ticket holder, said most of the bleacherites he knows also opted for refunds, figuring the early season games are played in miserable weather anyway.
"If it was in the middle of summer, I'd really be (ticked)," he said. "There are more night games affected than day games, and we're not big fans of night games -- it's a different crowd."
After getting her $440 refund for 15 games, Eisenberg, a right-field regular, will miss her first Cubs opener in so long she can't remember the last time it happened.
"This totally (ticks) me off, and I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid that this is the year," she said. "If you have to fix the ballpark, why are you starting in the bleachers? The bleachers were redone 10 years ago, and now they're re-doing them again?"
Season-ticket holder Rich Skinner also opted for the refund, and wished the Cubs had done more to appease the refugees.
"Some benefits or some type of incentives would've been great," he said. "We have not seen that yet. ... Now there are all these rumors floating around that they won't be open until even later, and they haven't really communicated that information back to us. At this point, I don't know if I'll be watching any games in the bleachers this year."
Wakefield has been sitting in the bleachers since the 1970s, and has had a season ticket there for 18 years. Like Eisenberg, Wakefield believes the renovation will "lead to more drinking and partying" in a section synonymous with drinking and partying.
"Getting angry isn't going to do me any good," she said. "I wasn't happy with the (2006) renovation, but I dealt with it. This isn't a restoration, not when they're doing this much. They're really going for: 'Let's see how much beer we can sell and how many partiers we can have, and 'Who cares about the game?'
"That's really how (the Ricketts) see the bleachers. They forget there is a group of us who've sat there 20, 30, 40 years who pay attention to the game, keep score and sit there because we feel it's the best view."
Things change, but Cubs fans don't. Back in the 1980s, fans upset about the idea of Tribune Co. adding lights wore bright yellow "No Lights in Wrigley!" T-shirts with a depiction of the Wrigley marquee.
The end of the bleachers as we knew it arrived in 1985 when the Cubs announced they'd sell the $3.50 tickets in advance for the first time.
The success of the '84 Cubs, who ended a 39-year postseason drought, had fans lining up on Waveland and Sheffield Avenue for seats before dawn. President Dallas Green changed the day-of-game bleacher ticket policy for "security" reasons as traditionalists moaned.
Cubs fans survived, but the "end of the bleachers" happened again when they added a no-alcohol "family section" near the left foul pole later that season, and again on Opening Day in 1988 when they banned beer vendors from roaming the "cheap" seats. Last rites for the bleachers were held again in 2006 after a $13.5 million renovation project added 1,790 seats, and again in 2012 when the Cubs added an exclusive patio section and LED board in far right field.
The latest renovation plan has endured several delays, and even after winning city approval last year the Cubs are facing a lawsuit from rooftop owners.
Will the influx of patio dwellers change the bleacher atmosphere for good?
Shockley agrees the "patio-ites" are overwhelming the bleacherites and spend much of the game "looking at Waveland or Kenmore, the opposite direction of what's going on." But he said he's "realistic" about the changes and everyone will get used to the changes.
"At first, everyone was freaking out and screaming bloody murder -- 'This is outrageous, it should be like it was in the 60s,' " Shockley said. "I'm like 'No, we (stunk) most of the 60s.' A lot of people don't want to move on and upgrade (Wrigley). But hey, you need revenue to make investments (in the team), and you need more seats for new revenue.
"As far as I'm concerned, they have good baseball management now and we just have to change with the times. It's like a mom-and-pop store going national. It's up to you whether to still buy the product or just stay home and pout."
For better or worse, Wrigley 2.0 is coming, and the bleacher refugees eventually will return to their natural habitats.
Tribune reporter Steven Goldstein contributed to this story.
psullivan@tribpub.com
