The Cubs' home finale tonight against the Cardinals will mark the last time Wrigley Field does not feature a "giant video board" in left field, as work begins on the club's four-year, $575M renovation project "in a week or so," according to Paul Sullivan of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Cubs VP/Communications & Community Affairs Julian Green said that the team "will receive proposals from video-board manufacturers in the next few weeks" and "hopes to select a company by December." The team "will be hiring a full-time video-control manager who will oversee the content on a daily basis." A section of seats next to the press box "is being removed to house the new video-board room." Green said that it is "too soon to tell" if the club will run commercials on the videoboard. Green: "Our goal is to make sure this is baseball-focused content." The Cubs have "sent marketing representatives around the majors to check out other video boards to see what works and what doesn't." Other offseason projects at the ballpark include the bleacher walls and outer walls on Sheffield and Waveland avenues being "torn down and rebuilt" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/24). In Chicago, Brian Sandalow wrote if you "want to get a good look at Wrigley Field as we know it you probably have just a few days left." The plan calls for work on the new videoboard, right-field Budweiser sign and bleachers "to be completed by the start" of the '15 season (SUNTIMES.com, 9/23).
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: In Chicago, Danny Ecker notes the Cubs head into tonight's home finale with total paid attendance of 2,618,821 (32,735 per game), which "puts the team on track to finish just a shade higher than last year's average and clock in as the 11th-highest per game average" in MLB. The last season the Cubs "increased ticket sales" was '08, when sales "jumped by about 50,000 tickets to more than 3.3 million." The final number "is on track" to be more than 200,000 below paid attendance from '12 and the second-lowest figure since '98 (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 9/24).
