The Cubs and Levy Restaurants' new sports retail group, Rank + Rally, have partnered to develop a new fan shopping experience at the club's plaza, The Park at Wrigley. The new 8,400-square-foot flagship Cubs store features two floors of Cubs collections, new technology enabling faster customization, fan-favorite T-shirts, hats, jerseys, season lifestyle apparel and the "Fly The W" book based on the club's '16 World Series title. The team store will have an exclusive media-only unveiling Friday before it officially opens April 10 (Cubs). In Chicago, Paul Sullivan wrote the "biggest addition to Wrigley Field this year is the championship flag that will be hoisted in center field" on April 10 for the club's home opener against the Dodgers. That is the "only enhancement that really matters to most Cubs fans, though they'll also get a new gate on the west side of the park, a Starbucks, a plaza where they can eat or drink if they'd rather watch the games on flat screens than from the seats they paid for, and a new bullpen that they won't be able to see." A "relatively mild winter has helped keep Phase 3 of the Wrigley renovation moving along, but a premium club in the section behind home plate is not scheduled to open until" '18 (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 3/31).
