Teepees and Toyota Signs

I was thinking about the god awful car ad in left center and was somehow drawn to something. Do you remember the teepee that was in left field at Fulton County Stadium in the early 80's?? How did that worked out for the Braves?

Mr. Lilly's No-Hit Bid

Hard to throw a no-no with a neon lookin' sign staring at your back.
Obviously the baseball gods wanted to make a point.

Toyota Sign Just In Time For BP Cup

The powers that be have installed the GIANT Toyota Sign just in time for the BP Crosstown Cup. In case you haven't been following Cubs news: the Toyota Sign went through a number of hoops down at City Hall, but was ultimately approved - yesterday. The installation started immediately. Now, the BP Crosstown Cup is the new name for the bi-annual Cubs v. White Sox series. Some used to refer to it as the "crosstown classic", but the Cubs signed a three year sponsorship deal with BP a few months back to make a few extra bucks out of the deal.

In case you haven't been following the REAL news: Toyota and BP haven't had too good of a year. Toyota had some "sudden acceleration" issues that killed many people - dead. And British Petroleum, well looks like they even topped that. A few days after "The Cup" deal was struck, a rig exploded and began spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Last I checked... they still haven't fixed that leak.

So, congratulations to the Chicago Cubs for being sponsored by two foreign owned, nationally (and locally) despised, corporations. Play Ball.

Toyota Sign Up

12 seconds after city council approval - they start to put the sign up

My Least Favorite Tom Ricketts Quotes

The Toyota Sign will be up soon. I guarantee you that.
In the meantime, I have compiled my least favorite quotes said by Tom Ricketts and his lackeys in defense of the advertisement.

"Revenue generated by the sign will help us maintain Wrigley Field for the next generation, This does not in any way destroy the character or the charm of Wrigley Field... This is a national treasure. We’re not doing anything at all to hurt that.” - Tom Ricketts, Cubs Chairman

“This is more than just a sign to us, it’s a multimillion dollar revenue opportunity, It also helps us generate the revenue that we need to maintain and improve Wrigley Field as a whole. These revenues are absolutely critical to us.” - Tom Ricketts

"Future investment in projects in the Wrigleyville community hinges on the approval of the sign. I have a lot of other dollars that can be invested in Wrigleyville, or not." - Tom Ricketts

“We are at a big competitive disadvantage if we cannot generate incremental sponsorship revenue in a tasteful manner that helps preserve Wrigley Field.” Wally Hayward, Cubs Executive Vice-President for Sales and Marketing

“We worked to create a sign and logo that would fit into the fabric of Wrigley Field,” - Wally Hayward

"The delay with the sign is disappointing because it reduces the resources needed by us to invest in the things that make Wrigley Field special," Mike Lufrano, Senior Vice President for Community Affairs

Toyota Sign Worth $800K Per Year

Almost every report about this Toyota Sign that the City Council is going to approve next week says it is worth about $2.5 million per year. And I'd be willing to bet that of those Cubs fans that are actually OK with the decision most think it is worth it for that amount of money. That is $2.5 million that can be used to A. bring in more talent to win or B. update Wrigley Field. Mr. Ricketts and his staff sure make us all think it is worth it. He said “It is a considerable amount of money. It is money that we can raise without changing ticket prices or charging more for food. It’s the right way to bring more revenue to the park.”

But here is the problem. Turns out that that Toyota Sign probably isn't worth $2.5 million per year. After talking to a few local newspaper men - that were kindly enough to write me back - it sure does look like it is worth about a third of what we've been believing. There is at least enough here to raise my doubts.

A Sun-Times reporter wrote - "One expert says up to $2.5 million a year. Others say $2.5 million over three years. Cubs haven't revealed for sure."

A Tribune reporter wrote - "Tom Ricketts told me the Toyota sponsorship was worth $2 - $2.5 million over three years."

A gentleman at Crain's Chicago Business wrote - "I think this is one of those things that got reported once, on unnamed sources, and has simply been repeated over and over. I've always reported $2+ million per year."

Another Crain's reporter wrote - "I believe is $2.5 over 3 years. That seems low to me considering all the fuss it is causing. I initially thought it was $2 million per year, but have been since told otherwise."

So - my question is: How many of you would support putting up that giant advertisement for only $800,000 a year? I don't see how that is going to help bring in talent or do much to renovate Wrigley Field.

I'll tell ya - personally I thought it was just a drop in the bucket before, and not worth it. But this - this is beyond peanuts. I don't agree with Mr. Ricketts that this is a considerable enough amount of money. Not sure what amount would make it worth all this trouble, but the equivalent of Alfonso Soriano's salary for 7 games ain't it. I've said it before - that advertisement is going to be standing in the outfield a heck of a lot longer than he will be. It's probably gonna be standing there long after I'm gone as well.

That Toyota Sign Is Giving Me A Headache

The full Chicago City Council is set to take a final vote on that dang Toyota Sign next Wednesday - June 9th. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they are going to approve it and install that thing quicker than a duck on a june bug. But apparently you have to be some sort of mathematician to figure out exactly how much this thing is going to rake in for Mr. Ricketts and the Cubs.

Every article I have read has said something a little bit different - From "as much as $2.5 million annually" to "more than $2 million a year" but also I read that it "could be worth more than $2 million to the team OVER the next three years". That last one sound a bit different from the rest. If I were to tell you that I enjoyed 24 Miller's Lites over the last three days - wouldn't you think that meant that I averaged about 8 a day for a total of 24 deliciously frost barley pops ?

With some help from my grandson, I emailed some reporters and one fella from the Tribune wrote back to me that "Tom Ricketts told me the Toyota sponsorship was worth 2-2.5 million over three years." Now I'm going to take Mr. Sachdev at his word.

If you do that math - this monstrosity of a sign could be worth as little as $667 thousand per year? That just cannot be right. But let me tell ya - even if it worth $2.5 million, it is still just a drop in the bucket for an organization that spends $146.6 million on payroll and draws more than 3 million fans per year. I think each of those Cub fans - Wrigley Field Fans - would gladly pay an 80 cent tax per ticket to avoid seeing that Toyota Sign.

I just wish somebody could explain to me exactly how much that thing is going to bring in just so I can drop the dang subject.

Toyota Sign One Step Closer

That there giant advertisement - The Toyota Sign - looks to be on the way. An article from a day or two back says the City Council's Building Committee approved the permit after my local Alderman, Tom Tunney changed his mind. Now originally, Mr. Tunney said that he didn't support putting up the sign "as it is not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood or with the spirit of the city's landmarks ordinance."

Now three week later: nothing has changed with the sign, and nothing has changed with the character of this neighborhood, but something has apparently changed with Mr. Tunney. He now supports the sign. He gave his support on the condition that the Cubs promise not to put up any more giant signs for the next four years. Now to you youngsters out there - four years may sound like a long time - but let me tell ya, that is a blink of an eye compared to the long history of this stadium. The only piece of mind that four year hiatus can bring me is knowing that I might not be around to see what they come up with next after it is over.

City Landmarks says OK to Toyota sign at Wrigley

They approved that Japanese car company advertisement. It says here they said that there sign "will not adversely affect the significant historical or architectural features" of Wrigley Field.
Also says that this isn't the last step if our Alderman Mr. Tunney calls for City Council approval. We will see.

UPDATE: The council voted 8-1 (one yellow-belly didn't vote) to approve it, but Mr. Tunney is now officially against the sign and says they will have to go through the City Council.

Toyota Sign On The Crapper Under Wrigley Field

Remember that mock-up they did for their precious Toyota Billboard - The one they plan on erecting and mucking up Left Field with?
Well sir, looks like they didn't have a great place to store their precious Toyota Billboard so they left it on top of the mens crappers by the Fire Station entrance at the Wrigley Field.
Seems like a fitting location to me.

Toyota Sign Mocked-Up

That there Japanese advertisement showed up in the left field bleachers today. Looks like they are mocking-up what they want this giant thing to look like. Let me tell ya - it is big and it is foreign - in more what then one.

It's a Sign

So it’s game day and a guy decides to put a Cubs sign in his yard. He grabs his favorite Blue Banner and plants it in front of his house. People are walking past on their way to Wrigley and he’s exchanging pleasantries with the passersby. Finally a guys stops and says “hope no zoning guys come by here.”

Huh? What the bleep? Well it turns out that there's a law on the books in Chicago which states that certain yard signs can be no larger than 1 ft. x 1 ft. Period.

Now imagine that instead of that guy, it’s the Ricketts family. The front yard is Wrigley Field. And the sign they want to put up is roughly the size of the state of Iowa. Oh and by the way, it’s a sign for Toyota. All of which means lots of hours will be spent with the Zoning Department. And the Building Department. And the Landmark Department. But they’re probably used to all that red tape since they somehow managed to get through it all before just to stick a monument to Captain Morgan on the front the ballpark, which totally dwarfs Harry Caray’s.

It might occur to the casual observer that beyond the mandatory bureaucratic cast of thousands, one little group not mentioned anywhere in this whole process is none other than the fans. Of course they’re not in the same league as Toyota, who is willing to pay $2.5 million for their thousand-acre sign. All this kind of makes you wonder what would happen if some day Mickey Ds wanted to pay $50 or $100 million. Would we see Big Macs instead of brats and the Cubs wearing Ronald McDonald clown suites instead of uni’s for home games? Hey everything has its price.

Thing is, maybe the Ricketts have been great for the Cubs. But they now own something that’s priceless— namely 100 years of Wrigley tradition. Knowing that the Cubs & Wrigley Field are inseparable, it would be nice to know that there’s a real respect for the integrity of both.

I’m just a lowly Cubs fan and can’t match those millions of dollars to sell cars over the Cubs. But I can offer some free marketing focus group-of-one research results: (as Jimmie would say) What’s on my mind at this moment isn’t the burning Prius in the parking lot, it’s the Cubbies in my Wrigley Field.