Today is the first day in which the college football bowl season begins in earnest. It is also a time in which the Ricketts family, the owners of the Chicago Cubs, are under heavy fire for their failures of stewardship of the club.
Of course, every time is a time to rip Ricketts for mismanaging his ballclub. But if there is one thing, we know about Chairman Tom Ricketts and his cronies, it’s that they love exploiting the Cubs to maximize profit, and to do so in a way that minimizes costs. Simply put, it is his jam.
So why haven’t they put a bowl game in Wrigley Field? After all, it would be more money for them, and they would be drinking from those revenue streams without having to be any better at what they do. (It’s the Ricketts way).
We’ve looked at this idea before. Hell, the Cubs themselves have even explored this idea before. We’ve even come up with a long list of potential bowl game names before. Obviously, nothing ever came to fruition, but the timing wasn’t right.
Now it is, when you consider…..
a.) Northwestern having executed a safe and effective bowl game in the cramped conditions of the Friendly Confines (that wasn’t the case in 2010, as that specific college football game in Wrigley had major logistical flaws)
b.) Northwestern set to play their November home games in Wrigley Field (Sept and Oct. will be at Soldier Field) in the not-too-distant future as they tear down and then rebuild Ryan Field in Evanston
c.) Fenway Park has a bowl now, proving you can have a bowl game in an old baseball stadium.
Basically, if Chicago is going to have a bowl game, it is Wrigley or bust. Forget Soldier Field or Guaranteed Rate Field. The White Sox don’t have a facility capable of drawing enough interest in hosting, and the Bears don’t have the ambition or confidence to pull this off.
That’s even before they made it clear they’re leaving for Arlington Heights. Now even if they could figure this out, which they probably couldn’t, they wouldn’t actually want to.
After I got back from covering Northwestern in the bowl game they won at Yankee Stadium in 2016, I wrote a column for RedEye about what it would take for the Cubs to host a bowl game in Wrigley Field, or if Chicago itself, in general, could or would do it.
The New York Daily News picked up that column. As did the Miami Sun Sentinel and Newport News/Hampton, Virginia Daily Press.
A long excerpt from that piece is below:
The main blueprints for this movement can be found in New York City’s Pinstripe Bowl, which is played at Yankee Stadium; the 2016 edition was won by Northwestern. The Music City Bowl, held in Nashville, also is similar to what a Chicago bowl game might be in terms of weather and easy access to cultural attractions.
“I think the other major markets, like Chicago, Boston, the educational experience for kids who have never been there before, they take something away from these games that’s an eye-opener.”
If Chicago is going to be brought into the bowl-game fold, there would be three front-runners for the site. And regardless of the venue, don’t rule out, say, the Giordano’s Deep Dish Bowl or the Vienna Beef Hot Dog Bowl as possible names (though included below are less commercialized alternatives).
WRIGLEY FIELD
As the 1060 Project to renovate Wrigley Field progresses, the venue would have modern amenities to supplement the novelty of playing in a storied, century-old ballpark. Cubs President Crane Kenney told the Tribune that the end zone issue from the 2010 Northwestern-Illinois game could be easily resolved.
In that contest, the team on offense had to advance toward only one end zone because the other was too close to a brick wall and was deemed dangerous to the players.
That said, both the Yankees and Red Sox (Fenway Park hosted Notre Dame-Boston College in 2015) have made stadium logistics work, and the Cubs can too once renovations are complete.
What to call it: The Ivy Bowl, Friendly Confines Bowl or Cubbie Bowl would be appropriate.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.