Cubs considered playing entire 2015 home schedule in Milwaukee
The Chicago Cubs say they considered playing their entire home schedule in Milwaukee because of delays to the renovation of Wrigley Field.
Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney said the team did not go ahead with the plan to move the games to Miller Park because it was “too much displacement to move our fans that far.”
Milwaukee is about 90 miles from Chicago.
“We did, really with the help of the Brewers, we did an extensive amount of work looking at going up there, They hosted us,” Kenney said on CBS Radio. "We talked about the logistics of playing a full season there to try to truncate our work to two-and-half to three years instead of four years.”
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Wrigley Field is going through the first phase of a $375 million renovation project that will add a 3,990-square-foot video board in left-centerfield and rebuild 5,000 bleachers.
The Cubs have said that the bleachers won’t be completed in time for the team's home opener on April 5. The club is now targeting a date in May for completion of the left and centerfield bleachers.
The city of Chicago rejected the team’s request for construction workers to work past the mandated 9 p.m. daily work stoppage.
“We do understand it’s an interesting balance,” Kenney said. “And it’s a delicate one with the community. We do play baseball in the middle of a neighborhood, and we have to be sensitive to the neighbors putting up with our construction project.”
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