Attendance, Frustration at Wrigley Rises

39,000 pack Wrigley for first three games against Milwaukee, but team's struggles ignored by ownership

The 2011 Cubs season has seen attendance at its lowest in nearly a decade.  But as the weather heats up and local businesses attract more boozers, the buzz is returning to Wrigleyville.  The average attendance for the Cubs on the season is still only 35,000, good for 10th in the league, but the first three games against Milwaukee have seen a change.

It's about time for Cubs fans to start showing up.  But for once, the Cubs might actually appreciate the fans.  Before this season, nearly every home game since 2003 had at least 38,000 filling the stadium.  It was what is known as a 'playoff atmosphere'.  Such an atmosphere was taken for granted most of the last decade because the Cubs, for the most part, were a winning team that played exciting baseball, especially in 2007 and 2008.  But recently, the story has obviously been not quite as happy.

Plus, the attendance figure lies.  For the last decade, Miller Park has been Wrigley Field North.  Now, Brewers fans are turning Wrigley into Miller Park South.  The Brewers got a considerable amount of support the first three games.  The Yankees will also get plenty of support when they come to town this weekend, although those games will definitely be packed houses of over 40,000.

Regardless of who is in the stands, it's good to see fans in seats at the Friendly Confines, because that's the way it's supposed to be.  Fenway Wrigley is the ultimate neighborhood ballpark, there's no debate about that.  And the party somehow just ain't the same when there's a void of 6,000 boozers at the ballpark whose absence is the gorilla in the room no one wants to deal with.

Although the fans are showing up, they're not happy about the team's performance, and rightly so.  The key question this season is if GM Jim Hendry is to blame for this mess, and he certainly is.  Stay tuned for more on Hendry story.  But when asked about Hendry's job security, majority owner Tom Ricketts just had this to say:


“I’m not at all happy with our team.  I know we’ve had injuries, but so have other teams, and they have been able to find help at the minor-league level.  This kind of record is not acceptable.  This kind of play is not acceptable.  This kind of performance by an organization is not acceptable.  Everybody’s a professional here.  Everybody’s on notice.  Nobody’s job is safe.  Nobody’s job SHOULD be safe when you look at how badly we’ve performed.  I’m taking names and numbers and I will change whatever I need to change to make the Cubs a winner.’’  



Does that surprise you?  It should, because Ricketts never actually did say that.  If he were a responsible owner that knew how to communicate with fans, he would say that, according to Tribune writer Steve Rosenbloom.  Instead, he offered this pathetic remedy:

"I have 100 percent confidence in Jim [Hendry]. He's working very hard to do everything he can to get this season back to where we want it to be.  And I think Mike [Quade] has done a great job. You know Mike has those guys playing hard. You know they're not giving up. You know there's good spirit in the clubhouse. Yeah, those guys are fine."


Ricketts angers fans nearly as much as the team does now.  He's not doing himself any favors with this talk.  There's positive reassurance, and then there's lying to take blame off himself.  Either that or he lives under a rock.  Because there's no way an owner of a professional sports team, an owner who paid $900 million for this team, an owner who's been a lifelong fan could honestly think that about his team.  But instead he chooses to go back to this false talk that has plagued the fan base for over a year now.

100% confidence in Hendry?  If he had 100% confidence, this team would be winning.  A lot.  Also, we don't know the Cubs aren't giving up.  If they're not giving up, they should feel free to show us.  But a team that hasn't even won three games in a row the entire season heading into July clearly has not put their best product on the field.  Good spirit in the clubhouse?  Try again.  There's decent spirit, but nothing builds spirit like good old fashioned winning.  It's something every winning team has, and most losing teams don't.

But you've probably heard me say this about a thousand times by now.  Winning is winning.  Winning is all that matters.  If it's not conducive to winning, what's the point?  Yo T-Rick (Ricketts), if the team has such great spirit, why isn't it winning?

Rosenbloom also wrote an article on this topic.  He has nicknamed Ricketts, appropriately enough, Fanboy Owner.  I've decided to adopt this nickname for future posts.  After all, he's been so over optimistic, he sounds like one of the Bleacher Boozers.