Column: Wrigley Field bleachers addition offers a ‘backyard’ patio with an ‘intimate vibe.’ Will fans buy in?

The Chicago Cubs have created another new patio section at Wrigley Field, albeit one with a twist. This time the premier section is located in the center-field bleachers and consists of a semisecluded area with its own artificial grass, serving a light meal with an “unlimited” supply of cold beverages. The Cubs are calling it “The Yard,” as in “backyard,” not the old-timey nickname for baseball parks.

The cost of a ticket will be as low as $175 and as high as $390, depending on the game and time of the season. Obviously the summer dates will be considerably higher than April and early May. The Yard is located above the batter’s eye in center field and replaces a small, enclosed area with a roof and windscreens that was used for accessible seating.



The Cubs said the ADA seating will will be moved to other locations around the bleachers. A group as small as four or up to 50 can buy their own patio section or the whole shebang and pretend they’re spending time in their own backyard. My backyard would include a collapsible folding chair, a Bluetooth speaker, a cooler full of bottled water and pop, some chips and a couple of plastic bags to pick up dog poop from my neighbor’s dog when he comes wandering over looking for food.

The Cubs’ “backyard” consists of a high-top table, lawn chairs and a cooler full of unlimited beer, seltzer, wine and nonalcoholic drinks. Fans also get their choice of hot dog, hamburger, spaghetti and meatballs. (Check that.

I’m confusing the Cubs with a character from “Garfield Goose.” It’s actually hot dogs, hamburgers and a vegetarian option.) It no doubt will be a hit with fans looking for a place to network, talk to friends or just lounge.

As a bonus, a Major League Baseball game will be played in front of them, featuring the Chicago Cubs. Cubs senior vice president of ticketing Cale Vennum said Wednesday that “the phone has been ringing off the hook. It’s been really, really popular.

” The Cubs revealed the news Wednesday, calling the Yard the “ultimate backyard experience.” It might be, assuming you’re OK with hearing “Cubs, woo!” or “Right field sucks!” all day in your backyard. “The Yard” at Wrigley Field, a new outdoor space located in the bleachers above the batter’s eye in center field.

It will have five semiprivate rental spaces for Cubs home games. (Chicago Cubs) “The Yard” at Wrigley Field, a new outdoor space located in the bleachers above the batter’s eye in center field. It will have five semiprivate rental spaces for Cubs home games.

(Chicago Cubs) The Cubs’ news release promised a bleacher experience that “offers a more intimate vibe,” though hopefully not as intimate as the Sybaris, since it’s outdoors and with many spectators nearby. So why now? Vennum said the Cubs “hear all the time that fans want an all-inclusive experience, or slightly elevated,” but those fans say they don’t have a big enough group for the other patio spaces. So can they bring their dogs to their backyard? “No, no social pets,” Vennum said.

“Only those that need them.” The introduction of artificial grass is believed to be the first since the Cubs installed 5,000 feet of fake turf as the batter’s eye in 1967. It was removed in ’82.

I’m guessing the late Bill Veeck, who helped renovate the iconic bleachers in 1937 and famously sat in center field in the 1980s, would not have approved of the encroachment of patio people on his turf. Cubs starting pitcher Jon Lester delivers to the Cardinals in front of the left-field new video board on April 5, 2015, at Wrigley Field. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune) Change is always a tough sell at Wrigley, though not as much any more.

The Ricketts family has made several major additions that Cubs fans enjoy, including the first video board that ended an era in 2015. The ballpark was granted landmark status in 1984 to prevent alterations by Tribune Co. in what was then a mostly advertising-free venue.

But widespread additions over the last 15 years include two video boards, bleacher expansion, wall-to-wall signage, Gallagher Way and multiple patios, including two others in the bleachers in the left-field well and under the right-field video board. A backyard patio for up to 50 fans isn’t going to create a hubbub like the time the Cubs added windscreens to block the view from the rooftops during an ongoing dispute. Sign up for our Cubs Insider newsletter A rendering of The Yard showed fans in the upper-center-field bleachers without a guard rail in front, making it look as though they easily could fall on top of the Yard’s denizens or perhaps spill beers onto their heads.

Vennum said the guard rails remain intact and were just removed from the rendering. Many ballparks have begun offering similar patio areas to afford fans more face-to-face conversations within groups, sometimes to the detriment of watching the actual product on the field. When the Cubs announced the Budweiser Patio in right field in 2012, President of business operations Crane Kenney told ESPN “what we are finding out about our suites and other areas is that people want to circulate.

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Can he seize the opportunity? Vennum said the patio trend is one that makes sense in this era of networking. “Happy we could figure out a way to fit one in,” he said. One source said the Cubs are looking to add a patio behind the left-field bleachers.

Vennum said there are no current plans to add patios, but the Cubs are always open to new ideas. If this one works, you can expect them to look for more nooks and crannies to fill with fans and add to their revenue streams, as the Red Sox have done at Fenway Park for the last two decades. Wrigley’s bleachers were once the cheap seats, but prices have risen dramatically since the 1980s, including an average of 6.

4% for 2025. One season ticket holder said his bleacher ticket for this season cost an average of around $50 per game for 79 home games. Two home games will be played in Japan in March.

When I first began sitting in the bleachers in 1977, you could get in for $1.50. Tickets were still only $3.

50 in 1985, the year Veeck decided to boycott Wrigley when the Cubs ended their decades-old policy of not selling bleacher tickets until the day of the game. Tribune Co. was cashing in on the success of 1984, when the bleachers turned into big business and the yuppies started crowding out the old-timers.

“Bill felt the bleachers were the last bastion of the common man, and woman,” his wife, Mary Frances Veeck, recalled to the Chicago Tribune a few years later. “It wasn’t just a matter of picking a quarrel with the Tribune (Co.).

I think he looked on (the new policy) as being a little greedy, and he just didn’t like that.” Those days are long gone, and the last bastion of the common man and woman are now sitting in the cheap seats in the corners of the upper deck. Like most everything else in life, the Wrigley Field bleacher experience has changed.

What remains is the center-field scoreboard, the ivy-covered walls and, on select days, the sun — true Cubs essentials..