Venue News: Wrigley Field Renovations, Including Video Board, Approved; New Red Wings Arena Still A Go Despite Detroit Bankruptcy

Compiled by Karen Hogan, Associate Editor, Sports Video Group

The Chicago Cubs, who have clung to the past the way ivy clings to Wrigley Field’s outfield walls, won final approval last week for a $500 million renovation project at the 99-year-old ballpark — including a massive Jumbotron like the ones towering over every other major league stadium. The team also will be able to erect a large advertising sign in right field, double the size of the cramped clubhouse, improve player training facilities in the bowels of the ballpark and build a 175-room hotel across the street…

…Detroit’s financial crisis hasn’t derailed the city’s plans to spend more than $400 million in Michigan taxpayer funds on a new hockey arena for the Red Wings. Advocates of the arena say it’s the kind of economic development needed to attract both people and private investment dollars into downtown Detroit. It’s an argument that has convinced Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Kevyn Orr, the emergency manager he appointed to oversee the city’s finances, to stick with the plan. Orr said Detroit’s bankruptcy filing won’t halt the arena plans…

…D.C. United and Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray announced Thursday the signing of a $300 million public-private partnership to build a 20-25,000-seat soccer stadium in the Buzzard Point area of the city. The costs of the project will be split evenly between United and the D.C. government with the city funding the land acquisition and infrastructure costs while the club pays for the construction of the stadium itself. The deal ends United’s decade-long hunt for a new stadium, which had been offset numerous times for various different reasons throughout the club’s tenure at RFK Stadium. D.C. United has not yet finalized the design of the new stadium…

…When what is now called Rogers Arena was squeezed between the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts in the mid-1990s, it created something of a double-edged sword for the Vancouver Canucks and their ticket-holders. The arena’s relatively tiny footprint forced rather steep viewing angles that are among the best in the National Hockey League. Even from the top rows of the upper bowl, spectators are not that far from the ice. But the flip side is a main concourse area that, to put it politely, is rather snug. That should change for the better in about a year’s time when completion of the first of three residential/office towers planned by the team’s ownership will allow the Canucks to expand their concourse areas at the southwest end of the arena…