The Chicago Cubs are suing a bar located near their stadium, because the bar isn’t paying the Cubs for allowing their customers to look at the team while they play baseball. The team is claiming the rooftop bar is misappropriating the team’s property rights because the bar is selling admission to the bar and allowing patrons to watch Cubs games from that vantagepoint. It looks like the courts are going to side with the team. In the meantime, the city is investigating the structural integrity of the roofs, issuing citations to those in danger of collapse. I’m sure those investigations are totally legit and were in no way sponsored or encouraged by the billionaire team owner.
Money talks, I guess.
The Ricketts family, billionaire owners of the Cubs, began purchasing the nearby rooftop properties in order to control the marketable sight lines into the stadium and by the end of the 2016 season, owned (or controlled via agreement) 11 of the 13 rooftop locations that had a view into the nearby baseball field. Wrigley Rooftop is one of the two that has thus far refused to sell.
I don’t care what the court says, if I can see it from my property, then you have no claim to force people to pay for looking at it. This will open all sorts of legal maneuvering. If my neighbor can see into my yard, can I sue him for watching me swim in my pool?
If the Cubs don’t want people in nearby tall buildings watching them play, perhaps they should build a dome. I’m sure they can get taxpayers to foot the bill. After all, teams build sports ball complexes at taxpayer expense all the time. For example, the Tampa Bay Rays are getting a Billion dollars of taxpayer money to build their new stadium, even while the local governments of the state are assuring the taxpayers that property taxes are totally needed to fund things everyone agrees are needed- things like firefighters, police, schools, and roads: “The money we take in from property taxes totally is being used for needed services and is in no way being used to fund billion dollar sports complexes. The money going to build places of business for billionaires to pay millionaires to play children’s games is totally coming from a different line item that was totally taken from taxpayers in a different way, so it doesn’t count.”
If that doesn’t work, perhaps the team could try the Scooby Do method and pay someone to dress a ghost in order to force the owners to sell.
Meanwhile, the shortstop for the Rays is being paid $182 million to play baseball. Jason Heyward is being paid $184 million to play the game by the Cubs. Meanwhile, the bar in question (Wrigley Field Rooftop Bar) is estimated to be making $1 million a year.
This is one of those times where a billionaire is doing something immoral to make more money, and the government shouldn’t be getting involved. Government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. Remember, when the legislature decides what can be bought or sold, the first thing to be bought and sold are the legislators themselves.
9 Comments
C · May 11, 2026 at 8:36 am
That is why I support sending them both to see Madam guillotine along with the commies. If tax dollars are taken from the citizenry. It should benefit the citizenry. If it is “invested” in non-public works and services; the citizenry should be receiving dividends from the money that forcefully taken and “invested”.
TRX · May 11, 2026 at 9:41 am
> the Tampa Bay Rays are getting a Billion dollars of taxpayer money to build their new stadium,
—
I don’t know if *all* sports arenas/stadiums are publicly funded, but as far as my research a few years ago went, it looked like all of the “super dome” and mega-stadiums were built primarily with public money, and all of those were eventually abandoned by their private owners and the local governments wound up supporting them with tax money until eventually demolishing them as a drain on the local economy.
And then you have the spectacular projects like the giant stainless steel pyramid in Memphis, which the city mostly paid for, and then wound up holding a white elephant. It was a Bass Pro store last time I saw it. Well, hopefully they’re collecting some rent, though I wonder if it’s enough to cover maintenance and insurance.
Steady Steve · May 11, 2026 at 11:21 am
Taxpayers should never be on the hook for cost of a stadium. Professional sports make the team owners tens of millions per year even if they are dead last. And the NBL, NFL, etc. rake in billions. They can well afford to build their own stadiums. Wrigley Field would have to be torn down to build a dome as it’s so old and decrepit.
Joe Blow · May 12, 2026 at 4:34 am
… and yet, most American’s still spend their Sunday’s watching a bunch of niggers chase a ball in a park?
It’s like, they don’t understand, simply switching off the tee vee box stops this entire problem in its tracks? Go spend some time w/ your family, stop paying billionaire illiterate monkeys with your time and eyeballs. No, no, I want to wail and gnash my teeth while banging on the keyboard in-between watching the score of the playoff game in some far away city in another state that doesn’t even impact my sportsball team! Because my life is so empty and devoid of any real meaning, I have to latch onto a false-idolized version of the bloodsport and violence my genes long for.
Gawd, I can’t believe I’m also rooting for the de-populationists, albeit from a slightly different angle.
Slow Joe Crow · May 11, 2026 at 11:38 am
This is ridiculous BS but Chicago is legendarily corrupt so it will be a major fight. I oppose any public funding of sports arenas, because the claimed economic benefits are mostly illusory and the cost is usually a double whammy of tax breaks and bonds. If a billionaire wants a new arena, have a bake sale
Joe Blow · May 12, 2026 at 4:29 am
It’s the entire planet… and I suspect it’s always been this way.
Every major sports team gets concessions from the local market to build their stadium. At the end of the 20-years did it generate enough taxes and economic activity to offset the initial investment? You’d think we’d know that if we had AI software that could calculate it for us in a few moments or something?
It’s just a grift. Another way for the rich to fleece the non-rich. Big fish eat little fish, it sucks to be a little fish. We all understand this and accept it, except when it comes to economics. Shrug, don’t pay no mind to any of it, so I really don’t care. The taxation issue is out of my control, really (sure, I’ll vote, oh look, they did it to me again!), but it really has zero to do w/ red/blue politics – they’re leeches, ticks, parasites, whatever you want to call them. They’re more harmful to us than helpful. The net cost for having government is now outweighing the benefits for many (ahem, non-melanated) people. There will be fighting here in the US, and soon. Look at the reactions to $2000/mo rent and $4/gallon gas. What happens when that’s 3k or 4k, and 8-10/gallon? Someone’s gonna shoot someone, that’s whats gonna happen.
C · May 12, 2026 at 6:13 am
Couldn’t agree more. Once upon a time our upper class achieved amazing levels of wealth through innovation and industry. Now the upper class get there by using our government to rob us. Capitalize the profits. Socialize the losses.
Himself · May 12, 2026 at 7:54 am
Seems to me that if the bar has TVs that are playing the game, they probably pay a fee for that and thus have rights to have the patrons view the game. The difference is the media.
Back when I was a kid, we had a book club. One of the books was the adventures of some japanese judge in the olden times. I forget the name. But one of the stories was that this poor student was telling his friends that he couldn’t afford the fish the restaurant below him was cooking, so he’d eat his rice when they were cooking so he got to enjoy the smell as he ate his plain rice. So the restaurant owner sued him for using the smell of his fish without paying.
The judge thought about it and had the student drop coins from one hand to another. The restaurant owner yelled WTF! The judge said the pay for the smell of your fish is the sound of coins clinking.
bear in Indy · May 13, 2026 at 12:17 am
Point to Lucas Oil stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts in Indianapolis Indiana. Paid for by tax dollars generated by the donut countries around Indianapolis (Marion county). Which includes where I live. We the TAXPAYERS paid for a billionaire and his family to have this stadium. So, the city of Indianapolis benefited, but the other six donut counties did not. Revenue flowed into Indianapolis, revenue flowed into Jim Irsay’s bank account. When he died, he was treated as a hero in Indy. His net worth was over 4 Billion dollars. And, the TAXPAYERS in Central Indiana paid for his stadium.
Bear in Indy
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