Wrigley Rooftop Deals

Someone recently sent me an email asking about a Wrigley rooftop deal on the website. Here’s what I can tell you about rooftops and that deal.

Thousands of years ago I went on a rooftop where I think I paid $25 or $30. Of course in those days my partial season ticket Terrace Reserve seat down the third baseline was probably under $8. Back then people still lived in the rooftop buildings. You would have to walk up four or more floors to the roof. Once you made it up there there were kegs of beer and someone grilling hotdogs and hamburgers. The restroom facilities were – a port-a-loo. You were really roughing it.

Fast forward to about five years ago when I went on another rooftop. The ticket cost $125. Things have really changed. We went to the Wrigley Field Rooftop Club at 3617 N. Sheffield. This building was built specifically to be a rooftop so the whole building is a three or four floor bar. There are bleachers (with real seats) on the roof where we sat. You could see the infield but you were far away. You could go inside and watch the game on one of the billion tv’s but what’s the point of that. All food and booze was included. So was an elevator and real flush toilets! It was really fun.

This view is if you are sitting all the way at the top of the bleachers on the rooftop. You can’t see center or right field. Picture from Wrigley Rooftops website.

All the rooftops around Wrigley are probably the same except that they are former apartment buildings retrofitted into multilevel bars. They are owned by corporations and now ten of the sixteen rooftops around Wrigley are owned by the Ricketts.

The deal currently up on the website is for Wrigley View Rooftop at 1050 W. Waveland Ave. $99 (regularly $130) for select dates through May. The pictures look great. BUT when you go directly to the Wrigley View website some of the dates offered through the $99 deal are also $99 on the Wrigley View Rooftop website. WTF Travelzoo? This rooftop may offer dynamic pricing (more on that below) so those prices may change.

If you look at the cost of actually going to the game I priced a Terrace Box seat in section 215 (just past home on the third base side) Row 1 which with fees, tax etc. was $42 (Terrace Reserved are under the upper deck so you get some rain protection). This was the April 28 game where they were playing MIL (expletive inter-league play). Add beers ($7.75 each) and a hot dog ($5.75) plus tips and you are approaching the cost of a rooftop.

Other advantages of rooftops are:

You don’t have to slog through ankle deep garbage with the crush of people in the concourse at the end of the game.
There’s no waiting for restrooms.
No lines for food and booze.
No metal detectors.

All big pluses. So should you do it? Well it’s certainly a different experience than the park and costs only slightly more than Wrigley without the hassles. You may want to pick a roof with a good view.

Per Crain’s here’s the status of the area rooftops:

Rickett owned (This site has a 3-D map of the rooftop properties and 360-degree views from the seats):