Are Chicago Cubs season tickets still worth it after a disappointing season amid organizational change? Fans are divided.
Sarah Marren’s wait on the Chicago Cubs season ticket list lasted so long, she can’t remember when she first signed up.
Her records go back only to 2016 in the form of emails with her number on the waitlist. After the Cubs won the World Series that year, Marren moved up only 16,500 spots over the next three-plus years.
But to her surprise, Marren’s opportunity to purchase season tickets finally arrived this offseason.
For many Cubs fans, acquiring season tickets is a dream come true, the ultimate proof of fandom.
“It feels good to be part of the family,” Marren, 47, said of her new season ticket holder status. “It is a relationship I’m hoping to maintain for some time going forward. I’m just pretty excited to see what it’s like.”
The Cubs, though, are in a transitionary period, and clearly fans are adjusting to a new era after the front office dramatically reshaped the big-league roster at last year’s trade deadline. With that organizational shift comes questions about the demand for tickets, which not too long ago were a tough acquisition.
The Tribune talked with a dozen Cubs fans — from first-time season ticket holders to those who gave up their seats at Wrigley Field this offseason — to gauge how last year affected their investment in the franchise and their view of the potential 2022 on-field product amid a lockout that already has cost regular-season games.
For many, it has not been easy to move past how the Cubs handled the trade deadline, specifically the decision to move on from World Series championship core players Anthony Rizzo, Javier Báez and Kris Bryant.
But Cale Vennum, Marquee 360 senior vice president who oversees Cubs ticketing, said the team’s approach coming off a challenging year emphasized listening to ticket holders’ feedback, analyzing data and attempting to be responsive.
“Certainly there was a lot of emotion with the way last season ended,” Vennum told the Tribune. “I think it absolutely runs the gamut. There are some folks that are a little bit skeptical or a little bit disappointed that we’re not still on that same winning streak that we’ve been on. And then you have folks on the other side that are really excited about going on the journey again.
“We wanted to
