The Chicago Cubs’ past and future World Series champions will soon have permanent recognition outside Wrigley Field. To honor the franchise’s three World Series championship teams, the Cubs are creating an archway monument at the Clark Street entrance of Gallagher Way, slated to be unveiled the weekend of July 17, president of business operations Crane Kenney told the Tribune on Saturday. The unveiling will coincide with an in-season celebration of the 2016 squad. The Cubs are still in the early stages of the design phase, but the organization opted for a more inclusive creation rather than a singular statue representing the 2016 team. The installation construction will start about six weeks before its reveal with one of the most iconic features, the piece revealing the name of the champions gate, being put in place shortly beforehand. A narrative for each of the organization’s three title teams — 1907, 1908 and 2016 — written by historian Ed Hartig will be displayed with each title team to accompany the names of every player and coach from that championship season. The creation also will include space for any future World Series title teams. Photos: 2026 Cubs Convention When evaluating how to best memorialize a tribute to the 2016 champions, the organization looked at what other franchises have done to honor their historic World Series champs, such as the Boston Red Sox hanging a banner for their 2004 squad, and the White Sox, who created a team statue displayed at the front of the ballpark to celebrate the 2005 group. “We could never get comfortable that there was a way, and especially because that team and Game 7, you think about Game 7 and the contributions were from everyone in the entire roster, so how in the world can we ever pay tribute to the roster and coaches?” Kenney told the Tribune during the Cubs Convention at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. “So we went back and said, OK, let’s do something to honor all of them — a gate into Gallagher Way, where all the statues are where we celebrate our heroes. “We treasure our history and heritage. It allows us to share the story, the history, and, importantly, would not leave any out.” Marquee Sports Network to increase streaming options, air fewer spring training games When the Cubs launched Marquee Sports Network on air in 2020, the franchise embraced the control and benefits that can come from owning their network. They haven’t been exempt from a challenging media environment, however, particularly as consumers shift away from cable. Marquee made significant changes in November to their digital product, laying off multiple employees as the network recalibrates to focus and emphasize its Cubs game production. “What I say to people all the time is, it’s no one’s fault,” Kenney said. “There’s lots of things that businesses are struggling with because technology has changed the way people consume their product. Streaming, it changed the linear cable business. And again, it’s not like, ‘Well, why did that happen to us?’ It happened to everyone. “It’s changing, and it’s changed because the number of cable subscribers has fallen off a cliff. We’re in the same boat as everyone else. Fortunately, Marquee stands alone, so we have to make smart decisions on how we spend our money. We made some decisions recently that were difficult. We’ll continue to make decisions sometimes that will be difficult.” Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney leaves the field after a 3-1 loss to the Phillies on April 27, 2025, at Wrigley Field. (Armando L. Sanchez/Cthicago Tribune) In an encouraging development in the streaming and direct-to-consumer space, the Cubs are slated to have two new streaming distributors this year that are picking up Marquee for the first time, the specifics of which will be announced closer to the start of the regular season. Since launching their DTC option three years ago, the Cubs have more than 100,000 direct subscribers to Marquee, said Kenney, who expects that figure to continue to grow. “What we give our fans is not going to change, it’s going to be amazing production quality,” Kenny said of Marquee’s on-air talent. “I think, though, that there’ll be some things that do change.” One notable change: Marquee is broadcasting fewer Cubs spring training games this year. 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Last spring, 17 of the Cubs’ 29 exhibition games aired on Marquee while in 2024 the network broadcast 28 of their 35 games. “A really hard decision, but it seemed like it made the most sense to us in terms of, like any budget, where do you want to cut and what do you want to emphasize?” Kenney said. “So we’re going to emphasize the pre, the post and the games with the same technology, same talent, to give our fans the very best games. And we made that decision on spring training, we’re going to do fewer.” The Cubs aren’t the only major-league team to feel the impact of a changing broadcast media landscape. Nine MLB teams, including the St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds, have terminated their TV contracts with Main Street Sports Group, the parent company of FanDuel Sports Network, because of potential bankruptcy. The league is prepared to take over the broadcasts as needed for any teams, Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters earlier this month. MLB already took control of broadcasting games for five teams. If MLB wants to bring all the teams’ broadcasts under one umbrella run by the league, there currently isn’t a big appetite on the Cubs’ end to go in that direction. “If the league comes and says, ‘What if we put all 30 teams together?’ our bias typically is we like to do things ourselves, but we would listen,” Kenney said. “But it’s hard for me to see a world where Marquee’s not predominant. It just allows us to do things, like, we want to spend more on (TV) talent, and if you’re in with the league and they’re like, ‘OK, here’s your budget for your on-air,’ we want the best on-air, and so it’s kind of like Jed (Hoyer) on a trade: We’re always listening, but I can’t see a world where we’re not doing it ourselves.” Spring training complex upgrade The Cubs’ new 18,000-square-foot hitting and pitching lab is ready to go ahead of the team reporting to their complex in Mesa, Ariz., in three weeks. The facility is among the key upgrades the team worked with the city of Mesa to implement to keep facilities up to date since Sloan Park and the complex opened in 2014. Part of the original agreement with Mesa stipulated there would be refreshed elements and upgrades over the years, including measuring the Cubs’ facility to other teams’ facilities in the Valley. “Once we got to a certain place where we could sort of establish the benchmark in terms of performance centers, this became a big thing,” Kenney said. “And it’s really impressive.” ...read more read less