Reviewing the Decades Review

Yesterday I finished the last of the decade reviews. Now you know everything you ever wanted to know about the 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 Cubs.

Sadly, they were for the most part, very bad teams. Here is a look at the records:

1960, 60-94, 7th place/8
1970, 84-78, 2nd place/6
1980, 64-98, 6th place/6
1990, 77-85, 4th place/6
2000, 65-97, 6th place/6

That's one .500 finish and two last place finishes. It is also an average of only 70 wins.

I am hoping that the 2010 Cubs are able to do better than 70 wins!

Now check the attendance at Wrigley over the decades:

1960 809,770
1970 1,642,705
1980 1,206,776
1990 2,243,791
2000 2,734,511

Those numbers aren't too bad, considering how bad the teams were. I think three of the years were boosted by the previous season's success, 1970 (the '69 Cubs), 1990 (following the division winning 1989 team) and 2000 (still riding the Sammy Sosa home run wave from 1998).

The attendance was going up, and so were ticket prices:

1960 Box seat $2.50 Bleachers $0.75
1970 Box seat $3.50 Bleachers $1.00
1980 Box seat $6.50 Bleachers $2.00
1990 Box seat $15.00 Bleachers $6.00
2000 Box seat $25.00 Bleachers $15.00

and if you want to go to a game this season

2010 Box seat $100.00 Bleachers $54.00

The 2010 prices are based on the premium dates. The Cubs have four different levels of ticket prices depending on the date or opponent The prices I've shown are from the most expensive games. They have only six games at the lowest level, when box seats go for $55 and bleachers for $22.

Using the calculator on this page, the 1960 prices adjusted for inflation would be:
Box seat from $2.50 to $15.85
Bleacher seat from $0.75 to $4.76

It looks like the 2010 prices are just a bit ahead of inflation.

I hope the 2010 Cubs win total is also ahead of inflation!