Cubs plowing ahead with MLB All-Star Game security updates at Wrigley Field

The Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field are set to host MLB All-Star Game festivities in 2027 and, despite the intense uncertainty set to settle over baseball this winter with owners set to lock out the players in early December, the team is already hard at work making security upgrades around the 112-year-old federal landmark.

Per the Chicago Tribune, the price tag on the project exceeds $32 million, $8 million of which is being covered by the team. The work includes the installation of bollards all around the ballpark, moving light poles and then widening the sidewalk on Addison by several feet. There's unrelated work going on inside the ballpark, but that sort of thing is an annual occurrence.

Construction in and around Wrigley Field is nothing new to Cubs fans, who've seen the Friendly Confines and surrounding area undergo a complete transformation over the last decade-plus. But the league is adamant about the security measures that must be in place for a stadium to host the All-Star Game, hence this winter's work, which is expected to wrap up by next April.

Cubs will host an MLB All-Star Game this decade, one way or another

I'd be remiss if I didn't address the elephant in the room. What happens if the 2027 season is shortened to the point the All-Star Game is canceled? Or, god forbid, what if there is no 2027 campaign? With the San Francisco Giants set to host in 2028, reports this summer indicated the Cubs were 'guaranteed' the event in 2029. Either way, this work needs to be completed.

Wrigley Field last hosted the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby in 1990. The Cubs tried to bring the Midsummer Classic to the Windy City in 2020, but that never came to be and, now, Tom Ricketts and Crane Kenney are at the five-yard line of their longtime passion project.

The Cubs spent the better part of a decade looking to get cooperation from the City of Chicago on sharing some of the costs, so you know how much time and effort has gone into securing the event. All we can hope for is that, somehow, the 2027 MLB season is played and a bitter labor dispute doesn't wind up costing the team the Midsummer Classic.

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