A standing-room-only crowd gathered Sunday at the Chicago Hilton & Towers to hear Cubs executives give some insight on the new bleacher project under construction at Wrigley Field.

Because the Cubs have refused to talk about the project since it began in October, it was the only way for fans to receive information about the biggest, most expensive and most controversial remodeling job in the ballpark's 92-year history.

Here's a brief summary of what was revealed in a question-and-answer session featuring Mark McGuire, vice president of business operations; John McDonough, vice president of marketing and broadcasting, and Frank Maloney, director of ticket operations:

Bleacher boxes

McGuire said 253 stadium seats with backs on them will be built in the far right-field bleachers and sold on a reserved basis as "bleacher box seats." McGuire said the seats are targeted toward "aging Baby Boomers who want the bleacher experience but can't handle the bench seats, or maybe some of the language they might hear." Like the premium "dugout box seats" behind home plate and the "bullpen boxes" between the visitors' dugout and bullpen, the new "bleacher boxes" will be sold separately from the individual seats, which go on sale Feb. 24. No date was given, but Maloney said it's expected to be sometime in March. No price was given, but they're expected to cost significantly more than a regular bleacher ticket.

Ticket scalping

One fan complained season tickets already were being auctioned on eBay and that too many brokers have their hands on tickets. Maloney and McGuire said it's difficult to stop them because brokers are legal in Illinois and Cubs tickets always will be available online for resale.

McGuire said the organization will reintroduce a plan for season ticket-holders to resell their unused tickets through Cubs.com, with the exception of bleacher tickets.

"The brokers are out there," McGuire said. "As hard as we try to stop them, they are working hard at other ways to buy tickets."

McGuire said, "the reality is people clearly don't like" Wrigley Field Premium, a Tribune Co. subsidiary that resells Cubs tickets that used to go to group sales or VIPs. McGuire said the Cubs sold about 15,000 tickets to Wrigley Field Premium in '05, calling it a "very, very small percentage" of the 3 million-plus tickets sold.
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