The Chicago Sun-Times reports three shows are lined up for the ballpark the Chicago Cubs call home – one featuring the piano duo of Elton John and Billy Joel this summer and two weekend shows featuring Dave Matthews Band in September. While no actual dates were mentioned for DMB, the Sun-Times says Billy and Elton will perform at the stadium July 7. So far, neither artist has added the date to their respective touring schedules.

The stadium hosted three shows last year – two Elton / Joel concerts and one by Rascal Flatts.

When the 2009 shows were announced, local group Southport Neighbors Association claimed the events would cause too many problems for the surrounding area and would conflict with the group’s own neighborhood festival. In response, Chicago alderman Tom Tunney called it a “one-year experiment,” and said there would be no more concerts at Wrigley if the experiment didn’t work out.

Evidently it was a success.

“There are certainly naysayers,” Tunney said, according to the Sun-Times. “There have been naysayers about doing any concerts. But the majority of the community thinks the concerts, so long as they’re regulated and few and far between, provide benefits to the community.”

But booking Wrigley Field is rather complicated. The stadium began its foray into the concert biz in 2005 when it hosted Jimmy Buffett for two Labor Day weekend shows. At that time the Cubs agreed to donate $150,000 to neighborhood schools, cancel one night game from its 30-game evening schedule for the following season, limit seating to 41,000 and hold no concerts the following year.

In 2007 the Cubs made more concessions, including cutting off alcohol sales at 9:30 p.m. and monitoring sound levels around the stadium.

Of course, there’s always a money angle. The Sun-Times reports that 34 cents of every dollar made from Cubs home games goes to Major League Baseball’s revenue-sharing plan. However, when Wrigley hosts a concert, the Cubs keep all of the profits. So you can see why the baseball team wants to keep the music playing.

And what about the Southport Neighbors Association? While the organization hasn’t given its blessing for more concerts at Wrigley, president Jill Peters indicated her people have “a good working relationship” with the Cubs new owners, the Ricketts family, consisting of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts and son Tom.

“We’ve been having lots of conversations back and forth,” Peters said, according to the Sun-Times. “I’m trying to address some of the concerns neighbors have raised, and I’m hopeful the Cubs will resolve most, if not all, of these concerns.”

Click here for the complete Chicago Sun-Times article.

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