The Chicago Red Stars see both the history and future of women’s sports in their temporary home at Wrigley Field.
The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) makes its debut at the home of Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs on June 8, when the Red Stars match up against Bay FC. It’s the first professional women’s sports event held at the ballpark since 1943 when the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League—yep, from A League of Their Own—played Wrigley Field’s first night game with help from lights set up for a Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps recruiting event earlier in the evening.
While researching that history, the Red Stars’ partners at creative agency Havas Chicago also discovered that another Wrigley Field staple—the seventh-inning rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” once led by announcer Harry Caray—was strongly tied to women. Written in 1908, the tune was originally performed in vaudeville acts about or by a woman trying to get her date to take her to a ballgame instead of a show.
Contacted because of their close relationship with Cubs marketing leader Jennifer Martindale, Havas Chicago pulled together its research within two weeks with help from a strategy group that included former University of Maryland soccer player Andi Wenck and creative director Michelle Underwood—a former crowd-favorite arm wrestler.
The result was a campaign that featured Red Stars players taking over Wrigley to the soundtrack of a reimagined “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”
“It didn’t start out as this ambition to be a little feminist or be hardcore, pro-female athlete,” said Myra Nussbaum, co-president and chief creative officer of Havas Chicago. “We want to sell out a game, and the players happened to be women.”
Havas’ stated goal of selling 40,000 tickets to the Red Stars’ Wrigley Field matchup would break the NWSL attendance record of 34,130 set by Ballon D’or winner and two-time World Cup champion Megan Rapinoe’s farewell match in Seattle. But it would also help the Red Stars’ case in rebuilding Chicago fans’ trust while seeking a home closer to them.
