Wrigleyville Bar: Blame City For $100 Cover Charge During World Series
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Murphy's Bleachers has prided itself on not imposing a cover charge on Cubs fans on game nights.
But the bar -- across the street from Wrigley Field, at Sheffield and Waveland -- says it has been given no choice by the city, WBBM's Bob Roberts reports.
A Murphy's employee says there were 550 fans in the bar when the Chicago Fire Department came calling; fire officials say it was closer to 750.
The employee says the inspector told managers that Murphy's was to limit occupancy to 250 and to impose a cover charge -- something Murphy's refused to do in the past. The cover charge was $100.
The gates closed and a one-in, one-out policy put in place more than five hours before the first pitch of Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday.
Fan Randy Morris' reaction?
"That stinks because part of the reason we're here is that Murphy's advertised heavily that they were not charging a cover," he tells WBBM.
It's unclear if this represents a new ongoing policy for Murphy's, a tradition at Waveland and Sheffield since the 1930s.
The bar explained its side of the story in a Facebook post.