Amidst the hype of this weekend’s Cub Convention what you won’t hear or read about is that as of 3 minutes ago, weekend passes were still available-although hotel packages are sold out.

I can’t remember the last time the lovefest wasn’t sold out by November. That won’t be part of the narrative, nor should it be. However, the team should investigate why the event isn’t as popular.

Due to the recurrence and spread of his cancer, I’m not sure if Ryne Sandberg will attend the event this weekend. I completely understand why he wouldn’t attend, but I think even in a very limited capacity, his appearance would afford his many fans the opportunity to show him some love. If he’s not there, I’d hope they would have multiple giant cards fans could sign with their well wishes.

I’m of the belief that the Cubs have something up their sleeve planned for Friday night. Teams use the first night to announce big trades and free agent acquisitions in front of a captive and adoring audience. The smarter teams take advantage of a willing and agreeable audience to push their agenda. The agenda might be new products, merch or more expensive ticket packages.

The other treat this weekend is the return of Sammy Sosa to Cubdom. Everyone attending might not welcome Sammy vociferously, but it will garner some positive PR for a team coming off another failure to make the postseason.

Some fans attend fanfests (especially Cubs conventions) with the sole purpose of engaging management with their gripes, believing that direct confrontation in a hotel room is the only way for their voices to be heard. In the first few years of the funfest, the seminars and Q/A sessions were more intimate, and fans could get some questions answered.

It’s fun to guess what the prevailing message will be and who the messengers are. Crafting a message is important to inspire confidence in the team because while not stated, the purpose of fan conventions is to increase revenue. In the earlier days of the Cubs convention, it was about selling ticket packages (and small potato individual games), and merchandise. Now teams are trying to connect their fans with the current technologies (streaming, pay per view and social media).

The guise for achieving all of this was through connecting players and fans. The convention offered fans a more reasonable means of connecting during the offseason than going to Arizona for ST. Cub convention used to draw large numbers of out of state fans (Think Iowa), but I’m not sure how many out of staters will attend this year.

Over the years, fans willingness to spend most of the convention standing in long lines (think 1.5-3 hours) for an autograph or photo opportunity. People have become more time sensitive and realize they are missing out on other unique opportunities within the space.

Based on the great success of the first few years in Chicago and the uniqueness of the Brewer’s version in the very early 1990’s I approached the Kansas City Royals with a proposal for that small market franchise. Suffice to say, I was a year or two, too early, but I learned from the experience. Even the more creative, smaller Brewer version has gotten too big for me to enjoy the experience.

Because I’m on several teams’ mailing lists, I’m more aware of other teams’ caravans, fanfests and speaker’s bureaus, but what I haven’t heard yet is how the Cardinals are spinning the Nolan Arenado situation. Heading into the offseason, the Cards (and their fans) were going to navigate the future without Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt. Well, Goldschmidt is in New York and Nolan is still STL property.

If the Cubs can sign Alex Bregman to a deal before Opening Night, the weekend might be a real success.