Photo by Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs and Rosemont-based Wintrust Financial have entered an agreement that will make the lender the Cubs’ official banking partner, replacing a handful of other banks the team had worked with in recent years that included Bank of America, Citi, PNC and Gold Coast Bank.

Included in the agreement, Wintrust will have rights to the primary signage atop the planned 3,990 sq. ft. video board above the left-field bleachers and naming rights to Wrigley Field’s southeast entrance, formerly known as Gate D, that will officially be named the “Wintrust Gate” once renovations are completed. Also included in the pact is Wintrust’s logo placement on the news conference backdrop, where it replaces Nuveen Investments, as well as the exclusive rights to all ATMs at Wrigley Field.

“We’d been talking to all our (banking) partners the last couple years and were clearly interested in one partner that would be exclusive in that category,” said Cubs Vice President of Sales and Partnership Colin Faulkner. “Wintrust stepped up in a big way.”

Smaller, but equally important benefits of the agreement include, rotational signage behind home plate, a video board feature between innings at every Cubs home game, and signage in the outfield and behind home plate at the Cubs’ spring training stadium in Mesa, Ariz.

“It’s a bold statement for us to make,” Wintrust CEO Ed Wehmer, who acknowledged that the Cubs deal marks the most aggressive sports marketing play the 23-year-old bank has made to date, told Chicagobusiness.com.

In a separate deal with Hickory Street Capital, the business venture owned by the Ricketts family (which owns the team), Wintrust also will have a retail lease in the planned plaza in the triangle property adjacent to the ballpark and in a hotel across the street from the park.

In addition to its relationship with the Cubs, which dates to 2012, Wintrust also is an official partner of the Chicago White Sox.