Cubs mark 10-year anniversary of 2016 title by unveiling “Champions Gate” outside Wrigley

CHICAGO. The Cubs are turning back the calendar to 2016. On Saturday morning, just outside Wrigley Field, the organization unveiled “Champions Gate” as part of a 10-year anniversary celebration for the 2016 World Series team. The event underscored how the Cubs’ championship run has been remembered not only for the games, but for the identity the club tried to build from the first days of spring training.

Joe Maddon, then the Cubs’ manager, was a central figure in the ceremony. MLB says Maddon stood on a stage outside the ballpark holding up a page of notes from his club’s first day of 2016 spring training. On that sheet, he had scribbled what became one of the season’s mottos: “embrace CHICAGO.”

The Cubs’ choice to spotlight that message reflects the team’s broader theme from 2016, when the organization leaned into Chicago pride as a fuel for its push through a long season. Maddon’s handwritten reminder served as a tangible link between the early, formative moments of spring training and the championship that ultimately followed.

“Champions Gate” functions as a public, visual checkpoint for fans, aimed at preserving the 2016 story in a way that extends beyond dates and box scores. In the Cubs’ telling, the gate is not just a commemoration of what happened in October 2016, but a nod to how the team described itself along the way, starting with the words Maddon wrote early in camp.

The anniversary also arrives with additional significance for a franchise that often treats its history as a living part of its present. For longtime Cubs fans, 2016 remains a landmark season, and for younger supporters, the club’s 2016 legacy has become a reference point for what the Cubs can accomplish when everything lines up.

From a baseball culture standpoint, the emphasis on a motto like “embrace CHICAGO” shows how clubs attempt to standardize mentality across an entire roster. While the on-field work is still the decisive factor, the Cubs are using the Champions Gate platform to reinforce that message in a setting where fans can absorb it before a game.

What to watch next is how the Cubs continue to translate the 2016 championship experience into ongoing programming, with Champions Gate acting as a centerpiece. If the team keeps tying public-facing initiatives to the memories and themes from that title run, the anniversary will do more than mark time. It will help define the Cubs’ story going forward, anchored by the words Maddon wrote before the season had even begun.

For now, the key detail is that the unveiling paired a physical tribute outside Wrigley with the specific piece of 2016 symbolism Maddon brought to the stage: the handwritten “embrace CHICAGO” note from spring training, linking the gate’s meaning directly to the team’s originating message.