The Chicago Cubs Chairman of the Board, Tom Ricketts, threatened a Chicago Cubs move out of historic Wrigley Field for the first time publicly on Wednesday, saying if his demand for a new video screen is not instituted, the club will have to move. 

Ricketts says plans for a huge, new video screen would entice advertisers and help pay the bill for the proposed $500 million renovations the hallowed ballpark will have to undergo if they're going to stay in business.

"The fact is that if we don't have the ability to generate revenue in our own outfield, we'll have to take a look at moving - no question," Ricketts told assembled reporters on Wednesday after he'd outlined his plan to Chicago business leaders.

Ricketts had been largely quiet over the issue until yesterday, but the battle over the 99-year-old ballpark on Chicago's North Side has been raging for months, this is just the first time it's been made public, and Ricketts certainly caused a stir by threatening a Chicago Cubs move.

The plan for a 6,000-square-foot video screen over left field is the most contentious to Wrigley's old guard. Many baseball stadiums have a video screen in their outfields, especially the younger ones, but Wrigley is the second oldest park in the league, behind Boston's Fenway Park. 

There are a smattering of private businesses located just beyond Wrigley Field's walls, and the new video screen would obstruct their birds-eye view of the ballpark. Those businesses have been left out of talks about the new video screen, but that might not last.

Many of those businesses feel they should have a seat at the negotiating table because they split 17 percent of their revenue with the Cubs, for the spot along the back end of the historic stadium.

An architectural rendering of the video screen was shown during Ricketts' presentation to the City Club of Chicago, and he insisted the club's own studies had concluded the new video screen wouldn't obstruct the majority of the views.

Ricketts said the "midsize" video screen is smaller than most ballparks, although it's nearly three times as large as the scoreboard that currently sits atop the centerfield bleachers. 

"All we really need is to be able to run our business like a business and not a museum," Ricketts told the audience. 

Ricketts said the team had formally filed its full renovation proposal with the City of Chicago on Wednesday, and they'll have to get approval from city planners and the city council as well as public hearings, which could prove divisive to say the least. 

Mayor Rahmn Emanuel and Tom Tunney, the city alderman whose ward includes Wrigley, approve of the deal, and Cubs President of Baseball Operations, Theo Epstein, said, "If it drags on too long, it's going to be unrealistic to get it done this winter.  Then we're probably looking at opening day 2015 for the renovated clubhouse."

One local business owner, Beth Murphy, told CBS News and other reporters that after seeing the new plans and the sketches of the video screen, "It looked big to me and it looked like it blocked out the neighborhood."