Tom Ricketts: Cubs' top-to-bottom restructuring is paying off

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Cubs fans are still buzzing about the team's first playoff appearance since 2008.

Excitement is in the air at Wrigley Field. Days after the Cubs clinched a spot in the 2015 playoffs, fans are still over the moon. They're looking forward to Monday night's last home regular season game, but more importantly, they're looking forward to October.

"It's exciting to finally be able to watch fun baseball. It was pretty brutal there for a while," said Ricky Butts, a Cubs fan.

The last time the Cubs made the playoffs was in 2008. A top-to-bottom restructuring of the team has taken place over the last three years especially, with the Cubs loading up the minor league system. For a while, it didn't look good, Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts recalled.

"We had a lot of older players with long contracts. There really wasn't a lot of hope for a quick turnaround to be a competitive or a championship team. It took time," Ricketts said.

At one point things got so glum, that even die-hard fans lost faith and attendance dipped under 3 million. Those numbers are finally going back up this year as the team's performance has improved. Ricketts says the investment is finally paying off.

"What fans also know is it's not just a 2015 event. We have good young players, they should be getting better as time goes on and we should be consistently successful going forward," Ricketts said.

The Oct. 7 game has not yet been set, but will most likely be against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.