The Chicago Cubs are betting a romantic comedy can do what decades of losing and rebuilding never fully accomplished: pull young people into the bleachers for good. Cubs Productions, the team's in-house creative studio, built a 17-part scripted series called "Nine Innings to Love"—a rom-com told across a single Cubs game—set to release Sept. 4 exclusively on TikTok.
The trailer dropped Monday morning on the team's TikTok account. Directed by Adam Sobel, the series centers on Ava, played by Veronica Garrubbo, an aspiring romance writer described in the trailer as "BookTok royalty" who has hit a creative wall. Attending a game with a friend for what the characters call a "girls' day," Ava ends up seated next to David, played by Sid Kutikkad, a skeptic who flat-out doesn't believe in romance.
Ava takes on the role of his self-appointed wingman and love coach, determined to find him a summer fling inside Wrigley Field before the final out. The entire arc unfolds inning by inning, giving the series a built-in structure most streaming rom-coms don't have.
Jen Martindale, the Cubs' vice president of marketing and communications, said the format was designed from the ground up for its target audience. "'Nine Innings to Love' celebrates the magic of a summertime Cubs game through a bite-sized, episodic format that's built for Gen Z and millennial audiences," Martindale said. "By blending a game of baseball with BookTok fandom and the vibes of a classic rom-com, we've created a story that could only unfold in the Budweiser Bleachers at Wrigley Field."
The Cubs said the series was inspired by what they called the "very real phenomenon" of fans meeting and falling in love in the Wrigley bleachers. The team's stated goal is straightforward: use the series to convert younger viewers who watch it on TikTok into actual baseball fans who show up at the park.
The choice of TikTok as the exclusive platform is deliberate. The vertical, short-form format fits how Gen Z and younger millennials consume content—in short bursts, on a phone, delivered by an algorithm. A 17-part series released on a single day gives viewers a reason to binge through the app rather than catch episodes weekly on a traditional broadcast schedule.
The BookTok angle adds another layer. BookTok is TikTok's reader community, a segment of the platform that drives genuine book sales and has turned romance novels into a commercial force. By positioning Ava as a BookTok-famous romance writer, the Cubs directly address a built-in TikTok subculture that skews young and female—an audience the sport has historically struggled to attract and retain.
This is a content strategy play dressed as entertainment. Major League Baseball has watched its median fan age climb for years. Every team that tries to address that problem through traditional advertising fights a losing battle against a media environment fragmented into dozens of competing platforms. The Cubs are going where younger fans already are, in a format those fans already prefer, with content that has nothing to do with earned run averages.
The Wrigley Field setting works in the team's favor. The ballpark itself carries cultural weight that most MLB venues don't. The bleachers specifically—where the series is set—have a social reputation that predates TikTok by decades. Using that location as the backdrop for a rom-com costs nothing extra and adds authenticity that a generic studio production couldn't replicate.
Whether "Nine Innings to Love" actually moves the needle on attendance or fan acquisition is harder to answer. A TikTok series generates views, not tickets. The Cubs are counting on the parasocial connection viewers build with Ava and David to transfer into a real emotional attachment to the team and the experience of being at Wrigley. That is a long causal chain, but it is not an irrational one—it's the same logic behind every team documentary and behind-the-scenes access play the major sports leagues have leaned into over the past decade.
What the Cubs have done here worth watching is building it in-house. Cubs Productions handling the creative work means the team controls the tone, the imagery, and the message without filtering it through an outside production company. Martindale's framing—a story "that could only unfold in the Budweiser Bleachers at Wrigley Field"—tells you exactly what the series is meant to sell: the experience of being there, not just the W-L record.
