Cubs for sale, but is Wrigley Field? Even without park, team could sell for up to $600 million Tribune staff reporters Phil Rogers, Fred Mitchell, Paul Sullivan and Mark Gonzales contributed to this report Midwestern city. Fixer-upper has not won World Series in 99 years.
Landmark ballpark not included? On Opening Day of the 2007 baseball season, owner Tribune Co. announced it estate tycoon Sam Zell.
Tribune Co.'s 25 percent interest in broadcast partner who specializes in baseball economics. The Comcast stake is believed to be price.
With its unique red marquee at the corner of Clark and Addison Streets and its trademark ivy-covered walls, Wrigley's value to Chicagoans goes beyond look of Wrigley. Tribune Co.'s efforts to expand the bleachers were delayed by intensive negotiations with the city and neighbors.
Even changes outside the With or without Wrigley Field, prospective buyers are expected to line up to purchase the Cubs. And the sale will represent a big return for Tribune, figures such as Jerry Colangelo, a Chicago Heights native who was managing partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks when they won the 2001 World Series. Also among the likely bidders is Mark Cuban, the brash technology entrepreneur who Yet Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, in a visit to U.
S. Cellular Field on Monday for the White Sox opener, indicated he would prefer "Whenever you can find viable local ownership, that's a good thing. A very good thing," Selig said.
The Comcast investment "will probably get sold right along with the ballclub," Selig added. very far. "I know of seven different groups that are interested in buying the Expect "some wild bidding," Reinsdorf added.
"The Cubs are a premier franchise. They will go for a good number." Local bidders may include Don Levin, the owner of minor-league hockey's Chicago Wolves who made an offer for the Cubs last fall.
Andy McKenna, the in the Tribune Co. ownership, is mentioned as capable of putting together an investor group. Chris Reyes, chief executive of privately owned Reyes Holdings, might consider a minority position in the Cubs, sources said.
The ballclub has a unique cachet, with a national reputation as "lovable losers" that current Tribune Co. management has struggled to overcome, spending $300 million over the past winter to upgrade the roster. The Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908, and last appeared in one against Detroit in 1945 .
Yet they retain a loyal national following, setting One such fan is Cliff Zeider, a 75-year-old resident of Port St. Lucie, Fla., who grew up watching the Cubs in LaPorte, Ind.
These days, Zeider says, sometimes he thinks the Cubs "should just move to Japan. I am sick of this bunch of losers." That didn't stop Zeider from tuning in to see the Cubs lose Yet, Zeider doesn't entirely blame Tribune Co.
"Tribune has nothing to do with it," he said. "They don't know enough about baseball to hurt anything." Ownership of the Cubs has been a mixed blessing for Tribune Co.
Among the favors the Cubs because of its parent company's ownership. Even Mayor Daley sometimes chides the Tribune. In 2005, as the White Sox bore down on their World Series title, Daley scoffed at a Tribune story about the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
"Why do they have to bring that up? Here the Sox are coming into a tough game tonight. They won't do it against the Cubs, I'll tell you drought while talking about the Zell sale to Tribune employees Monday.
"We have one more chance in our 25 years of ownership," FitzSimons said. "Maybe the 25th time will be the charm." Cubs for years, and Tribune Co.
management looked at the prospect of a Cubs' sale during the course of its months-long strategic review. The idea to sell the team as part of Zell's purchase process occurred during negotiations, Zell has an interest in baseball. For years, he has owned a minority interest in the White Sox.
But the Cubs emerged as a part of the company that "It made sense to sell what is a really valuable asset, and use the proceeds to pay down debt," FitzSimons said in an interview. FitzSimons declined to talk about Wrigley. But Cubs President John question.
"There's a lot of things, going forward. We're doing everything we can to go through this process and gather as much information as we can," he Zimbalist, the sports economist, said negotiations for the Cubs could get complicated. Because of Tribune's ownership of WGN television and radio, there television deals.
Such a tactic might help the corporation shield income from the baseball players' union, Zimbalist said. "Unless you know where the revenue streams are and how long they last, you really can't tell what the Cubs are really worth," Zimbalist said. it has long-term contracts with WGN-Ch.
9, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, and WGN radio. Zell wants to keep his options open, in part because he believes Wrigley might have more value sold separately from the Cubs, sources said. One option may be to sell Wrigley, and then allow the ballpark's new owner to Tribune Co.
management will manage the process of selling the Cubs, which is planned to be completed before Zell closes on the Tribune Co. deal late this year. Having the team sold before Zell finalizes his deal eliminates any need for Major League Baseball to approve Zell as an owner.
It also avoids any Even if the deal does not happen on schedule, Selig said he would not have "His ownership of the White Sox is not inconsistent with our rules," Selig said. "There are other owners at various times who have owned clubs and bought clubs, and I always give them a little time to sell because there's a strain on both the club and the individual." Among the likely bidders, Colangelo seems to have done the most upfront work.
He began talking to prospective partners last November. "My attitude is this: This is what I anticipated, that they'd be sold after the 2007 season," Colangelo said. "Now we'll revisit it.
It's fresh, it's new. I'm going to be Cuban, in an e-mail to the Tribune, wouldn't confirm his interest in the Cubs. "Saying something is for sale in nine months isn't the same as saying its for sale now," his e-mail said.
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