Cuban Leading Pack of Cubs Bidders

[TallTitan34]

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-080802-mark-cuban-chicago-cubs,1,6430716.story

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has gone from being a long shot to one of the favorites in the bidding to buy the Cubs, picking up support from NBA Commissioner David Stern and others as the field of prospective owners narrows.

Crain's Chicago Business recently quoted one of the bidders as saying Cuban is now "the lead guy" in the battle to buy the Cubs, while Boston Red Sox owner John Henry said in an e-mail to the New York Times that he could think of "no one better suited to reverse the fortunes of the Cubs for the long term" than Cuban.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/sports/baseball/03cubs.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

“The best references I have will come from other N.B.A. owners who know what my contributions as a partner are,” Cuban wrote, adding that “multiple N.B.A. owners have asked if they could participate in our attempts to purchase the Cubs.”

[TallTitan34]

Cuban will also be bowling in Kerry Wood's bowling tournament tonight!

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2008/08/wood-to-bowl-le.html

[reinko]

As a Brewer fan this kinda scares me.  Cuban would just drop even more money into this already loaded team.  What's the general take of Cubs fans?  Are most excited, indifferent, don't want him?

Egotiscal owners (Jerry Jones, Steinbrenner family...) have always kind of irked me.  I'm curious if the the Chicago faithful would welcome him and his antics. 

I'm trying to imagine him running out on to the field during a fight to try to play "peacemaker" like he did with the Mavs.

[🏀]

Cubs fans, that are fans have to be excited about Cuban. He will spend the money, and he's a personable guy.

Honestly, anything other than the Tribune will be an upgrade.

[TallTitan34]

Cuban said he would let the baseball peopl run things at Kerry Wood's bowling tournament.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-080806-mitchell-mark-cuban-chicago-cubs,1,703612.column

[reinko]

Well, obvi he is going to say that now.

Have to be pretty nieve if you believe it.

[DegenerateDish]

It'll be interesting to see what happens. Whoever takes ownership of the team will obviously not be in it to make money on the franchise. There's a reason Canning's bid was as low as it was (he was believed to be favored to win if everything else was the same).

The Cubs being owned by the Tribune is a profitable venture for the company, not hugely profitable, but enough. Whoever buys this team will be bleeding money for a while (most likely 2020 will be the turn of a profit once the Cubs Comcast deal expires in '19).

The Cubs payroll jumps to somewhere in the neighborhood of $165 million next year, and that's without adding a single player. That's just on the amount in back loaded contracts the Cubs have coming up. The stadium issue will have to be addressed in some form. Whatever you think of the place, some type of upgrade will be needed for the owner to pay off the purchase price debt.

Cuban would be a great baseball owner I believe, and completely opposite of what Cubs management has been for seemingly ever. If he does buy the team though, he'll do exactly what he did in Dallas with ticket prices. Bleachers will be $100 per and first five rows will be $500 to $1000. I know that doesn't take up too many seats at Wrigley, but the rest of the place is going to go way up. To steal a quote from Cubs fans "It's gonna happen."

[TallTitan34]

The stadium issue will have to be addressed in some form. Whatever you think of the place, some type of upgrade will be needed for the owner to pay off the purchase price debt.

Agreed MUDish.  I think what will eventually end up happening is the tearing down and replacement of the grandstands piece by piece over the course of several offseasons while the newly renovated bleachers, scoreboard, and ivy remain untouched.

I believe they would be able to complete the grandstands in two to four offseasons.  In St. Louis they had to tear down the old Busch Stadium before they could build an entire half of the new stadium all in one off season. 

[🏀]

Agreed MUDish.  I think what will eventually end up happening is the tearing down and replacement of the grandstands piece by piece over the course of several offseasons while the newly renovated bleachers, scoreboard, and ivy remain untouched.

I believe they would be able to complete the grandstands in two to four offseasons.  In St. Louis they had to tear down the old Busch Stadium before they could build an entire half of the new stadium all in one off season. 

Two years of US Cell play is more likely, unless they wait for that Olympic stadium.

[TallTitan34]

See I think Miller Park would actually be more likely.  I just don't know if Jerry Reinsdorf would allow the Cubs to play at the Cell.

And quite frankly the Brewers need all the money they can get so they should welcome a money maker like the Cubs.

[ChicosBailBonds]

As a Brewer fan this kinda scares me.  Cuban would just drop even more money into this already loaded team.  What's the general take of Cubs fans?  Are most excited, indifferent, don't want him?

Egotiscal owners (Jerry Jones, Steinbrenner family...) have always kind of irked me.  I'm curious if the the Chicago faithful would welcome him and his antics. 

I'm trying to imagine him running out on to the field during a fight to try to play "peacemaker" like he did with the Mavs.

The thing about egotistical owners is that everyone hates them except for fans of that team.

As a Cowboys fan, I love Jerry because I know he will spend anything to win. 

I've known Cuban since 1994...if I were a Cubs fan I'd want this to happen like nobody's business.  He will do everything in his power to make them a consistent winner, much to the dislike of fans everywhere else, but Cubs fans won't care...nor should they.

[SaintPaulWarrior]

See I think Miller Park would actually be more likely.  I just don't know if Jerry Reinsdorf would allow the Cubs to play at the Cell.

The state of Illinois or the Illinois Sports Commission? owns Comiskey Park.  I am not sure how much say Reinsdorf would have in the matter.

[TallTitan34]

When they were talking about it eariler this year, Reinsdorf was on the Score and Mike North asked him if the Cubs came to him with their plan for using the Cell. 

Jerry said no plans had been presented to him and he said if they want to use it they have to go through him.  Maybe the White Sox's contract with the ISC gives them the right to veto as the main tennant?  Jerry seemed to think he had deciding vote.

[SaintPaulWarrior]

He does think he has the deciding vote on just about everything.  And I have heard rumors that, through his dealings in the NBA, he is not a fan of Cuban.  JR holds a lot of influence with the other baseball owners as far as ownership approval.  Just saying.

[🏀]

See I think Miller Park would actually be more likely.  I just don't know if Jerry Reinsdorf would allow the Cubs to play at the Cell.

And quite frankly the Brewers need all the money they can get so they should welcome a money maker like the Cubs.

Reinsdorf would have no say. MLB does the scheduling. ISC owns the park.

No way we let our dollars travel over the state border to Wisconsin. Nor would MLB or the Cubs allow that, all Cubs/Brewers games would be at Miller Park.

[TallTitan34]

I hope so.  I have no doubt Cubs fans would fill the Cell, however, taking the 90 miles drive to Milwaukee gets expensive after awhile.  It's ok for 7 times a year but 81 times would just be too much of a hassle.

[🏀]

I hope so.  I have no doubt Cubs fans would fill the Cell, however, taking the 90 miles drive to Milwaukee gets expensive after awhile.  It's ok for 7 times a year but 81 times would just be too much of a hassle.

Maybe we could play at UofI

[DegenerateDish]

As marqptm mentioned, there is absolutely zero chance of the Cubs playing outside of the Chicago city limits if they renovate Wrigley.

Between the taxpayer dollars and the amount of political diming that is going to go on with renovating that place, there's not a chance of them playing anywhere but the Cell.

Legally speaking, the Cubs would lease the Cell from the ISC. The lead tenant is the White Sox, and part of the White Sox lease allows for Reinsdorf to collect revenue on any events at the Cell on concessions and parking.

The Cubs would haven't much of a problem leasing the field, it would be negotiating for the rights for the concessions and parking.

It would be interesting though, because most likely the Cubs would be playing a ton of night games then at the Cell (as opposed to their 30 game limit now at Wrigley).

[RawdogDX]

Agreed MUDish.  I think what will eventually end up happening is the tearing down and replacement of the grandstands piece by piece over the course of several offseasons while the newly renovated bleachers, scoreboard, and ivy remain untouched.

And he will do something that there is 0 reason for not being done already, replace the TV's.  Why do we have 22 inch tv's in random corners, it would take <20k to replace them all with 42 inch hi def ones.

[Tugg Speedman]

Has anyone noticed that virtually everything the media has said about the cubs sale has been wrong?  First their was Opra and Jordan, still waiting on their bid.  Then their was 10 million stories about John Canning buying the team.  He never made it off first base.  Then their was a million stories about how Cuban was a pipe dream, now he's the front runner.

The buyer of the team will be Tom Ricketts.  I cannot wait until for all the crinkled foreheads when this happens. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

Has anyone noticed that virtually everything the media has said about the cubs sale has been wrong?  First their was Opra and Jordan, still waiting on their bid.  Then their was 10 million stories about John Canning buying the team.  He never made it off first base.  Then their was a million stories about how Cuban was a pipe dream, now he's the front runner.

The buyer of the team will be Tom Ricketts.  I cannot wait until for all the crinkled foreheads when this happens. 

I was on Catalina Island a few weeks ago for the Flying Fish festival.  If anyone has been there, you know they have a boat that goes around island at night with two large spotlights and the flying fish jump out and glide toward to boat. It's very cool.

Well, I was there the night they re-christened the Blanche M.  That's the name of the boat....it was named by Wrigley himself for his granddaughter, Blanche.  Blanche was there for the christening, she's probably in her 80's now.  For those that don't know, Wrigley owned more then half of Catalina Island back in the day and he even had his Cubs out there for a number of years for Spring Training on the island.

Well after the festivities I had the pleasure of speaking with Blanche's son...the great grandson of Wrigley.  He was easy to spot, had a Cubs hat on.  We talked for awhile and Cuban / sale of the Cubs came up.  As you can imagine, the Wrigley family still has some considerable ties to the Cubs, even though they are only ceremonial at this point. 

He was hoping and praying Mark would buy the team.  As he said, anything is better then the Tribune.

For what it's worth.

[Tugg Speedman]

Well after the festivities I had the pleasure of speaking with Blanche's son...the great grandson of Wrigley.  He was easy to spot, had a Cubs hat on.  We talked for awhile and Cuban / sale of the Cubs came up.  As you can imagine, the Wrigley family still has some considerable ties to the Cubs, even though they are only ceremonial at this point. 

He was hoping and praying Mark would buy the team.  As he said, anything is better then the Tribune.

For what it's worth.

The Tribune organization is a HUGE uptick over the Wrigleys.  In fact, by many measures, their ownership has been a big sucess.

They bought the team in 1981 for $20.5 million.  The team was averaging about 12,000/game and as Lee Elia famously said in April 1983 "85% of the world works a living, the other 15% come out here and boo."  He also said they were drawing about 3,000 a game after the Cubs lost their first 14 home games.  People under the age of 35 cannot understand how invisible the Cubs were when the Tribune bought them.  They were like the modern day Toronto Blue Jays ... a team that was "just there" never won and no one really gave them five minutes of thought, even in Chicago.

Under the Wrigleys, the Cubs went 36 years without a playoff team (1945 to 1981).

Fast forward to 2008 ....

The Cubs are sold out every game, and expanded to 41,000.  They are among the most storied franchsie in professional sports, they made the playoffs five time in the last 28 years and have the best record in the NL this year.

Further, the team that the Tribune bought for $20.5 million in 1981 is now looking like it will fetch well over $1.3% billion in 2008.  That's a 16% annualized compounded return versus 7.8% for the stock market over the same period.  You will be hard pressed to find a better investment over this period.  And the fact that the Tribune turned to Cubs from a day-only team that no one cared about to what it is today is impressive.  To repeat, the Tribune did not inherit a popular Cubs team, the White Sox were more popular when they bought the Cubs.  The Tribune made the Cubs popular.

Now everyone wants Cuban.  A guy that has won zero championships, and who had the #7 team in the west last year.  Sounds like a perfect fit for the Cubs.  He can never win here either to compliment the Mavs.

Last thought, every argument one would will give about why the Tribune is really a bad owner and Cuban is good would lead to the conclusion that the best owner in the history of sports is Jerry Reinsdorf.  In the last 45 years, he has won 7 championships in Chicago while every one else won one (Bears in 1985).  Reinsdorf basketball record is far more impressive that Cuban and he even had the baseball team with the thrid best record in the 1990s  (tue argument every uses about Cuban, the tird best record int eh NBA over the last eight years).

Everyone loves a cartoon character and that is what Cuban is.  He has never shown an ability to win, but he does put play stations in the locker room.  I think Cuban would be a disaster for the Cubs, after three years and it's apparent he cannot win, you'll then realize he is a young guy and will owner the team for 40 more years.

[TallTitan34]

You can't deny though that Cuban does everything in his power to put a winner on the field.

By giving the players everything in their lockers and everything they could want it shows the players have no excuses for not winning. 

If Cuban's teams don't win it because of the players, not the owner.

[gjreda]

Last thought, every argument one would will give about why the Tribune is really a bad owner and Cuban is good would lead to the conclusion that the best owner in the history of sports is Jerry Reinsdorf.  In the last 45 years, he has won 7 championships in Chicago while every one else won one (Bears in 1985).  Reinsdorf basketball record is far more impressive that Cuban and he even had the baseball team with the thrid best record in the 1990s  (tue argument every uses about Cuban, the tird best record int eh NBA over the last eight years).

Pretty sure Jordan won six of those.  Easy on the Reinsdorf man-love.

[Strokin 3s]

Oh Jordan was there?