On opening day of the 2007 baseball season, Sam Zell, owner of the Tribune co. and Chicago Cubs, announced that the Chicago Cubs were for sale and would be sold to the highest bidder. There were multiple bidders including the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team , Marc Cuban.
The process to sell the team was very long and therefore it took a while for Zell to find a potential buyer. Zell had the list narrowed down from ten buyers down to three buyers by July 2008. The three bidders were Owner of the Dallas Mavericks Marc Cuban, Sports Properties Acquisition Corp., and The Ricketts family. All bids were expected to exceed the amount of 1 billion dollars. However when the economy starting dropping, the price of the team was expected to drop as well. Late in Janurary Zell finally picked the buyer of the team. He picked billionaire Tom Ricketts, a die hard Cubs fan and a member of the family who founded TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. In addition to that he is the chief executive of In Capital LLC. Although, it would have made the most sense to chose Cuban who had the most money, but that didn't work out becuase Cuban was later indicted. Instead in the end Zell made the right choice by choosing owners who had their heart and soul invested in this team. That is the Ricketts family becuase they are so dedictaed to the cubs and really want them to win a world series. I feel that these owners finally have the passion for this team to finally win a world championship.
After the Ricketts were selected there was even more to do. In order for the team to be sold there had to be a two thirds vote of all major league baseball owners approving the sale. On October 6th the vote was unanimous in favor of the team being sold to the Ricketts family. Now the only thing standing between Ricketts and the Cubs are the details. The team is projected to sell for 900 million dollars. A big improvement compared to the twenty one million dollars that the Tribune Co. bought the team for in 1981. In addition to the buying the Cubs, the deal includes Wrigley field and twenty five percent interest in the Comcast Sports Network, with Zell retaining five percent of the Cubs for tax purposes.
This is a good turn around for the Cubs. The Ricketts family's networth is approximatley 2.1 billion dollars. However the Cubs have a ridicoulus 134 million dollars locked up in players salaries. Even though these players don't deserve it. This gives the Ricketts little chance to show what they can do. It forces them to spend more money on their over paid major league players and less on their farm system where the money is much needed. Also, because of the poor condition of Wrigley Field, the Ricketts family is obligated to spend even more money maintaining the stadium. In other words, I don't think fans will not see immediate improvements as a result of the team's new owners, but in a few years they will hopefully see many changes that lead to a World Series title.
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