RealGM

Tribune Co. has selected a favored bidder for the Chicago Cubs and has forwarded the offer to the media company’s creditors, sources said today.

One person familiar with the process said the endorsed bid was from Thomas Ricketts, president of corporate bond dealer Incapital LLC. He is the son of Joseph Ricketts, founder of the TD Ameritrade brokerage.

A Ricketts spokesman said neither he nor his client knows which offer was sent to Tribune creditors. His bid is one of three proposals for the Cubs that Tribune evaluated at length after weeding out several others.

Ricketts is believed to have offered around $900 million. The Cubs, without a World Series crown in 100 years, still are among the most valuable franchises in Major League Baseball because of their strong attendance and national TV following.

Other bidders for the team are Chicago real estate investor Hersh Klaff and a New York tandem of private investors Marc Utay and Leo Hindery Jr.

“They want Ricketts, and it’s always been Ricketts,” a source said.

After nearly two years of intrigue, the billionaire Ricketts family has emerged as the winning bidder to purchase the Chicago Cubs from Tribune Co. for about $900 million, sources close to the situation said this evening.

The family will now complete negotiations with Tribune Co.

The family edged out Chicago real-estate investor Hersch Klaff and New York private-equity investor Marc Utay, a Chicago native, for the chance to follow Tribune Co., the Chicago-based media conglomerate, as owners of the storied yet hard-luck franchise.

The Ricketts family effort, led by Tom Ricketts, who lives in the Chicago area, still has a number of hurdles to cross before taking ownership of the Cubs, including receiving approval from 23 of the league's 30 owners.

"My family and I are Cubs fans," Tom Ricketts, the family's point person in the Cubs purchase, said in a statement Thursday night. "We share the goal of Cubs fans everywhere to win a World Series and build the consistent championship tradition that the fans deserve."

The Sheik wrote:I still wont believe till I see him take a picture with the signed documents while holding two forms of government ID.

There also is renewed interest in Tribune Co.'s shelved idea to construct a triangular-shaped building that would include stores and restaurants along Clark Street and create a pedestrian walkway outside Wrigley, similar to Yawkey Way outside Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox.

On game days, Yawkey Way is closed to traffic, and ticket-holders enter it, and the ballpark, through turnstiles. The setup, and wide mix of vendors, is similar to Eutaw Street outside Baltimore's Camden Yards, where the Orioles play, and enables the teams to profit from pregame spending.

Before Yawkey Way, fans were spending pregame dollars in the neighborhood of Fenway, but they weren't coming in.

"People didn't pass through the turnstile until right before the game," said Janet Marie Smith, senior vice president of planning and development for the Red Sox and architect behind the renovation of Fenway and development of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. "In order to stay competitive, we've got to make money."

Similar efforts at Wrigley, which has protected status as an official city landmark and must retain its traditional look, might aid the ballpark but could come at the expense of neighborhood street vendors, restaurants and bars.

But for making the most of a team's out-of-the-park potential, the New York Yankees, with the development of the YES Network, are considered the model to emulate. The regional cable TV channel, in which the Yankees have a minority stake, broadcasts Yankees and the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets games and has been the most-watched regional sports network nationally for six consecutive years.

Terms of Tribune Co.'s broadcast-rights contracts with the Cubs are confidential, but they are believed to extend about a decade, creating a future opportunity for the Ricketts family to exploit those rights, possibly by creating their own Cubs network. Tribune Co. also owns the Chicago Tribune.

Other revenue-generating opportunities have potential but also may have to wait. The notion of selling some version of naming rights at Wrigley is off the table, sources said.

Posey H8er wrote:Hendry was just waiting for this deal to happen so he could sign Rich Aurillia...



On a more serious note I wonder if his love for the Cubs will make him put more money into the team.

Ruben Douglas wrote:

Posey H8er wrote:Hendry was just waiting for this deal to happen so he could sign Rich Aurillia...



On a more serious note I wonder if his love for the Cubs will make him put more money into the team.

You mean Uribe?

Ruben Douglas wrote:

Posey H8er wrote:Hendry was just waiting for this deal to happen so he could sign Rich Aurillia...



On a more serious note I wonder if his love for the Cubs will make him put more money into the team.

You mean Uribe?