The Cubs Make A Lot Of Money, But Don't Spend It

This is a fair article. It drives me bananas when Cubs fans state that the ownership does not spend at all. They do spend, however they just don't spend to the level of what fans expectation may be for the amount that they bring in in revenue.  It is just that simple.  Ownership does put a competitive team on the field, however they are just never going to spend to the level of a couple big revenue teams. I do not get worked up over it, and I don't understand why other fans do.  The Ricketts family simply runs their team as a business, not a public service for Cubs fans and they want to make profit off of it,  that is their prerogative, who am I to tell them differently.  I am not that entitled

The Ricketts goal is to be competitive enough that fans fill the ballpark and follow the team each season. Their strategy is to build a roster predicted to win in the neighborhood of 87-88 games. They are NOT trying to win the World Series. Heck, they're not even trying to win the NL Central! To them, this is equilibrium price. Fans deserve better. 

I do not see the amount of money the Cubs spend as the primary issue.  They are failing at developing and drafting of players.  The Brewers in the last 5 years have been out spent by approximately 376 million dollars and have more wins. 

1 hour ago, SB in SC said:

I do not see the amount of money the Cubs spend as the primary issue.  They are failing at developing and drafting of players.  The Brewers in the last 5 years have been out spent by approximately 376 million dollars and have more wins. 

Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, Justin Steele, Cade Horton, Matt Shaw, Daniel Palencia, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Miguel Amaya...

It is also likely that Owen Caissie, Moises Ballesteros, Jaxon Wiggins, Jonathon Long and Kevin Alcantara all make contributions next year. They will also likely see more players see time, like Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, Javier Assad and a few others who have spent significant dev time with the team. 

The Cubs are not failing at developing players nor are they failing at drafting players currently. They have also traded drafted players like Zyhir Hope, Jackson Ferris and Cam Smith for other MLB talents. 

And it's not like these were universally lauded on draft day as "can't miss", either. 

There was certainly a lull in young talent from 2017-2022, but part of that is because the Cubs traded players away and part of that was internal. The issue with the org right now, however, would not appear to be with finding and developing young players. 

2 hours ago, KJTchoup said:

This is a fair article. It drives me bananas when Cubs fans state that the ownership does not spend at all. They do spend, however they just don't spend to the level of what fans expectation may be for the amount that they bring in in revenue.  It is just that simple.  Ownership does put a competitive team on the field, however they are just never going to spend to the level of a couple big revenue teams. I do not get worked up over it, and I don't understand why other fans do.  The Ricketts family simply runs their team as a business, not a public service for Cubs fans and they want to make profit off of it,  that is their prerogative, who am I to tell them differently.  I am not that entitled

You are entitled to your opinion. How much is enough profit? How much should a family pay to see the team? Anything the owners decide? Do they have a responsibility that goes beyond owning a simple business, like, say, a furniture factory? If a furniture business made close to a 70% profit, how long would it stay in business without anti-trust protection, as baseball owners have? If the answers to these questions don't bother you, you are part of the problem. 

3 hours ago, KJTchoup said:

This is a fair article. It drives me bananas when Cubs fans state that the ownership does not spend at all. They do spend, however they just don't spend to the level of what fans expectation may be for the amount that they bring in in revenue.  It is just that simple.  Ownership does put a competitive team on the field, however they are just never going to spend to the level of a couple big revenue teams. I do not get worked up over it, and I don't understand why other fans do.  The Ricketts family simply runs their team as a business, not a public service for Cubs fans and they want to make profit off of it,  that is their prerogative, who am I to tell them differently.  I am not that entitled

If you are cheering for a fiscally responsible business man, Tom Ricketts is your guy. I understand why he is taking this approach, he is doing well for himself and his family. As a cubs fan, I wish he showed a willingness to spend on some of the biggest names on the market like he did when we brought in Lester and Heyward. We don’t win in 2016 without those guys. I feel like we are in a similar situation now. If we want to try to compete with the Brewers, we probably don’t have to do much more. If we want to compete with the Dodgers, Blue Jays, etc, we have to do more or we will watch last year on repeat.

Thanks for commenting, I appreciate hearing your thoughts. Go Cubs!

1 hour ago, CubinNY said:

You are entitled to your opinion. How much is enough profit? How much should a family pay to see the team? Anything the owners decide? Do they have a responsibility that goes beyond owning a simple business, like, say, a furniture factory? If a furniture business made close to a 70% profit, how long would it stay in business without anti-trust protection, as baseball owners have? If the answers to these questions don't bother you, you are part of the problem. 

Well said CubinNY, Go Cubs!

1 hour ago, Joe Sbertoli said:

Well said CubinNY, Go Cubs!

Thank you. But I don't think we know the whole story. I am also not sure if those Forbes numbers are accurate, but even if they are off by a lot, it doesn't matter. They don't want to pay for "past performance" (TM, PTR, 2017). They want to build a franchise by underpaying pre-arbitration and arbitration players and supplement them with veterans. But they won't pay a player one penny more than they think he should make, even if he's the best fit for the team. 

I also think they are greedy mother horsefeathers and don't want to share profits with the other owners. So they have bought up the real estate around Wrigley and are heavily in debt (right now). They are using the Cubs to leverage their real estate speculation and finance their debt. It's probably all perfectly legal, but it means their "profit" is going into other things besides the Cubs. Again, probably perfectly legal. A cynic might even call it smart. So their overall goal is to create a destination and have Cub fans pay them the moment they get off the El until they get back on it or back to the bus. And their prices make Bob Igor blush. 

So when PTR says they are trying to just break even, he's probably not lying, but he's not telling the whole truth either. 

Article strikes out on efficiency. Spending efficiency matters most.   

2025 playoff field realities:

• Several playoff teams were below Dodgers/Mets payroll

• Several missed-playoff teams were above Cubs payroll

• Postseason outcomes are weakly correlated with raw payroll

This undercuts the claim that:

“Revenue rank should dictate payroll rank.”

That’s a fan expectation, not an analytical rule.
The Cubs are now better positioned to sign free agents than top spenders because many are in the most expensive tiers of CBT and surcharge penalties. See attached image. LAD must spend $2.10 for every dollar they add to their payroll in 2026. Cubs are great position for efficiency.

7 hours ago, Statyllus said:

 

Article strikes out on efficiency. Spending efficiency matters most.   

2025 playoff field realities:

• Several playoff teams were below Dodgers/Mets payroll

• Several missed-playoff teams were above Cubs payroll

• Postseason outcomes are weakly correlated with raw payroll

This undercuts the claim that:

“Revenue rank should dictate payroll rank.”

That’s a fan expectation, not an analytical rule.
The Cubs are now better positioned to sign free agents than top spenders because many are in the most expensive tiers of CBT and surcharge penalties. See attached image. LAD must spend $2.10 for every dollar they add to their payroll in 2026. Cubs are great position for efficiency.

lol. Say it bigger it might make it true. 

On 12/27/2025 at 9:20 PM, CubinNY said:

lol. Say it bigger it might make it true. 

Milwaukee proves the point. Cubs outspend their division rival virtually every year but the Brewers prevail. I hope this font size  is more to your liking. 

2 hours ago, Statyllus said:

Milwaukee proves the point. Cubs outspend their division rival virtually every year but the Brewers prevail. I hope this font size  is more to your liking. 

So by your definition the Cubs are(?)… unintelligent spending? There doesn’t need to be a .80 correlation for something to be generally true. The Cubs should be spending more- and that’s the point. Intelligent spending is just a business buzzword PTR put in the lexicon for or five years ago.

They are not using the one advantage they do have over everyone else. So I guess we agree. That’s pretty unintelligent. 

Circular logic at best…deliberate obtuseness at worst.