RedIvyCub

Tribune will go private before the sale is completed. Therefore that takes care of this little problem. Actually it doesn't take care of the problem. The Trib will be owned by a Trust on behalf of Tribune employees. The Trustee (an independent institution) has a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries of the Trust (i.e., the employees). If Cuban submits a significantly better bid, MLB will be in a tough position - particularly if the details leak. Considering many of those employees are members of the press, I wouldn't want to be the Trustee or Selig if MLB disqualifies the highest bid. They will do just what they did in Boston to get the ownership in place that they want. They will cobble together a group that can offer the highest bid.

I don't think that will be such a huge number by the time the bidding is done. It is likely IMO that the bidding will reach close to 1 billion just because of the number of buyers involved and the passion that some of them will have to really want to buy the Cubs (Cuban won't be the only one who won't look it as completely a business decision). Yeah...if $850 million is his cap...I don't know if he'd even be the top bidder...which would make it much easier for MLB to say "we gave him a shot!" Yeah I've heard as high as $1billion. $850mil doesn't seem all that much. The Forbes value of the ballclub is pretty much meaningless when determining how much it will sell for. The Forbes number is for just the ballclub I believe, and does not include Wrigely Field, which in all likelihood would be sold along with the Cubs in a package deal. Probably also does not include the 25% interest in CSNC which goes along with the club.

Colangelo+Cuban??? Colangelo is not respected in baseball circles. He nearly bankrupted the Dbacks and was ousted because he made so many cash calls to investors that they held majority. This is why the debt service rule is being my closely enforced in MLB. Colangelo bought an WS Championship on the backs of 29 other ballclubs.

Tribune will go private before the sale is completed. Therefore that takes care of this little problem.

Why would they regret that? He's done everything they've wanted from him, the stadium extortion attempt, the torching of the Expos franchise, the refusal to spend any money anywhere. He's the biggest prick in baseball, of course they love him. Trust me...they don't love him. His behavior is an embarassment to MLB.

Zell is buying the Tribune and taking the company private. I believe there are two main reasons that he is selling the Cubs. One, most important, is his ownership interest in the Chicago White Sox as MLB does not allow one to have an interest in more than one club. And two, to raise funds to put against the huge debt that will be required for the leverage buyout of the Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0704030166apr03,1,2820035.story

Not that my opinion matters to them...but I think its such BS that Reinsdorf (or any other owner) has any say at all in who Zell/the Trib sells the Cubs to...its downright unAmerican. Tribune had a say in who purchased the Red Sox, the Brewers, the Braves, etc, etc. Why should this be any different. The owners (or their reps) vote on this at the quarterly meetings.

Does anyone really believe Cuban stands a chance in h*ll? I wish he had a fair shot, but am highly dubious of the the old boys club headed by Selig.. No chace in hell will he ever own a MLB team. Will never ever happen. If Marge Schott had a team for so long they can learn to live with Mark Cuban. Which is why baseball wouldn't allow it. They went through hell with Marge and they aren't going to let it happen again. I think it would be great for the game, but the custy old-school owners wouldn't like him. They already regret allowing Jeffrey Loria into the fold.

If Wagner is involved as well with the bid, there's going to be no easy way for MLB to deny them. And the Cuban/Wagner assets (entertainment and online media holdings) would be a lot more attractive to integrate into the Tribune than what other ownership groups offer. Not sure what you think this has to do with Tribune since they are divesting themselves of an asset...that being the Cubs. There would be no integrating programming into the Tribune.

That was my understanding of how it would work all along, that the Trib would sell the Cubs before Zell takes over the Trib rather than Zell selling the team afterwards. I actually think it would HAVE to work that way unless Zell actually gets approved as an owner by MLB. Yes it would have to work that way as an owner cannot have ownership interest in more than one club. That is how it happened with Henry of the Red Sox. He had to divest himself from the Marlins before the Red Sox transaction was completed. Jeffrey Loria was handy and it worked out.

Everyone is missing the obvious here IMHO. Zell is only on the Tribune board of directors at the moment since the deal has not completely closed. Ever consider that this came from Dennis FitzSimons since he is the top dog at Tribune? With Zell's interest in the Sox, the Cubs will be sold by Tribune before the deal is complete of his purchase of the Tribune. Are you suggesting that you have knowledge that it did come from FitzSimons or are you simply speculating? I guess you could say it is speculation but it is a logical conclusion since the Zell purchase of Tribune hasn't yet been finalized and Zell strictly has a seat on the board of directors. Any other decisions prior to now similar to this have come from the top and the top is still Dennis FitzSimons.

Let's see...maybe because his title is President, Baseball Operations of the Baltimore Orioles???? :-k And, usually Team Presidents, hire a GM that will have control over day to day baseball transactions. Hence my questioning/suggestion that MacPhail hire a GM, considering his GM skills, are, how should I say this...pitful? The O's have a two headed GM with three assistant GMs in place already. I saw the press conference on MASN. He is team president but only over baseball operations in Baltimore where he was over both baseball and business in Chicago. The next question was pretty much isn't the title just a glorified GM title and he didn't just come out and say yes but that is what was alluded to. So that makes one wonder what happens with Flannigan (Exec VP Baseball Ops) and Duquette (VP Baseball Ops) in Baltimore. They also have the Stockstill brothers (John in charge of scouting and formerly with the Cubs and Steve in charge of minor league ops) and Scott Proefrock over baseball admin as there three Asst GMs. FYI, watched the press conference to see if Girardi was brought up since their interim manager is former ICubs Manager Dave Trembley. I suspect Girardi is waiting for Lou to quit or Torre to be fired to accept his next managing job. So just remember, MacPhail was GM here from mid 2000 to mid 2002 which doesn't give you a lot of time to turn such a pitiful major league club around...but he sure set up Hendry with a nice base for the 03 run. You are entited to your opinion but I would say that MacPhail has two more WS rings than Hendry will ever see.

And Corey is probably screaming NOOOOOOO! Don didn't seem to get along too well with Corey. Will keep the other comments on this topic to myself though. Something about Oddibie McDowell.... Yeah, that's it... :-#

Let's see...maybe because his title is President, Baseball Operations of the Baltimore Orioles???? :-k

Everyone is missing the obvious here IMHO. Zell is only on the Tribune board of directors at the moment since the deal has not completely closed. Ever consider that this came from Dennis FitzSimons since he is the top dog at Tribune? With Zell's interest in the Sox, the Cubs will be sold by Tribune before the deal is complete of his purchase of the Tribune.

Based on the time of your post, Bruce was already at the park for this afternoon's game.

For those of you in Chicago, there is a big photo of the guy being taken off the field by security in today's Red Eye. And they give his name.

He's appealing it and the appeal isn't supposed to happen for a couple weeks. I suspect the appeal will take place early next week when the club in is in Washington to play the Nationals.

And Corey is probably screaming NOOOOOOO! Don didn't seem to get along too well with Corey. Will keep the other comments on this topic to myself though.

Why in the world would the commissioner's office care what the Cubs are spending? Is this a serious question? The commish works for the owners. The owners, as a group, want to profit. Individually, the owners don't want anybody else spending money, because that drives up costs, and cuts into profit. Realistically, that's not going to happen. So, instead, they prefer to see teams spend logically, and not throw out crazy contracts that drives up the costs for everybody. In other words, they don't want to see guys handing out 3 year contracts with no-trade clauses to middle relievers, or 8 year 136 million deals for guys that aren't top of the line superstars. Owners got pissed at Hicks for the original ARod deal. Owners get pissed at Steinbrenner when he brings his payroll from $95m to $200m in just a couple of years. Owners get pissed when desperate GMs give insanely large contracts to mediocre pitchers, because that drives up costs for the rest of the pitchers. Selig doesn't want to see teams throw money around willy-nilly like Hendry did this offseason. It drives up the costs for everybody else and makes his life difficult, by having to deal with other owners bitching and moaning. Well if Selig had the balls, he would have found a way to get a salary cap in place. You will never get ever single owner in baseball to participate is some verbal agreement to not drive up salaries, you need a strict control system, like the cap. Just remember that the MLBPA is one of the most powerful unions in the country so that is why there isn't a cap in place.

Yes... :(

This is why we should not believe everything we read in the media. They don't know the whole story all of the time. JMHO, Tribune and MLB are trying to keep this whole process OTDL.

Just curious and not trying to cause issues. Just a serious question based on the semantics of your inquiry. You currently own the Cubs????

Maybe because he was only the GM for two years of his tenure here? Get your facts straight. You definetly work for the Tribune company. Why, because I told him to get his facts straight? Those are the facts. MacPhail was Cubs GM from July 2000 to July 2002...TWO years. I just happen to pay more attention to the business side of the game because it fascinates me. That doesn't mean that I work for Tribune Company. I think the responses to my post shows why I don't have a lot of posts for the number of years that I have been a member of this community. CARRIE! or Sharon! It's one or the other. Wrong on both counts. Those ladies don't read message boards.

I predicted the Brewers would win the division before the season started actually. And everyone laughed at me.