http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telan...rick25.article
At last, Tribune leverage king Sam Zell is starting to whittle down the gang of would-be Cubs purchasers.
The free-for-all of buyers (with Wrigley Field also available) went from 10 to five Wednesday and, according to the latest reports, down to three as of late Thursday.
Zell, who may have had no idea about the housing meltdown and banking and economic sinkhole this country has entered since he got involved in the journalism/ broadcast/sports world a year ago, still may not fully comprehend the product he has on the market.
Most financial analysts talk about the Cubs as if the franchise is an ordinary business, like a widget factory or saloon.
To the contrary, the Cubs are unique beyond belief.
They're a brand and a lifestyle and a dream and a passion -- snuggled inside the Major League Baseball monopoly -- that transcend logic and spread-sheet projections.
The Cubs don't just have 10,000 or 100,000 devotees or even a million. They have perhaps 100 million or more disciples of varying degrees who've been weened on the magic of this strange and charming ballclub and its global TV reach, people who bring passion in a way only religious zealots usually do.
If Zell gets that, has it fully in his brain, the early bids -- all a bit over $1 billion -- are mere cheese crumbs on the money tray.
That's why, among the trio of suitors at the top of the list, Mark Cuban likely should be taken most seriously.
Cuban is a lone wolf, a rebel like a much younger Zell who answers to no one but his ego and his sense of fun and his wallet (which is fat).
I e-mailed Cuban and asked him what his bid was and what he thought the Cubs were worth, and he quickly shot back, ''Can't rick sorry.''
I understand.
But I'm wondering who else gets what this deal is about.
This is buying Mt. Rushmore, Disneyland, the Eiffel Tower (if you're French).
This is buying into a phenomenon that makes the Yankees' magic and the Red Sox' mojo look like parlor tricks.
Only a silly, or at least not-serious, person such as onetime front-runner John Canning Jr. would low-ball this gem and get tossed from the group for cheapness.
''He could say, 'I'm sorry, I forgot a decimal point,''' a Cubs source told the Sun-Times on Wednesday. ''But as of now, he's out.''
Cuban is not.
He made his billions by timing his sale of Broadcast.com to Yahoo so precisely during the dot-com frenzy that he couldn't have squeezed another penny from the deal. Today? I don't know if anyone would buy Broadcast.com.
True, Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks. Yawn.
The Mavericks, who've won nothing and resonate globally about as much as the Lansing Lugnuts, are to the Cubs as Tinkerbell is to Godzilla.
The Cubs have come up for sale but three times in almost a century, and to miss purchasing them now would be to miss for a lifetime.
Cuban must know this.
I once asked him, as the Dow Jones seemed to be rallying a few years ago, when the right time for Americans to get back into stocks would be. ''Never,'' he answered. ''Never?'' I repeated. ''Never,'' he said.
Doubt and stupidity are not Cuban's long suits.
A local TV guy who usually is pretty smart -- I won't mention his name, Dave Kaplan -- keeps saying on air, apparently with real belief, that if the starved Cubs were to win a World Series crown, the value of the franchise would go down.
This is so insane that it conjures up the image of someone who lives in a box on another planet. It just might be the dumbest sporting financial statement I ever have heard.
The Red Sox a few years ago were overwhelmed with crazed, desperate fans who spent wildly.
Fenway Park was sold out, always.
After winning two World Series in the last five years, the Red Sox are now off the charts in value and love.
''After not winning the World Series for a century, the Cubs are valuable beyond belief,'' a top executive in another sports league told me Thursday. ''If they win the World Series, my God, they will be priceless.''
Cuban supposedly bid $1.3 billion already.
That's nothing for a guy who could write the check today and reap emotional and monetary profits forever.
That's nothing for this treasure.
I'm starting to think people are clueless.
Hasn't anybody else traveled the United States, been to the Bronx, Anaheim, Boston, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Denver, Baltimore, even Denver and Phoenix?
Has no one been to Wrigley Field after a weekend summer game, stood on the ramp and seen the thousands and thousands of happy campers in the endless Wrigley-ville funhouse neighborhood stretching up and down Clark Street forever?
The Cubs are gold.
And the dunces who think baseball owners never would approve Cuban because he's a loose bolt are themselves nuts.
If Cubes bids $1.4 billion, $1.6 billion -- crazy money, but still a deal -- every franchise in MLB goes up at least $25 million in value.
Do you get it, Zell?
Does anybody?