Update on Cuban's bid to own the Cubbies

[nowhereman]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3054807

CHICAGO -- Mark Cuban wants to become a billionaire bleacher bum if he buys the Chicago Cubs.

The Dallas Mavericks owner, known for noisily cheering his NBA team and berating officials from courtside, reiterated strong interest Monday in owning the Cubs.

"Everybody thinks I'm going to be on the sidelines, in the dugout, jumping up and down. That's not where I'll be," he said on the Mike North Morning Show on radio station WSCR.

"When I went to the Cubs game a couple weeks ago, I sat in the bleachers, and I'll have a seat marked out for me and my friends. We'll be out in the right-field bleachers -- that's the best place to watch a game."

Tribune Co. announced six months ago that it would sell the club after the season in connection with an $8.2 billion buyout of the media conglomerate led by real estate magnate Sam Zell. But the process has moved slowly and many don't expect a sale to be completed until well into 2008.

Cuban said he hasn't made a final decision on whether to bid for the team. But once Tribune provides full details about the assets for sale, presumably including Wrigley, he expects to be in.

"It's a great sports town, it's a great franchise with a storied history. There's so many opportunities here," he said. "When a team that's so iconic and such an amazing team like the Cubbies come up, it's an opportunity I couldn't let slip by."

After last month's bleacher experience, the Pittsburgh native said he's becoming a Cubs fan.

"People think that because I'm not from Chicago, that's a big deal," he said. "I grew up in Pittsburgh, and there's no bigger Dallas Mavs fan now."

"If all this goes down ... if you cut any part of my body, you can see Mavs blood and you can see Cubbies blood coming out."

Cuban faces stiff early competition for the Cubs, including several Chicago groups. One front-runner is thought to be the group headed by John Canning, chairman of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC and a longtime friend and business partner of baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

this would be the greatest thing ever for this baseball fan.

[MavsX]

agree. i love the cubs.

[alby]

Cuban the business man.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=3165552

[bernardos70]

Damn, Cuban sure as hell knows how to network.

And mayweather would be turned into minced meat by any decent fighter in an octagon (or Pride FC ring) around his weight class. But the chances of him, should he choose to take on this next challenge, being pitted against even a half decent MMA fighter are zero.

[alby]

It's all about money, he'll do it for the right amount of cash.

[horse900703]

RICH MAN~~~~

[MavsX]

thanks for the bump.

[MavsX]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3437807


CHICAGO -- Nine potential buyers who have been preapproved by Major League Baseball have received the financial books on the Chicago Cubs, two people familiar with the process told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The books went out Tuesday, with bids due back next month, according to the people who asked not to be identified because the owner, Tribune Co., is trying to keep details of the process confidential.

Two sets of books went out. One contains information on the Cubs, Wrigley Field and the regional cable TV network Comcast SportsNet Chicago. The other only concerns Wrigley, which Tribune still hopes to sell separately.

No dollar estimates were given for any assets.

Interested buyers are believed to include a group headed by John Canning, chairman of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC; Internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban; and the family of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s founder Joe Ricketts.

Sports economists say the expressed interest of several billionaires, among other well-heeled investors, make it a good bet it will exceed the record $660 million paid for the Boston Red Sox in 2002 by a group headed by billionaire commodities trader John Henry.

The Cubs package includes not only Wrigley but also Tribune's 25 percent stake in the Comcast sports channel in Chicago, fueling widespread speculation the total could reach $1 billion.

[Murphy3]

If it gets Cuban to shut the hell up around here, it'll be a good thing.

[jthig32]

Report: Cubs cut number of bids to five, including Cuban

Link

The number of bids to buy the Chicago Cubs is down to five.
The team has cut the number of bids to five, all at least $1 billion or more, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun-Times reported last week that the number of bids to buy the Cubs was 10 and more than 20 made bids on just Wrigley Field. In a conflicting report, the Chicago Tribune said the number was at least seven.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was among the finalists to buy the team, the Sun-Times reported. The other finalists' identities were unknown.
Among the offers the Cubs rejected was a bid from an investment group led by John Canning Jr., a part-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and close associate of commissioner Bud Selig.

The Tribune Co.'s auction of the Cubs includes a plan to sell the ballpark separately. The company, which also owns the Chicago Tribune, thinks it can potentially make more money by selling the team and stadium separately.
In June, Major League Baseball, which must approve the sale of any team, sent out financial books on the three properties -- the Cubs, Wrigley Field stadium and the team's 25 percent stake in a regional sports cable channel -- to preapproved bidders.

Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College who specializes in sports, said the Cubs could fetch more than the record $660 million paid for the Boston Red Sox in 2002 by a group headed by billionaire commodities trader John Henry. The Tribune Co. paid $20.5 million for the team in 1981.
The final sale must be approved by three-quarters of MLB owners.

[u2sarajevo]

Is he doing this bid alone? No other parties involved? Because more than 660 million is quite a bit of money to fly solo on no matter who you are. Isn't he currently worth 2 billion?

[MascisMan]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3503599

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by MascisMan

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3503599

Seriously? Come on.

[MavsX]

Originally Posted by u2sarajevo

Is he doing this bid alone? No other parties involved? Because more than 660 million is quite a bit of money to fly solo on no matter who you are. Isn't he currently worth 2 billion?

i think he made 2 billion on that sale. I think he is worth more than 2 billion. Isn't he on the board of directors of like 100 companies? am i making that up?

[Murphy3]

Cubs fans are worthless.. Cuban is an idiot. It's a match made in heaven.

[MavsX]

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?

[u2sarajevo]

Yeah, I heard that on the radio this morning. And he is reportedly worth 2.6 billion, so half his worth for the Cubs.

They were saying on the Musers that if he ended up being the owner he could basically start printing money recouping what he paid.... but if that is true why is it being sold?

[jthig32]

I guess the guy buying the Tribune doesn't want to deal with it.

[MavsX]

Originally Posted by u2sarajevo

Yeah, I heard that on the radio this morning. And he is reportedly worth 2.6 billion, so half his worth for the Cubs.

They were saying on the Musers that if he ended up being the owner he could basically start printing money recouping what he paid.... but if that is true why is it being sold?

They are selling it because they have a 8.2 billion dollar debt, They need capital to pay the loans, so they are selling the cubs to help pay for that stuff. I couldn't be happier.

Also, this deal includes what like a 25% stake in the cubbies tv network/comcast?

that sounds right up cubans ally, he's always talking about tv and hd and hdnet, all that stuff.

I hope cuban can buy them. 2 of my 3 favorite teams are cuban owned.

mavs/cubs/cowboys. at least we know jerry jones has deep pockets, and money doesn't matter to any of these clowns. I love it.

[Caseman]

Originally Posted by nowhereman

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3054807



this would be the greatest thing ever for this baseball fan.

Worst thing for a Mavericks fan.

[MaVs 41 BaLler]

Well I live in Chicago so maybe ill be able to see cubes one day. Finally some Dallas is coming to me!

[Murphy3]

You can have him. Nothing would be better than to have that jackass involved with the Cubs and spending less time around the Mavs.

[TheKorean]

Why not buy the Pirates. He is from Pittsburgh.

[MavsWiLLHaVeRinGs]

Have none of you considered that he'll most likely (no matter what he says) sell the Mavs once he owes the Cubs?

Some may be happy about that though.

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by MavsWiLLHaVeRinGs

Have none of you considered that he'll most likely (no matter what he says) sell the Mavs once he owes the Cubs?

Some may be happy about that though.

Why do you consider that likely at all? He owns a ton of businesses.

[MavsWiLLHaVeRinGs]

Owning two major professional sports teams in different states, not easy to do. I'll back off saying most likely, but you can't rule out the possibility.


Although if you search around the net, some sites such as dallasbasketball.com and others ASSUME he will definetely sell the team if he buys the Cubs. So it's not just speculation from me.

[MavsX]

Originally Posted by MaVs 41 BaLler

Well I live in Chicago so maybe ill be able to see cubes one day. Finally some Dallas is coming to me!

yeah, it will be nice when you can watch the cubes play at wrigley.