…according to the Bright One the Tribsters have now set November 26th as a deadline for potential bidders to prove they can still come up with the financing to make the deal.

Tribune is “looking for confirmation on valuation and structure,” the source said. The company wants to unload the team for about $1 billion in a way that minimizes taxes, but some think that price is unrealistic.

LMAO, ‘unrealistic’…how about a fucking pipe dream. When Cuban made that $1.2 billion offer last summer, Zell should have been all over it. He wasn’t and now he’s gonna pay. How ugly has this whole thing gotten, well the Tribsters may not be able to unload the once coveted franchise and guess what, the newspaper business ain’t helping matters. This is ugly:

On Monday, Tribune reported a net loss of $121.6 million across its operations for the third quarter, compared with a profit of $152.8 million for the same period a year ago. Revenue declined 10.5 percent to $1.04 billion.

and more…

The company said print advertising revenue fell 19 percent in the third quarter, to $111 million, and that total paid circulation was off 7 percent from a year ago to 2.2 million copies Monday through Friday. Price hikes reduced losses in circulation revenue to just 2 percent, Tribune said.

Revenue from the broadcasting division fell 8.3 percent to $264.4 million, the company reported.

This sale has been really poorly managed by Zell, his delay in getting the deal done while he putzed around with the state of Illinois could cost the Tribune company up to $500 million. Think about that one for a second my friends. The Tribsters have already said they may keep up to 50% of the club. The truth is the Cubs are not worth nearly what they were just a few months ago. Zell and Company may want to wait this whole thing out, but they need cash to pay down their debt.

So what happens next? Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t think Zell will have a deal anytime soon. But the longer he waits the less this franchise could be worth as the whole economy bottoms out. At some point in the near future I will not be surprised to hear that the Cubs freeze payroll to 2008 levels and if things get even worse, we could see more drastic measures by the Tribsters. It is hard to imagine revenues in 2009 being what they were in 2008. At some point the global financial crises will impact the club on the field, it might be sooner than any of us suspect.