It appears the four finalists to be the next owner of the Chicago Cubs have met with MLB. (Guess who is not one of them…). This from Paul Sullivan in the Trib:

Bidders for the Cubs have until Dec. 1 to submit offers, Major League Baseball said Wednesday after a meeting of its ownership committee, the AP reported.

Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, said representatives of four bidders have met in New York in recent weeks with officials from the commissioner’s office, MLB’s Internet company and the sport’s new television network.

Baseball officials do not think Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been part of the bidding process for months. Cuban was charged Monday with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale.

Maury Brown, who does a great job over at bizofbaseball.com, has more details on the Cubs sale process:

“Bids are expected the week after Thanksgiving,” MLB COO Bob DuPuy said to The Associated Press after the first day of the MLB owners quarterly meetings. “Mr. Zell claims the team is for sale and they’re moving forward.”

Bidders have been in New York over the past two weeks meeting with officials from the commissioner’s office, MLB Advanced Media, and the MLB Network headquarters in New Jersey.

The deadline news comes at a time when baseball officials believe that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been out of the running for the Cubs for some time. Cuban was charged Monday by the SEC with insider trading involving shares of Momma.com.

While the credit crunch has increased the amount of ownership equity that Tribune is willing to retain from 5 percent to 50 percent, another looming aspect has been the amount of money in player payroll. The Cubs have been exceptionally aggressive in going after free agents, and with that, many have had backloaded contracts.

(NOTE: If you get a chance take a look at Maury’s article on MLB tabling the restructuring of the territorial blackouts for television. This is UNREAL)

So, back to the sale, it looks like we might actually be getting somewhere in this process. I hope the financing is figured out.