Cubs sale: this is a fucking soap opera
July 7, 2009 5 Comments
After going several weeks with little news on the sale of the club, the Cubs sale has had several twists and turns the last few days. Yesterday news leaked that Ricketts and Tribune had reached an agreement on terms to buy the club. They have sent an outline of the deal to MLB for their blessing. Although the deal is not final, apparently some in the Ricketts camp thought they had ‘handshake agreement’ with Zell and the Tribsters. Not so fast fellas.
This afternoon it was reported that the Tribsters have an agreement with the group headed by Marc Utay. This too is not officially true. What is true though is that Tribune News is reporting that negotiations with Utay are moving fast. The deal from Utays group would be less cash up front, but a bigger dollar amount as a whole in a highly leveraged deal. Chicago Breaking News explains:
A person involved in the negotiations said Tuesday that Tribune Co. is “working on a deal” to sell the team, Wrigley Field and other assets to a group led by New York investor and former Chicagoan Marc Utay.
“They are not as far along as the Ricketts family but making quick progress,” said the source, who did not want to be identified because the sales process is ongoing.
It isn’t clear how Tribune Co. intends to coordinate what appears to be a new auction between the Rickettses and Utay’s group because all the parties declined to outline their thinking. What is known is that the Ricketts family has been negotiating to buy the Cubs since January when Tribune Co. selected the family’s bid as its first choice after an auction that included Utay.
MLB has received nothing from the Cubs on a deal with Utay:
An MLB source said Tuesday that the league has not received anything from Utay or Tribune Co. regarding a potential deal between the two parties.
News of ongoing discussions with the Utay group comes as MLB officials have started examining the Ricketts family’s financing and other details of a proposed purchase of the Cubs, Wrigley and Tribune Co.’s 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago, a regional cable sports network.
It appears that the final offer from Ricketts is $850 million with the Tribsters keeping a 5-7% ownership stake in the ballclub. This money appears to be less than the $900 million offer the Tribsters received from Ricketts last January when he was selected the winner of the auction.
Maybe this is Zell, trying to play one more game in the press to up the bid from Ricketts, maybe this is a serious consideration by Zell who wants this deal to be mostly leveraged so he can avoid paying taxes. It’s really hard to tell. This thing will play out over the next few days and we should expect a decision pretty quickly.
One person familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday that in light of the apparent bidding war between the Ricketts family and the Utay group, “this is going to come to a head in the next couple of days.”
At that point the process will still have to go through the bankruptcy court and MLB for approval. What fun!
Andy Dolan at Desipio has a great rundown of the events that have taken place with regards to the sale over the past few days. He shows the strange role that one David Kaplan appears to be playing with his new blog. Telling us what info is right and wrong…lol.
Also, the Tribune itself is reporting this story. Only, they are reporting it like actual journalists. They’re laying out the facts and the reports, getting quotes from people and printing them as quotes, instead of just telling us they talked to someone and then paraphrasing for them.
Did Kap talk to David Hernandez? Now there’s a guy who knows his way around a bankruptcy court.
The problem I think with Kap is he reported this last week. So I guess now he has some sort of rooting interest in the Ricketts family getting this done in the next few weeks. I guess this is what happens when a guy that is probably best qualified to be a high school gym teacher decides to play investigative reporter. You see Kap wants so bad to say he broke this story, he’s finding it hard to watch all of the moving parts in this process. And did I mention he works for the company that is selling the ballclub.
Stay Tuned…
I think this is funny and I hope it goes on for the rest of my life. Seriously. This is better than comedy than the best sitcom of all time. Keep it up. I hope they’re sold the day after I die and I am not joking. I could put up with 30 or 40 more years of the Cubs sucking if the team is going to be “sold” every day to a new buyer. This is awesome.
It’s unreal MB21 un-fucking-real.
Agreed. I think we need to start having birthday cakes each year n the anniversary of the first Crain’s article from 2005.
Chuck we could easily reach that date in October and this thing won’t be completed. It’s amazing. I knew the Tribune was inept, I didn’t realize they would struggle this much to sell a baseball team…that supposedly had plenty of suitors when the process began.
This link is good for a chuckle now http://waxpaperbeercup.com/2008/11/17/zell-trying-to-fast-track-cubs-sale/
After thinking about it overnight, I think this is just Sam Zell trying to squeeze out the last dollar he can get from the Rickets’s. I will fearlessly predict that, by the close of business tomorrow, there will be an agreement with Ricketts for 860MM to purchase 93% of the Cubs (giving the Cubs an enterprise value of 925MM)
Of course, my guaranteed predictions are like Greg Easterbrook’s, all predicitions free, money back if not satisified