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Report: Many show interest in buying Cubs, historic Wrigley
ESPN.com news services
NEW YORK -- The Chicago Cubs and their storied Wrigley Field home inched closer to finding new owners as the week ended.
Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs go hand and hand, but might be sold separately.
Tribune Co. -- which has not publicly set a timetable for the sale -- closed the preliminary round of bidding for the baseball team, stadium and the Cubs' 25 percent stake in a regional sports cable channel on Friday.
At least seven groups submitted opening bids and a Chicago real-estate firm made an offer to buy Wrigley Field separately, according to the Chicago Tribune.
In a conflicting report, the Chicago Sun Times said 10 groups submitted bids to buy the Cubs and more than 20 made made bids on just Wrigley Field.
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 to preapproved bidders.
The list reportedly includes a group headed by John Canning, chairman of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC; Internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban; the family of online brokerage Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts; Don Levin, Chicago businessman and owner of the Chicago Wolves minor league hockey franchise; Jim Anixter, president of A-Z Industries Inc. in Northbrook who has partnered with Chicago attorney Thomas Mandler and Sports Properties Acquisition Corp., a shell company with $215 million looking to buy a sports property.
A spokeswoman for Tribune CEO Sam Zell, a real estate mogul who orchestrated last year's $8.2 billion employee buyout of Tribune, confirmed the Friday deadline. She declined further comment.
Tribune is selling the ballpark and baseball team because it needs money to pay down billions of dollars in debt related to the buyout. The company previously sold an operating interest in Long Island, N.Y., daily Newsday and put up other assets as collateral to raise a combined $900 million to service the debt.
That money will cover a $650 million lump-sum debt payment Tribune must make in December, along with other short-term commitments.
"We have the liquidity we need for 2008," said Zell spokeswoman Terry Holt.
The company has to deliver on another $750 million payment in June 2009. The proceeds from selling the baseball assets are expected to cover that.
Including the Cubs' 25 percent stake in a Comcast Corp. regional sports cable channel, the baseball assets could sell for as much as $1 billion, sports economists have said.
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. Tribune paid $20.5 million for the team in 1981.
Tribune is expected to whittle down the proposals to three or four bidders. It will then make available to them all relevant financial information and accept new bids in a second round. The final sale must be approved by three-quarters of MLB owners.
Zell made clear when he led the buyout of Tribune that he would auction the baseball assets. His decision to sell Newsday surprised the industry because he had said he intended to keep intact Tribune's publishing assets, which include the flagship Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times and Baltimore's Sun.
The buyout team expected revenue from those assets would cover payments on the immense debt.
But newspapers across the country have seen newsprint costs rise and advertising and circulation revenue plummet this year as advertisers follow readers online. Newspaper Web sites capture only a wee fraction of the revenue lost as they sell fewer print ads, which fetch more money.
To trim costs, Tribune has announced hundreds of layoffs at its papers and decreased the page count of print editions.
Most recently the company said it would consider ways to squeeze money from its real estate holdings. Media reports said the company might sell its iconic Tribune Tower in Chicago and its Los Angeles headquarters, known as Times Mirror Square.
Zell's spokeswoman would not confirm whether those properties are on the block yet, but said there has been "no movement" with either.
Another option for Tribune is to sell its roughly 30 percent stake in Food Network to Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., which owns the rest of the rapidly growing cable TV channel. Analysts estimate that stake could be worth well over $500 million.
ESPN.com news services
NEW YORK -- The Chicago Cubs and their storied Wrigley Field home inched closer to finding new owners as the week ended.
Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs go hand and hand, but might be sold separately.
Tribune Co. -- which has not publicly set a timetable for the sale -- closed the preliminary round of bidding for the baseball team, stadium and the Cubs' 25 percent stake in a regional sports cable channel on Friday.
At least seven groups submitted opening bids and a Chicago real-estate firm made an offer to buy Wrigley Field separately, according to the Chicago Tribune.
In a conflicting report, the Chicago Sun Times said 10 groups submitted bids to buy the Cubs and more than 20 made made bids on just Wrigley Field.
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 to preapproved bidders.
The list reportedly includes a group headed by John Canning, chairman of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC; Internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban; the family of online brokerage Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts; Don Levin, Chicago businessman and owner of the Chicago Wolves minor league hockey franchise; Jim Anixter, president of A-Z Industries Inc. in Northbrook who has partnered with Chicago attorney Thomas Mandler and Sports Properties Acquisition Corp., a shell company with $215 million looking to buy a sports property.
A spokeswoman for Tribune CEO Sam Zell, a real estate mogul who orchestrated last year's $8.2 billion employee buyout of Tribune, confirmed the Friday deadline. She declined further comment.
Tribune is selling the ballpark and baseball team because it needs money to pay down billions of dollars in debt related to the buyout. The company previously sold an operating interest in Long Island, N.Y., daily Newsday and put up other assets as collateral to raise a combined $900 million to service the debt.
That money will cover a $650 million lump-sum debt payment Tribune must make in December, along with other short-term commitments.
"We have the liquidity we need for 2008," said Zell spokeswoman Terry Holt.
The company has to deliver on another $750 million payment in June 2009. The proceeds from selling the baseball assets are expected to cover that.
Including the Cubs' 25 percent stake in a Comcast Corp. regional sports cable channel, the baseball assets could sell for as much as $1 billion, sports economists have said.
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. Tribune paid $20.5 million for the team in 1981.
Tribune is expected to whittle down the proposals to three or four bidders. It will then make available to them all relevant financial information and accept new bids in a second round. The final sale must be approved by three-quarters of MLB owners.
Zell made clear when he led the buyout of Tribune that he would auction the baseball assets. His decision to sell Newsday surprised the industry because he had said he intended to keep intact Tribune's publishing assets, which include the flagship Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times and Baltimore's Sun.
The buyout team expected revenue from those assets would cover payments on the immense debt.
But newspapers across the country have seen newsprint costs rise and advertising and circulation revenue plummet this year as advertisers follow readers online. Newspaper Web sites capture only a wee fraction of the revenue lost as they sell fewer print ads, which fetch more money.
To trim costs, Tribune has announced hundreds of layoffs at its papers and decreased the page count of print editions.
Most recently the company said it would consider ways to squeeze money from its real estate holdings. Media reports said the company might sell its iconic Tribune Tower in Chicago and its Los Angeles headquarters, known as Times Mirror Square.
Zell's spokeswoman would not confirm whether those properties are on the block yet, but said there has been "no movement" with either.
Another option for Tribune is to sell its roughly 30 percent stake in Food Network to Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., which owns the rest of the rapidly growing cable TV channel. Analysts estimate that stake could be worth well over $500 million.
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