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Cuban still bullish on Cubs
December 4, 2007
BY JAY MARIOTTI Sun-Times Columnist
Is it possible the bidder with the most clout to offer -- money, communications savvy, passion, business hustle, new Adidas sneakers -- will be the next owner of the Cubs? Could it be Mark Cuban doesn't have to impress Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf, the grumpy men in the ``Muppets'' balcony, as much as he has to wow another maverick entrepreneur named Sam Zell?
If he can make quantum leaps into Hollywood, the Internet, high-definition TV, movie theaters and pro basketball while managing to pull off ``Dancing With The Stars'' without embarrassing himself, you think Cuban cares about what we're writing and saying regarding conventional baseball wisdom? You know, that the good old boys who run the sport would rather sleep with rattlesnakes and dine with Scott Boras than let him own the Chicago National League Ball Club Inc.?
» Click to enlarge image
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
``Why would I be involved in something if I didn't think I can be successful?'' said Cuban, smiling easily Monday night as he sat behind one of the United Center baskets, his feet propped on a table. ``People can write what they want about it. You have to put something in the newspaper. I have my own opinions about it.''
Undeterred by the latest delay in Tribune Co.'s snag-ridden sale to Zell -- as if the Tribsters haven't wasted enough time screwing up the Cubs for 27 years, now they can't sell their company without a protracted mess -- Cuban is taking an uncharacteristic approach to the process. He's being, of all things, patient. ``We'll have to take it by ear. You know me: I don't do things just for the sake of doing them,'' he said as a group of reporters gathered. ``It's a passion project, it makes great business sense for me, and there's a lot of leverage there. There's so many business applications, so many technology applications I can do here in Chicago. There's a lot of opportunites.''
I asked him about the applications, the opportunities. He rambled at record speed. ``Cubs away games in Landmark Theaters,'' was the last thing I heard, referring to his chain of movie houses that are going all-digital.
The first thing baseball owners should know about Cuban, along with the fact he ranks 407th on Forbes' list of global billionaires and has a net worth of $2.3 billion, is that he won't be jumping on the field to argue with umps. The inherent fear is he'll adopt his owner/superfan profile that he brought to town with the Dallas Mavericks -- a referee-bashing, commissioner-railing, integrity-questioning, leather-lunged activist -- and transfer it to beautiful Wrigley Field. As he sat in his NBA ENTERTAINMENT LEAGUE t-shirt, which seemed a shot at something, I asked him why Selig shouldn't be concerned that he won't jump on a field to protest an ump's call.
``I won't do that. I'll be in the bleachers,'' he said. ``And basketball and baseball are two different sports. In basketball, there are no stops. A ball-strike call isn't the same as a turnover. I played baseball and never argued with an ump.''
Besides, what's the problem with being an active owner who loves his team? ``I'm a fan. You think Bill Gates likes his product? You think Michael Dell likes his computers? I like my product,'' he said. ``I'm proud of it, I'm excited about it, and I also think professional sports is changing dramatically. Football is so big, they don't sell their franchises. They're so successful. Sale prices for basketball, hockey and baseball [franchises] … they're worth so much money now, you have to be involved. You can't just turn it over to someone and say, `He was an All-Star, we'll just let a player run it.' Players aren't prepared to run billion-dollar enterprises. You need to have some professional management experience. When I bought the team eight years ago, it wasn't a good thing to be actively involved. Now it's pretty much a given.''
Someone mentioned that Cuban, whose Mavs extended the Bulls' woes (please bench Kirk Hinrich) with a 103-98 victory, seems considerable more excited than United Center season-ticket holders. ``If I'm more interested than season-ticket holders, you guys need to excite your season-ticket holders more,'' said Cuban, who now knows why people are tiring of Hinrich (5 of 16 shooting), Ben Gordon (4 of 16, 10 points) and Luol Deng (3 of 13, 9 points). ``What kind of idiot says, `It's good for my customers to do it but I can't do it.' That's pretty damned stupid, don't you think? It's like saying, `I write a pretty good newspaper, but don't read it. I have a great television station, but I'm not excited enough to get excited about it.' ''
Then there's the rap that he's not a Chicagoan, that he hails from Pittsburgh and lives in Dallas. John Canning, Selig's friend and a prime candidate to win the bidding, represents Chicago bedrock -- but also represents the stuffy, Tribune-like status quo that Cubdom wants to avoid this time around. ``I love Chicago. I went to school at Indiana. I'm always in Chicago,'' he said.
``I dated girls here.''
A lot of guys dated girls here, Mark. ``People say, `You're not from Chicago.' Well, I wasn't from Dallas, either,'' he said. ``Not all the players on the Bulls are from Chicago, you know, and they manage to get awfully committed to their jobs. It's something I enjoy. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. To be able to partake in my passions, whether it's baseball or basketball or anything else, why not?''
My deepest sympathies are extended to Cubdom. You poor, suffering souls are stuck with Tribune ownership for another season. Many missed this recent quote from Tribster exec Crane Kenney, who said, ``My expectation is that there will be some clarification of team ownership by the middle of next year.'' Ownership limbo hasn't stopped the Trib, of course, from raising ticket prices by 16 percent and pondering aesthetic blasphemy: more signage at Wrigley. Here I've spent the last year applauding the Tribsters for re-investing their profits into the product. Turns out someone else will be paying for the $400-million payroll splurge.
You.
Cuban wouldn't be so obvious about ticket hikes. ``The thing I've learned the most is that I don't really own the team,'' he said. ``The reality is, Dallas-Fort Worth owns the team. And I'm just the keeper. It's really owned by all the fans. So you've seen me over the last couple of years make a lot of changes toward that end. Every single year we've lowered the prices in the upper deck. We now have $2 tickets for at least 10 games a year, for I think 1500-plus seats. We have $5 seats for walkups.''
On top of it all, the superfan owner is a worldwide celebrity after his ``Dancing With The Stars'' fling. He could have signed autographs all night in the UC. ``Women know me now,'' Cuban said. ``Sports people always knew me, but now I have grandma groupies.''
What's the appeal? ``My charm, my good looks, my dancing skills. I don't know what it is,'' he said. ``Everybody's really cool to me. It's funny.''
It's not funny. No, it's called reaching out to the peeps, a gift that should be tapped by the aloof lords of baseball.
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December 4, 2007
BY JAY MARIOTTI Sun-Times Columnist
Is it possible the bidder with the most clout to offer -- money, communications savvy, passion, business hustle, new Adidas sneakers -- will be the next owner of the Cubs? Could it be Mark Cuban doesn't have to impress Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf, the grumpy men in the ``Muppets'' balcony, as much as he has to wow another maverick entrepreneur named Sam Zell?
If he can make quantum leaps into Hollywood, the Internet, high-definition TV, movie theaters and pro basketball while managing to pull off ``Dancing With The Stars'' without embarrassing himself, you think Cuban cares about what we're writing and saying regarding conventional baseball wisdom? You know, that the good old boys who run the sport would rather sleep with rattlesnakes and dine with Scott Boras than let him own the Chicago National League Ball Club Inc.?
» Click to enlarge image
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
``Why would I be involved in something if I didn't think I can be successful?'' said Cuban, smiling easily Monday night as he sat behind one of the United Center baskets, his feet propped on a table. ``People can write what they want about it. You have to put something in the newspaper. I have my own opinions about it.''
Undeterred by the latest delay in Tribune Co.'s snag-ridden sale to Zell -- as if the Tribsters haven't wasted enough time screwing up the Cubs for 27 years, now they can't sell their company without a protracted mess -- Cuban is taking an uncharacteristic approach to the process. He's being, of all things, patient. ``We'll have to take it by ear. You know me: I don't do things just for the sake of doing them,'' he said as a group of reporters gathered. ``It's a passion project, it makes great business sense for me, and there's a lot of leverage there. There's so many business applications, so many technology applications I can do here in Chicago. There's a lot of opportunites.''
I asked him about the applications, the opportunities. He rambled at record speed. ``Cubs away games in Landmark Theaters,'' was the last thing I heard, referring to his chain of movie houses that are going all-digital.
The first thing baseball owners should know about Cuban, along with the fact he ranks 407th on Forbes' list of global billionaires and has a net worth of $2.3 billion, is that he won't be jumping on the field to argue with umps. The inherent fear is he'll adopt his owner/superfan profile that he brought to town with the Dallas Mavericks -- a referee-bashing, commissioner-railing, integrity-questioning, leather-lunged activist -- and transfer it to beautiful Wrigley Field. As he sat in his NBA ENTERTAINMENT LEAGUE t-shirt, which seemed a shot at something, I asked him why Selig shouldn't be concerned that he won't jump on a field to protest an ump's call.
``I won't do that. I'll be in the bleachers,'' he said. ``And basketball and baseball are two different sports. In basketball, there are no stops. A ball-strike call isn't the same as a turnover. I played baseball and never argued with an ump.''
Besides, what's the problem with being an active owner who loves his team? ``I'm a fan. You think Bill Gates likes his product? You think Michael Dell likes his computers? I like my product,'' he said. ``I'm proud of it, I'm excited about it, and I also think professional sports is changing dramatically. Football is so big, they don't sell their franchises. They're so successful. Sale prices for basketball, hockey and baseball [franchises] … they're worth so much money now, you have to be involved. You can't just turn it over to someone and say, `He was an All-Star, we'll just let a player run it.' Players aren't prepared to run billion-dollar enterprises. You need to have some professional management experience. When I bought the team eight years ago, it wasn't a good thing to be actively involved. Now it's pretty much a given.''
Someone mentioned that Cuban, whose Mavs extended the Bulls' woes (please bench Kirk Hinrich) with a 103-98 victory, seems considerable more excited than United Center season-ticket holders. ``If I'm more interested than season-ticket holders, you guys need to excite your season-ticket holders more,'' said Cuban, who now knows why people are tiring of Hinrich (5 of 16 shooting), Ben Gordon (4 of 16, 10 points) and Luol Deng (3 of 13, 9 points). ``What kind of idiot says, `It's good for my customers to do it but I can't do it.' That's pretty damned stupid, don't you think? It's like saying, `I write a pretty good newspaper, but don't read it. I have a great television station, but I'm not excited enough to get excited about it.' ''
Then there's the rap that he's not a Chicagoan, that he hails from Pittsburgh and lives in Dallas. John Canning, Selig's friend and a prime candidate to win the bidding, represents Chicago bedrock -- but also represents the stuffy, Tribune-like status quo that Cubdom wants to avoid this time around. ``I love Chicago. I went to school at Indiana. I'm always in Chicago,'' he said.
``I dated girls here.''
A lot of guys dated girls here, Mark. ``People say, `You're not from Chicago.' Well, I wasn't from Dallas, either,'' he said. ``Not all the players on the Bulls are from Chicago, you know, and they manage to get awfully committed to their jobs. It's something I enjoy. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. To be able to partake in my passions, whether it's baseball or basketball or anything else, why not?''
My deepest sympathies are extended to Cubdom. You poor, suffering souls are stuck with Tribune ownership for another season. Many missed this recent quote from Tribster exec Crane Kenney, who said, ``My expectation is that there will be some clarification of team ownership by the middle of next year.'' Ownership limbo hasn't stopped the Trib, of course, from raising ticket prices by 16 percent and pondering aesthetic blasphemy: more signage at Wrigley. Here I've spent the last year applauding the Tribsters for re-investing their profits into the product. Turns out someone else will be paying for the $400-million payroll splurge.
You.
Cuban wouldn't be so obvious about ticket hikes. ``The thing I've learned the most is that I don't really own the team,'' he said. ``The reality is, Dallas-Fort Worth owns the team. And I'm just the keeper. It's really owned by all the fans. So you've seen me over the last couple of years make a lot of changes toward that end. Every single year we've lowered the prices in the upper deck. We now have $2 tickets for at least 10 games a year, for I think 1500-plus seats. We have $5 seats for walkups.''
On top of it all, the superfan owner is a worldwide celebrity after his ``Dancing With The Stars'' fling. He could have signed autographs all night in the UC. ``Women know me now,'' Cuban said. ``Sports people always knew me, but now I have grandma groupies.''
What's the appeal? ``My charm, my good looks, my dancing skills. I don't know what it is,'' he said. ``Everybody's really cool to me. It's funny.''
It's not funny. No, it's called reaching out to the peeps, a gift that should be tapped by the aloof lords of baseball.
Ads by Google
Wrigley Field Rooftops
Luxury Rooftops At WrigleyElevators-Open Bar-Premium Views
www.wrigleyvillerooftops.com
Contact Mark Cuban...
Mark Cuban's Contact Info $1:Address, Agent, Manager & Publicist
www.ContactAnyCelebrity.com
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban Biography,Movies, Critic Reviews, and More.
Movies.TopTenReviews.com
World's Top Penny Stock?
Learn How A Small ExplorationCo. Will Be the Top Stock of 2007
www.DailyWealth.com/Penny_Report
Sports Stadium
Looking for Sports Stadium?Find exactly what you want today.
Yahoo.com
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