It may have just been a formality, but yesterday MLB owners formally approved the sale of the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field and a stake in a local sports-cable network to the Ricketts family.
It may have just been a formality, but yesterday MLB owners formally approved the sale of the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field and a stake in a local sports-cable network to the Ricketts family.
"We're extremely pleased that the sales process is drawing to a close, and we are confident that the Ricketts family will be great owners and custodians of the Chicago Cubs," MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement.
There's still one hurdle, albeit another formality: the judge overseeing the Tribune Co. bankruptcy must approve the sale of the assets.
The sale ends the tenure of the Tribune Co. as the caretaker of the Cubs and the Wrigley Field legacy. Normally larger corporations do a lousy job of managing baseball teams, but overall the Tribune Co. was a fairly decent owner in terms of building the Cubs brand and expanding the team's popularity. Let's face it: the Cubs were a niche pleasure until WGN and Harry Caray came along to give the team some life. The Cubs may be lovable losers, but they're immensely popular losers.
That's why it will be interesting to see where the Ricketts family leads the franchise. We'd be surprised if anything dramatic were to occur off the field: Wrigley Field is one of the best draws in terms of all of tourism, and messing too much with the formula would be suicide. The team will undoubtedly nake some changes both in their spring-training setup and on the field as well: a lot of money was spent this past season on a team that didn't make the playoffs.
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