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Sports Biz
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AP Sam Zell |
This obviously goes far beyond baseball, but how this sale has taken so long to consummate when the Tribune’s assets were overleveraged, even in a good market, is amazing.
When Zell bought the Tribune in December, he said his goal was to sell the team before Spring Training to help him cut the $12 billion in debt. But two months later in February, he told CNBC that he would sell the Cubs on his time frame.
“The fact that other people have opinions as to what we should or shouldn’t do is very interesting, just like I could have opinions about what you should do,” Zell said.
Once that was said, we were pretty sure he wasn’t going to sell in the next month. In fact, the books weren't delivered to the bidders until after the season started and the process was probably stalled for at least another two months, thanks to Zell flirting with the idea of selling Wrigley Field separately to the Illinois Sports Authority. Not many people thought that was going to work.
By late June, the 10 qualified bidders still had a couple weeks to modify their bids, as the Cubs had the best record in baseball to that point. Zell’s new timeline to sell the team was three and a half months, as he told us he would like to unload the Cubs by the time the team hoisted the World Series trophy.
Things looked promising by late August. The 10 bidders had been narrowed down to five and Major League Baseball even offered a special meeting to get a new owner approved as soon as possible. But the next deadline became Thanksgiving and now all we know is that we’re reportedly down to three and the Tribune is considering bankruptcy.
Zell wanted to get as much as he could out of the Cubs, and rightfully so, but a bankruptcy would mean that he now wouldn't have full control. It would also mean that the bids that are in right now likely aren’t going to be the final bids unless a stalking horse bidder sets a minimum that the others won’t top. That means that a couple of people who haven't been in the bidding game could ask for Major League approval and try to swoop the team up, which makes this whole process this waste of time.
I should also note that while the Cubs have been fixing ticket prices for 2009 and acting like everything is all swell, if I were a baseball agent at the Winter Meetings, I'd be a little bit scared to talk to the Cubs. Remember, a contract isn't necessarily a contract in bankruptcy.
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