Winning Bidder Could Be Announced Within A Week

[PcB]

<!--quoteo(post=13246:date=Jan 23 2009, 11:18 AM:name=The Dude)-->QUOTE (The Dude @ Jan 23 2009, 11:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=13235:date=Jan 23 2009, 10:24 AM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Jan 23 2009, 10:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=13233:date=Jan 23 2009, 10:23 AM:name=Jody)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jody @ Jan 23 2009, 10:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Were you listening to the Dude's story Donny?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FUCK A STRANGER IN THE ASS!
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This aggression will not stand, man.
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THAT RUG HELD THE FUCKING ROOM TOGETHER! DID IT NOT DUDE!?!?

[Clapp]

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->Tom Ricketts grew up in Nebraska, but the corner of Clark and Addison has been like a second home.

He has forgotten many a Cubs loss by tossing back a few beers at the Sports Corner Bar & Grill across the street from Wrigley Field. He even lived above the bar after graduating from the University of Chicago. He met his wife in Wrigley's bleachers. And as a teen, he memorized second-baseman Ryne Sandberg's stats from his 1984 MVP season.

Ricketts' pursuit of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy his favorite team on behalf of his family—the team he grew up watching on superstation WGN—is personal for him, not just another business investment that would diversify the Ricketts' multibillion-dollar portfolio.

"They're the essence of what the Cubs fan wants," Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney said Friday morning on WMVP-AM 1000. "These bidders, the Ricketts family, they get it. They're fans first, and then they're also very smart. We could certainly use smart folks around here."

The Ricketts family is poised to become the Cubs' next owner, with Tribune Co. selecting its bid after a nearly two-year auction to sell the team, Wrigley Field and related broadcast properties. The two parties still have to negotiate a final agreement, which then must be approved by Major League Baseball.

If the ownership transfer becomes official, Tom Ricketts will no longer live the anonymous life he has led with his wife, Cece, and five children on the North Shore. Two of his siblings who also live in the Chicago area, Laura and Todd, also will be in the spotlight.

Fans will now have a face to attach to ownership after 28 years of corporate stewardship personified by the neo-Gothic tower on Michigan Avenue. It's the face of a tall, lanky 43-year-old with a toothy smile and thinning dark brown hair.

Tom Ricketts, who declined an interview request, plans to be a visible owner at games and in the community, friends and close associates say. But don't expect him to be a regular in the bleachers, berating umpires and talking trash with opposing players a la Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and onetime Cubs suitor.

"So many of these professional sports owners seem like such jerks," said Pete Nelson, one of Tom Ricketts' neighbors in Wilmette. "Tom's your typical suburban dad. I was very surprised when I found out they were connected to family wealth."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Read More(Tribune)

[Runnys]

As someone else has said.....BRING HIM!!!

[twitterwoods]

Not to be Big Gabby-ish, but in talking with my boss today Tom Ricketts sounds like a cool guy. Like I said my boss (who has been a family friend with for a long time) knows the Ricketts family and talks with Tom from time to time. He was telling me how last year Tom rented out one of the rooftops for a game and sent out an invite to a bunch of friends including him to attend. I jokingly suggested he hook me up but now I'm trying to think of ways I legitimately can.

[rok]

<!--quoteo(post=13890:date=Jan 26 2009, 05:58 PM:name=twitterwoods)-->QUOTE (twitterwoods @ Jan 26 2009, 05:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Not to be Big Gabby-ish, but in talking with my boss today Tom Ricketts sounds like a cool guy. Like I said my boss (who has been a family friend with for a long time) knows the Ricketts family and talks with Tom from time to time. He was telling me how last year Tom rented out one of the rooftops for a game and sent out an invite to a bunch of friends including him to attend. I jokingly suggested he hook me up but now I'm trying to think of ways I legitimately can.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Butter him up for SOITOW2009. Do it.

[rok]

Good news. Sounds like we could get a better idea of when the deal will close very soon, as this takes care of the 50% cash portion of the purchase price easily. From the Suntimes:
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->The family of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts will sell 34 million of its shares in the online brokerage back to the company to help finance the family's bid to buy the Cubs. Ameritrade agreed to pay the Ricketts family $11.85 per share. The transaction will shrink the Ricketts family stake in the company from about 22 percent to about 17.7 percent.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Butcher]

<!--quoteo(post=19010:date=Feb 19 2009, 12:33 PM:name=rok)-->QUOTE (rok @ Feb 19 2009, 12:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Good news. Sounds like we could get a better idea of when the deal will close very soon, as this takes care of the 50% cash portion of the purchase price easily. From the Suntimes:
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE <!--quotec-->The family of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts will sell 34 million of its shares in the online brokerage back to the company to help finance the family's bid to buy the Cubs. Ameritrade agreed to pay the Ricketts family $11.85 per share. The transaction will shrink the Ricketts family stake in the company from about 22 percent to about 17.7 percent.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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Wow. What would it be like to have those kind of resources? You sell 34 million shares for $11.85 per share and only own 4.5% less of the company. That's nuts.

[AlexV]

<!--quoteo(post=19015:date=Feb 19 2009, 01:42 PM:name=Butcher)-->QUOTE (Butcher @ Feb 19 2009, 01:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=19010:date=Feb 19 2009, 12:33 PM:name=rok)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rok @ Feb 19 2009, 12:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Good news. Sounds like we could get a better idea of when the deal will close very soon, as this takes care of the 50% cash portion of the purchase price easily. From the Suntimes:
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE <!--quotec-->The family of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts will sell 34 million of its shares in the online brokerage back to the company to help finance the family's bid to buy the Cubs. Ameritrade agreed to pay the Ricketts family $11.85 per share. The transaction will shrink the Ricketts family stake in the company from about 22 percent to about 17.7 percent.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Wow. What would it be like to have those kind of resources? You sell 34 million shares for $11.85 per share and only own 4.5% less of the company. That's nuts.
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Yeah, that's kinda how we do. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif[/img]

[Mikey]

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->Cubs sale not likely before mid-May

By RICK GANO, AP Sports Writer 2 hours, 23 minutes ago

CHICAGO (AP)—The Cubs are likely to remain under the ownership of Tribune Co. through the early part of the season.

Cubs chairman Crane Kenney said Wednesday it “will be a challenge” to complete the sale of the team by opening day on April 6 and that talks between the Ricketts family and the Tribune are ongoing.

“There’s a negotiation that’s occurring, and like every negotiation, there’s an issue or two that probably wasn’t spotted early that needed to be resolved,” he said. “None of them are in any way fatal to the transaction. It’s standard stuff, I would say. And the credit markets are challenging, and this is a transaction that will have some amount of debt on it.”

A top baseball official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the sport doesn’t make announcements prior to balloting, said a vote by owners to approve the deal isn’t likely to take place until mid-May at the earliest.

The next scheduled meeting of owners is in New York in May. While it is possible owners could vote by telephone before then, all the necessary paperwork hasn’t even been submitted to MLB.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday at the team’s spring-training facility in Mesa, Ariz., Kenney discussed the talks between Tribune Co., which has owned the team since 1981, and the Ricketts family, which won exclusive negotiating rights on Jan. 22 in a deal worth about $900 million.

“The Ricketts family and the Tribune are very close to the terms of their deal, which is the first domino that needs to fall,” Kenney said. “From there, because of the Tribune bankruptcy, we need to have a court involved to approve the terms of the transaction supporting the creditors, who, obviously have a great interest in seeing how this transaction unfolds.”

Tribune Co. put the Cubs up for sale on opening day 2007, and Kenney previously expressed optimism the sale could close by this opening day. Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy in December, but the Cubs were not included in the filing.

Kenney said baseball commissioner Bud Selig has been supportive.

“(He) has assured me he’ll do whatever it takes to jump through hoops, if that’s what’s necessary at various committee levels within baseball, to get this finished,” Kenney said. “I think it will be a challenge to make opening day. If I were to tell you we were going to make opening day, everything would have to fall into place just perfectly, and the world’s an imperfect place, so I would say that’s probably unlikely.”<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[ColoradoCub]

As long as it happens by the trade deadline.

[CFOrfan]

I don't like making new threads.

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->MESA, Ariz. - Not only will the Cubs host three concerts and open a new indoor-outdoor café in time for Opening Day, but there are more revenue-generating innovations to come.

"It's strange, because you see these people who are opposed to the concerts and they're Cub fans," Cubs' Chairman Crane Kenney said Thursday in a wide-ranging interview.

"This is going to sound odd, but Elton John's going to help us win some ballgames," Kenney said. "The CBOE [seat] auction last year paid for Rich Harden. The 'Road to Wrigley' game sponsored our Asian scouting operation.

"That's the way, from the business end, we look at these things. All these elements really help our business move forward. My view is if you're a Cub fan, you should enjoy the concerts whether you're an Elton John fan or not."

The Cubs have doubled revenue in the last five years in large part because of ventures like this summer's two Elton John- Billy Joel concerts and one by Rascal Flats.

Other topics Kenney discussed included the sale of the Cubs and a possible move of spring training from Mesa to Florida:<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

That last part would disappoint me. I hate Florida.

[Clapp]

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->Kenney said he met with Mesa civic representatives Tuesday and had plans to meet with the mayor of Mesa today.

The Cubs have until the start of spring training next year to opt out of their agreement with Mesa, and if exercised, it would allow the team to move after spring training 2012.

``People are aware if we were a free agent, we would be the most desirable free agent in the market,’’ Kenney said of a Cubs team that holds all the major spring training attendance records for Arizona. ``And that free agency is – just like with a player – about to occur.

``We’ve enjoyed our time in Mesa, and they’ve done a good job for us here. But the question is, if anybody’s been to Goodyear [Ariz.] or Glendale [Ariz.], we no longer have a facility that is commensurate with the type of team we have.’’

Kenney said the Cubs are looking into three long-term possibilities for their spring training, minor-league and rehabilitation site: an overhaul in Mesa, an alternative site in Arizona or alternative site in ``a new state’’.

One requirement is a larger seating capacity for its spring stadium than the 13,100 HoHoKam now provides.

We want to give [Mesa] every option, and we’re going to pursue that as hard as we would pursue anything else,’’ Kenney said.

Sources have told the Sun-Times the Cubs have had contact with officials in Sarasota, Fla., from where the Cincinnati Reds plan to move next spring. Kenney wouldn’t specify cities but said that the team has been contacted by the state of Florida.

``Our obligation is to make sure we have a state-of-the-art facility, that we have the best economics in the valley, and that we’re providing a facility for our players – and not just the major league players who spend a month here,’’ he said. ``This is an 11-month operation for us. With the rehabs and other work we do – we host our international scouting operation out of here, our [organizational] meetings are done here – we [should] have a state of the art facility for all that. And today we don’t.’’

Kenney, who watched the Cubs game from the new ballpark in Glendale Tuesday before traveling down the road to Goodyear to tour the Cleveland Indians/Cincinnati Reds new facility, said the Cubs aren’t interested in sharing a facility with another team, regardless of its quality.

``We don’t want to be a tenant and we don’t want to be a landlord,’’ he said. ``We think the Cubs deserve to stand on their own.’’<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[rok]

Thank God we didn't get stuck with this turd as the new owner. What a piece of work.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl...353782256_x.htm
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->An inferiority complex 101 years in the making
By Jim Litke, AP Sports Columnist
CHICAGO — For those who say 101 years is plenty of time to get over an inferiority complex, meet the fans of the 2009 Chicago Cubs.

The saps can't catch a break. Just last week, a local billionaire who spent most of last year trying to buy the ballclub got up at breakfast with the Executives' Club of Chicago and confirmed what every Cub fan suspected deep down: That for one reason or another, owners and even would-be owners weren't giving it their all.

<b>"I'm actually a White Sox fan," said John Canning Jr., who runs a private-equity firm and is a pal of MLB commissioner Bud Selig.

"God, what a relief," he added a heartbeat later, "not to buy the Cubs."</b>

Ouch.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[biggz]

Ah...so that's what people meant when they were talking about Selig's boyfriend.

What a shit head.

[kbwsb]

Canning would have been a disaster on so many levels that I can't help but feel like we dodged a bullet.
I'm excited for Rickets to get things going and take over.

And even though I grew up near Mesa, and would hate to see the Cubs leave that town, it felt good to hear Crane Kenney speak boldly, throw his weight around, and basically display the kind of attitude that the Trib-owned boys lacked for a quarter century.
We're a big-boy club, a jewel franchise, and fuckers better start treating us as such. Fuck yeah Kenney!