Cubs in play! Cubs in play!
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By The Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — More than a year after Tribune Co. announced it would sell the Chicago Cubs, the highly anticipated sale is expected to begin in earnest this week, as the official offering goes to Major League Baseball, according to sources close to the process.
After reviewing the confidential financial memorandum, the league is expected to deliver it to six groups of potential buyers, kicking off what is expected to be torrid bidding in which the price could approach a record $1 billion.
The books had not gone out as of Tuesday, according to a source close to the situation. A Tribune Co. spokesman would not comment.
Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune, announced last year that it would put the team up for sale as part of its going-private transaction led by billionaire Sam Zell, who became chairman and chief executive of the media company when the transaction was completed in December.
Leading the pack of potential buyers appears to be an assemblage headed by Madison Dearborn Partners Chairman John Canning, an 11 percent owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, who has a long-standing relationship with baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.
The Canning group has “every leading citizen of Chicago,” said a highly placed Major League Baseball source, who estimated the individuals in the group have a combined net worth of $10 billion to $15 billion.
“If you were to say, ’What are you looking for?’ you’re looking for a group of responsible people who are in it for the long term,” the source said. “That kind of describes this group.”
Canning’s team is some of the city’s heavy-hitters, such as McDonald’s Corp. Chairman Andrew McKenna; Aon Corp. founder Patrick Ryan, who is leading the city’s bid for the 2016 Olympics; industrialist Craig Duchossois; and restaurateurs Larry Levy and Richard Melman.
Five other groups are expected to receive the packets as well, sources say. The groups are believed to be those headed by Omaha’s Ricketts family, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the partnership of attorney Thomas Mandler and businessman Jim Anixter, MVC Capital Chairman Michael Tokarz and private-equity investor Thomas Begel.
Any deal would require approval by three-fourths of the other 29 ballclub owners.
The outspoken Cuban, an Internet billionaire, may not play well with MLB, some observers have said.
And at least one of the other potential buyer groups does not expect to be a contender.
Begel, head of private-equity firm TMB Industries, said he’s interested in the team but at a “reasonable” price.
“By my valuation, the team is worth $500 million to $600 million, but I think the bidding will go much, much higher than that,” he said. “At the end of the day, I don’t think we’ll be anywhere near the finish line.”
The team sale has been delayed because Tribune Co. is trying to sell historic Wrigley Field separately to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. Those negotiations are continuing, and the authority’s board was to get a status report Wednesday, said former Gov. James Thompson, chairman of the state/city agency that owns and operates U.S. Cellular Field.
Among the financing options being discussed, according to a source close to the negotiations, is the sale of equity seat rights, an idea put forward by Chicago entrepreneur Lou Weisbach. The idea is to sell seats to fans at a fixed annual price for the duration of a long-term contract.
The differs from personal seat licenses, which Thompson has said is not being considered. Buying such a license entitles a fan to first dibs on season tickets for a particular seat.
Zell announced last month that Tribune Co. would proceed with the sale, putting forward a book that offers the team two ways, with and without the ballpark.
While Zell would like to sell the team by August, sources said he is not committed to doing a deal by then.
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