For Sale: Major League Baseball Team, Hasn't Won It All Since 1908

Looks as though the Chicago Cubs will be going onto the auction block as a result of a change of ownership of parent Tribune Co. Real-estate investor Sam Zell has agreed to buy the company for $34 a share, or about $8.2 billion, and plans to sell the team when the purchase has closed, according to Bloomberg.

Oh, thank god. Now, perhaps I can buy the team and restore its quite ancient glory!!! :smiley:

I’ll open the bidding at one empty beer can and a half-eaten sandwich.

This is pretty unusual, though- the Cubs spent like crazy this offseason, and usually, teams that are expecting to be sold try to cut costs.

The Cubs are extremely profitable despite their lack of success. Perhaps, in part, because of it. A winning Cubs team could print money.

Watch the new owner push for a new stadium built to match the other modern cookie-cutter creations of HOK.

I think the new owner will understand and respect the value inherent in Wrigley being Wrigley. Like Fenway and soon to be departed Yankee stadium, Wrigley is a tourist attraction. They can increase revenue by charging even more for tickets and food. The try some tricks to increase seating like Fenway. Taking Wrigley away from the Cubs would probably backfire.

I am still unhappy “The House that Ruth Built” will no longer be the home of the Yankees as of 2009.

The Cubs should sell for a good price. They have the ability to get a great TV deal going. Fans are loyal to a fault and Wrigley becomes an even greater Baseball attraction when only it and Fenway will remain of the old Ballparks.

Ownership that is not foolish and cheap like the Tribune should benefit the team in the long run.

Jim

I’m not sure how much monetary value there is in Wrigley - last I knew, it needs a lot of repairs.

There is little value in the concrete and steel. The value is in the brand name of Wrigley, the idea of Wrigley. All knowledgeable baseball fans know about Wrigley and its long history. It is in the big 3 soon to be 2 for famous stadiums for Baseball. You might say it is one of the “Holy Sites” of Baseball.

Jim

You don’t have to tell me, I’ve seen some games there. :wink: The thing is that the buyer will weigh that value against the value of a bigger stadium, perhaps with parking, and skyboxes, and all that other crap. There’s no value in concrete and steel, but there’s value in those things.

I realize it’s anathema to say this, but I don’t really think the Cubs would miss Wrigley if they moved into a new park.

It’s fashionable to call Wrigley a holy site and all that jazz, and if they built a Wrigley II there’s no doubt people would complain. But you and I both know that for all the bitching and grumbling, when they opened the new Wrigley 2.0, the seats would be jammed.

The new stadia are simply gorgeous. I’ve been to Pacific Bell and Petco and Turner Field and Miller Park and Comerica and New Comiskey and the GAB in Cincy and they’re just fantastic ballparks. If it was 1982 and they moved the Cubs into some horrible football/baseball dome, it’d be a catastrophe, but any replacement for Wrigley will be a purpose-built baseball park, open air, with about 45,000 seats and ivy-covered walls worked into it somehow. It’s be spacious, pretty, tastefully appointed, have unique outfield dimensions, the works. In other words, it’d be a great ballpark, and as long as they made an effort to capture some of Wrigley’s look (which, let’s be honest, amounts to the ivy - otherwise it’s a pretty nondescript edifice) people wouldn’t bitch for long, and secretly would admit it was a big upgrade.

Tiger stadium had to be replaced. Going to the bathroom during a sellout was 2 innings. Unless you took your kid ,then it was 3. It had way too few toilets. The concession stands were close to aisles so the lines interferred with people trying to go to the johns.
I do not know if all old stadia suffer from that.

If they keep the name, and keep the ivy, then Wrigley II is possible. I think there would be open rebellion if they tried to rename the park “NCR/Postum/ING Field” or something like that. There has to be ties to its history. But remodeling won’t cut it any more.

If I had a billion or so to spend redoing it, I’d triple the number of women’s restrooms, double the number of men’s, put in an extremely limited number of skyboxes (F*ck the rich. Make them sit with the rest of us plebes if they want to go to the ballgame!), transplant as much ivy as possible, and keep the shape and feel of the new park as close as possible to the old. Only better. The first people I would hire as consultants are the guys who designed Petco in San Diego.

The bathrooms were pathetic. I often saw guys whizzing in the sinks after a game. It was cramped under the stands and the concessions were slow and crowded. But nothing beat a good seat in Tiger Stadium. The view was impeccable. It looked, felt, and smelled like a ballpark. Comerica is more comfortable and has nice touches but it doesn’t have the soul.

Cite?

Well, the ivy, the bleachers, the fence, the hand-operated scoreboard, and the odd dimensions where the outfield wall comes in around the power alleys. I would not want to see it go anymore than Fenway. I assume the day will come when we’ll bid adieu to both these ballparks, but I’m not going to go quietly.

Arguably, the most important thing aobut Wrigley (and Fenway, and Yankee Stadium) is the location within a neighborhood in a metropolitan area, instead of in a low-rent outskirt watershed region accessible by three highways.

Wrigley’s big problem is parking, though to a certain extent public transpo and behavioral change has alleviated that. If you were to build a new stadium on the same spot, you’d need to dig- a lot. underground parking might do it, or a major structure (already in some plans) for parking in the existing available space along clark.

They’d have to move the park if they build. Probably somewhere not so directly in a neighborhood, which would significantly change the atmosphere. :frowning:

It will have to happen some day. I’m not looking forward to it. Some stadia deserve the ax (e.g.: Candlestick Park). Others are icons (e.g.: Fenway).

You know, Nashville is looking to get a Major League Baseball team.

Maybe they’ll buy the Cubs, & move them to Tennessee!

GREAT IDEA!

…what?

5…
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KA-BOOM OF CHI-TOWN RAGE!!!
Ok, joking, joking! :smiley: :wink: :stuck_out_tongue:

You’re a day late with that post.

Que? :confused: