The drama that is the sale of the Chicago Cubs is eclipsed only by the drama that is the pathetic Cubs offense.
A new report from CNBC claims that there are significant hurdles remaining to complete the sale of the Chicago Cubs to billionaire Tom Ricketts, and Ricketts has been informed that those hurdles come with a date certain to be resolved.
Those unresolved issues include the final purchase price, tax issues and certain broadcasting matters. The sale includes Wrigley Field and a 25% stake in the team’s regional sports network. CNBC.com.
To be clear, these are known issues (except one), and Ricketts denies that there are significant problems in the negotiation. But apparently the Tribune Company believes differently, and doesn’t care for the fact that Ricketts is now trying to talk down the sale price. That would be the one issue that we hadn’t yet heard about.
The letter stated that unless the remaining matters were agreed to within a specific time frame, Ricketts could risk losing the deal or Tribune could begin talks with other interested parties.
Sources say Ricketts is seeking to reduce the final purchase price by tens of millions of dollars.
This could be much of the same blustering by the Tribune that it was making weeks ago. It’s hard to imagine another buyer legitimately being a position to purchase the team for near the same price at this point.
Unless, of course, Ricketts pushes to reduce the sale price too aggressively. I mean, if he pushes it down to say, $147.53, I think I’m going to get involved.
If he only wants to buy the offense, than I’d say $147.53 is a very fair price.