Tribune Backs Off Thanksgiving Deadline For New Cubs Offers

Tribune Co. Backs Off Thanksgiving Deadline For New Offers For Cubs

Tribune Co. "has backed off its demand that a new round of bids for the Chicago Cubs arrive before Thanksgiving," according to Matthew Futterman of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Finalists to purchase the team had been "told to deliver revised bids and financing plans" by the November 27 Thanksgiving holiday, but sources said that "with instability in the credit markets making the process more arduous, groups vying for the team learned late [last] week the deadline is now considered soft." Bidders said that "uncertainty among major lenders has made determining the value of the team and the costs of bids more difficult and time-consuming, making the Thanksgiving deadline all but impossible to meet" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/15).

RIGHT MAN, WRONG PLACE: In N.Y., Harvey Araton wrote he happens to "respect and like" Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban, who is bidding to own the Cubs. But "aren't the Cubs, in their inevitably and appealingly tragic role, just about perfect the way they are? ... Aren't the Cubs one of the last teams in [MLB] in need of a re-creation or identity enhancement by a singularly powerful presence?" If MLB is "smart, it will encourage the Tribune Company to choose among other reported bidders, so long as the terms are not embarrassingly inferior to Cuban's and everyone is convinced the team would not be run on a shoestring." Then, Commissioner Bud Selig and MLB officials will "sit down with Cuban and figure out how to get him a franchise that could really use his willingness to invest, transform and self-promote." Araton: "How about in Washington, where the recently relocated Nationals are already another administration in need of imminent change? How about Kansas City or Seattle, once thriving baseball markets that have fallen on inept times? How about the ball club right in Cuban's backyard, the consistently mediocre Texas Rangers?" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/16).