Cuban Addresses Bid For Cubs In Comprehensive Blog Entry
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Cuban Says MLB Owners
Supported His Cubs Bid |
Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban yesterday on his blog addressed his bid for the Cubs, writing, "I think [it's] appropriate to share the decision making process behind what happened and why." Cuban: "Buying the Cubs was a unique opportunity to own one of the most storied franchises in sports. ... I’m not going to get into the numbers, or the people, or much of the process other than to say that the person I worked with at [Tribune Co.] was great. The person I worked with at the Cubs did a great job as well. Nothing about the process was anything but positive when it came to the people assigned to work with me. During the entire process I thought I had a very strong chance of being able to buy the team. I thought I could offer a competitive price. ... I also thought I could win over Major League Baseball." But he added, "My dedication to winning could also make my job of getting approval with MLB baseball much harder. Some people thought it meant that I would spend on players like I did in my early days with the Mavericks." Cuban wrote the "'conventional wisdom' of people I talked to around the league suggested that" White Sox Chair Jerry Reinsdorf would be the "primary obstacle to getting approval" from MLB. Cuban: "Contrary to popular belief, I think I have a good relationship with Jerry. ... [I'm] guessing the people in the Sox organization knew, that if I bought the team, particularly at the price point that was being suggested in the papers, there was no way I would just accept parity in future business dealings." Cuban added of his discussions with MLB owners, "What was most interesting to me, was that a recurring theme was that they thought I would be good for baseball. ... It was pretty obvious that more than a few of the owners hoped I would come in and stir things up and stand up and speak for the owners when it came to digital rights and the future of technology and how it would impact the teams and leagues profitability."
TAKING A HIT: Cuban wrote the "hardest part" of acquiring the Cubs was "going to be the financial deal." Cuban: "I never thought it conceivable that it would be hard to spend a billion dollars on a sports team. In this case it was. Add me to the list of people who never want to participate in this type of sales process again. I tried every trick I knew to try to get them to commit to me. ... Then the credit crisis hit and hit hard. All of the sudden, what seemed like a sane business decision, [didn't] seem so sane any longer. ... With the credit market on the fritz, the other option was to add investors and just pay cash. However, if we were going to pay cash, I was not going to bid anywhere near [$1B] for the assets. Once the credit crisis hit, the value of cash went through the roof." Cuban ultimately did what he "thought was the only smart thing to do." Cuban: "I asked for an extension. I knew that if they got the money they wanted for the team, well my bid was not going to be high enough anyway. ... I'm still waiting" (BLOGMAVERICK.com, 1/6).
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Sources Allege Cuban Did Not Have
Enough Cash To Complete Deal For Cubs |
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: YAHOO SPORTS' Kevin Kaduk wrote though Cuban's blog entry "often smacks of a 'please go to prom with me' plea, it's a pretty convincing argument and you start to think that MLB would be nuts to dance with anyone else" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/6). However, Comcast SportsNet’s David Kaplan said, “The Tribune Co. is reportedly close to selecting a winning bid to buy the club and it will not be Mark Cuban. ... I talked to some people in Chicago who were involved in a couple of different groups. They said Cuban did not have the cash for this deal. He was coming up and saying, ‘You give me $100[M], you give me $100[M], and I’ll put in $100[M], then we’ll finance the rest.’” Meanwhile, Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rogers said Cuban "did not talk on (his blog) about the SEC filing against him, which I think was a significant step in his life and makes him much less attractive to anybody until that is cleared up” (“Chicago Tribune Live,” Comcast SportsNet, 1/6).
ON DECK CIRCLE: CNBC’s Dennis Kneale noted that the three top bidders for the Cubs -- Chicago real estate exec Hersch Klaff, the family of Chicago-based investment banking firm Incapital Holdings Founder & CEO Thomas Ricketts and a group led by Clarion Capital Partners LLC Managing Partner Marc Utay -- are from real estate, private equity and financial sectors. CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera said the bidders were “not from sectors that you would expect to be bidding at this point.” Kneale: “I thought that these guys would be wiped out. Obviously, they weren’t in (Bernie Madoff’s) fund because they actually have some money left.” CNBC’s Bill Griffeth said they are “probably having to bid less than they would have a year ago” (“Power Lunch,” CNBC, 1/6).
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