While "nothing supernatural may afflict the Cubs, the Ricketts family has encountered all sorts of earthly bedevilments both on the field and off," according to Barry Bearak of the N.Y. TIMES. Cubs Chair Tom Ricketts said, "It has been a learning curve." Since the family purchased the team in '09, it "was not a casual embrace," as the the four Ricketts children "bled Cubbie blue like the most devoted of die-hards." In the late '80s and early '90s, the family "thought of the center-field bleachers as the hub of their summertime social life." But before their purchase of the team, Joe Ricketts "did not share his children’s love for baseball." Joe recently recalled asking Tom, "Why would I want to buy a baseball team -- or any sports team?" Tom said that his father "warmed to the notion only when the family held a big party, renting some of the rooftop clubs that overlook Wrigley." The ballpark "was jammed to capacity." Tom recalled, "My father said: 'I see what you mean now. This is a business.'" But Bearak noted the deal to buy the team "required a tortuous two and a half years to complete." Joe Ricketts said, "It was the most complicated transaction I've ever seen."
THAT NEW TEAM SMELL: Upon their purchase, the family realized that Wrigley Field, while "itself was a national treasure," was also "pretty much a dump." When Tom moved into his office, "an aide advised him how to strategically place the mousetraps." As for the on-field product, the Cubs finished 75-87 in the Rickettses' first year as owners, and the next year were "more miserable yet." Tom would come to think of these initial seasons as “a lot like buying a house the day after there was a big party inside, walked in, food on the floor, beer cans all over the place, a guy that nobody knows sleeping on the couch." He concluded: "We didn't buy the party; we bought the hangover." He decided that the Cubs "were a teardown, not a fixer-upper." Tom then hired President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein, who said that the two of them "agreed the Cubs required a gut rehab." But after three more losing seasons, paid attendance "has fallen by about 100,000 a year since the Ricketts family took over." While the Cubs "still outdraw two of every three major league clubs," Ricketts admitted that lower gate receipts "now annually reduce revenue" by about $30M a year. Epstein said that he "foresaw the Cubs becoming a contender in the next year or two, with the team’s best young players blossoming just as increased ballpark revenue provides him a fattened budget to add free agents." Ricketts is "equally optimistic." He said, "The brand lovable losers is dead to us. We'll soon be lovable winners" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/21).
