for cash. I’m not sure this changes that.

doing his part to kill good journalism as soon as possible. Someone bought out United Airlines while putting the company in the employee’s hands, and we see how well that turned out. TribCo employees are going to get scr-wed the same way.

As relates to the Cubs, my understanding is that Zell makes more moolah if the club is bought in a highly-leveraged transaction (something to do with a loophole in the present tax laws). This does not appear to hinge on one ownership group or another winning the bid, just how the deal is structured in the end. Baseball is already looking into it, but it can’t be good for us fans if the new owner has to worry about big loans from Day 1. Whether or not we get a “good” owner, you’d be taking resources away from whatever payroll may be set.

Link

Always has been. He’s going to milk every last penny out of the Cubs because that is what he does and that is what has made him a top M&A guy. Pushing the envelope on the tax side is what all these guys do. Teams of the best tax attorneys money can buy are working on the Tribune Company divestiture for Zell.

If you want to discuss the philosophy of Federal tax policy, I would suggest something like politico.com, however as this is “Bleed Cubbie Blue” – I’m really trying to focus on what all this means to the future of the Chicago National League Ballclub, not Sam Zell and his bank vault, fair enough? (So feel free to ignore my crack about penny-pinching journalism)

For comparison, I took a look back at the Glazer family’s (owners of the Tampa Bay Bucs) purchase of English football club Manchester United. Their takeover of that team was highly-leveraged, and happened in 2005. (I believe ManU is roughly the British equivalent of the Yankees)

From The Telegraph

At first glance Manchester United’s latest financial results are mightily impressive. A gross turnover of £245 million, profits up 93 per cent to £59m and new market research that shows they have a third of a billion followers around the globe. All of which must make United supporters feel very smug about the rude health they find their club in. With the Premier League trophy securely locked away in the Old Trafford boardroom and bumper revenues being drawn from the club’s expanded 76,000 capacity home, the fears which accompanied the 2005 leveraged buyout by the Glazer family do not appear to have been realised. Except when you come to consider the debt the Americans have piled on to the club to finance their £800m buy-out. Manchester United Limited’s accounts do not give any indication of how much it costs to finance the £600m of loans taken out by the Glazers to buy United.

The gist of the article appears to say that while business had never been better, and record revenues were being achieved, the profits were barely paying off the interest on the original debt..

A large chunk of those loans were paid off in August 2006 when the club refinanced their borrowings, leaving the club with a larger sum to repay (£600m) in the end but lower annual interest repayments. There were plans to refinance again last summer but they had to be shelved as the global credit crunch took hold. So until the market improves, United are faced with their hefty annual interest bills. And the £67m interest figure certainly puts United’s record breaking financial performance in a very different light.

That was early in 2008, before financial results from the latest season were reported. The Daily Mail picks up the story in May…

Manchester United may be chasing a League and Champions League double on the pitch but their financial results show the club are sinking deeper into debt and posted a significant loss last year. They have incurred increased debt to their creditors and have yet to pay out on some transfer fees for players. The Old Trafford club posted a £58.2million loss in the financial year ending June 30, 2007. However, that was a substantial improvement on the £135.3m loss the company recorded in the previous year.

What I’m driving at is that as Cub fans, we have a stake in the team being sold in a manner that allows the new owner(s) to operate the club in a manner that allows for the main focus to be on the field, not on an endless push to find new revenue streams to keep the business end of the operation solvent. I do believe MLB will have some control over this, but I would not be shocked if there is ultimately the threat of a Zell lawsuit to get wring everything he wants out of this asset.