Thanks for the post. I said it before and this article reiterates the idea that Reinsdorf and Cuban get along just fine. BCB’ers want to believe they have “inside knowledge” about their relationship, but the fact is they seem to like each other. At least they say they do.

Cash was and is king.

When he talkes about how he would have demanded the Cubs be treated differently than the Sox in buisness dealings. That could easily be the reason Reinsdorf would be against Cuban buying the Cubs.

My sense of the entire situation was that whoever the new owner of the Cubs would be, it was in the Sox best interest for things to stay business as usual. Published TV ratings and other published measures showed that the Cubs were more popular than the Sox, yet before I even started looking at the Cubs, I knew from my discussions with people in the NBA that the Cubs and Sox were treated as equals in their business dealings. That was great for the Sox, not so good for the Cubs. Im 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. I was going to have to try to negotiate the very best deals possible for the Cubs, even if it was at the expense of the White Sox.

I

that Cuban would have been an excellent asset and owner of this team. The guy built a fanbase out of nothing with the Mavericks, cares about his players, their successes, and literally created a legion of followers and supporters. With most of that already here at Wrigley, Cuban would have plenty of time to devout monies to winning, and winning big. Personally, I’d like to see more Cubans as owners and less Pohlads. I understand it is a business, but I care for my teams to be owned by someone that actually gives a shit about the product on the field, not just the financial gains.

Dan

when he said

In my conversations with owners around the league…….. what was most interesting to me, was that a recurring theme was that they thought I would be good for baseball.

I hope they meant that, I would love the Cuban to own the Cubs.

I meant I would love Mark Cuban to own the Cubs
Not the Cuban(s)

He is a genious business man, and the fact that he backed off a little but kept is foot in the door in case someone was to grab it and make him owner shows that there is still a slight possibility “the Cuban” as Cubfreak accidently put, can buy this team. Al, I know you are not a huge fan of his, but does this blog entry show you his dedication to winning PLUS a smart outlook on how he would spend his money by not trying to outspend the eastcoast teams (Yankees, BoSox), but rather focusing on being the better team in the division and the better team in the NL. Spend for the sake of winning, not spending for the sake of spending. Alot of people thought that this was his problem.. if he is telling the truth, and I believe him, that could swing more people his way in the city… but of course thats not what makes the decision in the end

Relative to the Cubs and Cub fans are this:

A) Leveraging or financing a purchase of this is not welcomed now by the credit markets. Taken in context with Bloomberg’s release of a buyer’s analysis of the Cubs as a business asset that they have almost maximized their revenue generation level tells me that financing arms don’t like the risk.
B) Cash or increased cash down payments decreases the purchase price and either increases the personal finance structure (more partners) or depletes reserve cash capital to invest directly into the operations.
C) The confluence of the White Sox is a market complexity that only diminishes business flexibility or value.
D) The long view of the division rivals shows that payroll pressures are not huge hurdles (meaning STL, Houston, MILW, Cinci, Pitt) and the payroll pressures in the AL are not primary.

Shrinkage was the unspoken word, revenue shrinkage & credit shrinkage was big but he was thankful for the league and Tribune Co assistance in the process. It also signaled that the decision and price is all but finalized except for probably the language.

Cuban seems to have erred… He states:

I had no intentions of trying to outspend the Yankees or Red Sox. There was no reason to. I didnt have to beat either of those teams unless I made it to the World Series. The only teams I had to be better than were those in the National League, and more importantly, those in my division. There were no big spending rivals close to home, so the AL East could spend themselves silly.

However, the payroll for the NY Mets for 2008 was: $138,293,378 (The highest in the NL and the 3rd highest in all of MLB). So as far as not having to compete with another NL team in regards to money, he was wrong.

Source: http://www.postgameheroes.com/?p=2159

Regardless, if there was a guy available to buy and run my show, I could think of many that are worse.

was he can get a better return elsewhere – significantly better return – for that amount of expenditure.