* The New York Times had this unsurprising quote about Tribune owner Sam Zell yesterday…
“He actually dislikes baseball,” Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of Chicago’s crosstown White Sox, said matter-of-factly. “He never would have bought the Cubs if they didn’t come with the Tribune. It’s just another asset to him.”
Reinsdorf’s claim was essentially confirmed by team chairman Crane Kenney.
* This brings us to the uproar over the sale of the Cubs, Wrigley Field and the park’s naming rights. Crain’s has the story behind the story…
[The Tribune Co.] has about $12 billion in debt, most of it the result of Mr. Zell’s leveraged buyout in December. A first payment of $650 million comes due Dec. 4.
* Selling the team, the park and the naming rights would more than cover that first payment. And that was the initial plan. Zell doesn’t care about baseball. The team is just another asset to be dumped. But the stadium deal is taking longer than expected, to say the least. So Zell - who is facing a depressed advertising market - is now looking to sell other assets to cover his nut.
But that doesn’t take the heat off the Wrigley deal.,,
Tribune will quickly face another deadline: July 2009, when a $750-million principal payment comes due. That’s on top of an estimated $1 billion in yearly interest payments.
Zell is sitting on top of a shakey house of cards, so expect the pressure to intensify on the proposed state buyout of Wrigley Field, regardless of any interim asset sales.
* More…
* Cubs play hardball with rooftop owner
* Wrigley Field looking at changes as Cubs start season
* There was an old ballpark in Chicago . . .