How the Chicago Cubs Owners Made Their Millions The Ricketts billions go back to long before most of the Chicago Cubs players were even born.
Travis Hoium
(TMFFlushDraw)
Oct 18, 2015 at 11:00AM
Wrigley
How does one become rich enough to buy a marque baseball franchise like the Chicago Cubs? You could start a wildly popular social network or become a billionaire hedge fund manager. If you're Tom Ricketts, current owner of baseball's hottest team, the journey starts before you could afford your first hot dog at Wrigley Field.
Buying the Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs were formerly owned by the Tribune Company, the now failed newspaper publisher. The club was a hot commodity when it came on the market in 2007, but with the financial crisis, the Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy in 2008, and a complex financial structure, the sale took nearly two and a half years. So long in fact that even Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban threw up his arms in disgust. At the end of the long process, the Ricketts family won the bidding war for the Cubs, as well as Wrigley Field and a 25% stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
The winning bid of $845 million for a 95% stake in the Cubs instantly made the Ricketts family one of the most high profile families in sports. And by all indications this is a family business of the highest order.
Tom Ricketts, Chairman of the Chicago Cubs. Image: Garrett Craig via Wikimedia.
The patriarch of the Ricketts family
Tom Ricketts is often mentioned as the main owner of the Chicago Cubs, but the entire family is involved in ownership of the team. His parents, Joe and Marlene Ricketts, as well as siblings Pete, Laura, and Todd, are all owners, with the children serving as the only other members of the board of directors, where Tom serves as the Chairman of the Board.
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Poster Comment:
When we were kids in Chicago, we lived about a mile from Wrigley. We would walk to the games. It cost $1 to get into the bleachers back then. Not sure how much it is now.
But, when I worked concert security, we were working a show across from Wrigley at Cubbie Bear Lounge. We were throwing some guy out. I had one hand on his shirt collar and the other on his belt.Archie threw his feet in the air and I flipped him out on the sidewalk. The cops were making a left turn. They saw everything and kept going.
You could do anything you want to them as long as you were on the thresh hold or walking the line.