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Figured it needed its own thread. I'm on my cell, so I can't paste the article from yhe Trib. At any rate, he said that payroll during the last years of the Trib were "unsustainable". Really? Higher tickets prices, team made money during the last year of that bloated payroll(according to Ricketts) and all the profits are supposed to go into the team(Ricketts words, even if they WERE stupid).

It may be that they ARE unsustainable if you're also spending money on the other things the Cubs are currently investing in.

what kind of crappy phone doesn't have copy and paste?

but in reality
2006 .364
2007 .351
2008 his one big year
2009 .347
2010 90 games played
2011 .323
what do you call that?

For years the Cubs were the only game on TV across the country in the daytime, making them a nationally beloved entity through thick and thin. That in turn helped increase the franchise's value from $20.5 million in 1981 when Tribune Co. bought it to $845 million when the Ricketts family purchased the team, the ballpark and 25 percent of Comcast SportsNet in 2009.

But Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts is always looking to increase the team's revenue sources, and now it appears likely the team will wave goodbye to their longtime TV home when its contract ends after the 2014 season.

Ricketts declined to address their plans on Sunday, except to say a discussion on rights fees will begin in 2013.

"Obviously local media rights have been increasing in value," he said. "Hopefully at some point we will be able to get more value for our media rights. It's just something that's playing out over time."

The Rickettses have shed players, managers, announcers, executives, scouts, even the employee responsible for getting the seventh-inning stretch singers over the last two years. But leaving WGN would mark the end of an era soaked in nostalgia.

The Cubs are a bottom-line team, and have decreased payroll by 25 percent in the first three seasons of the Ricketts family ownership. But Ricketts said: "You're kind of comparing it to Tribune (Co.) payrolls of the last couple years, which, from our standpoint and the team standpoint, were just unsustainable."

Tribune Co. steadily decreased the number of Cubs games on WGN over the years because more money could be made on cable. And now that Tribune Co. no longer owns the team, the Rickettses have no obligation to keep the games on their station.

"We'll find out a lot more over the next 12 months," Ricketts said.

The Cubs have explored having their own network, and a source said they've even filmed interviews with legendary players for future use in network programming. But asked about those plans, Ricketts said, "we're still in the early stages and don't have all the options laid out."

The rights fees are expected to increase significantly after the WGN contract ends, but their deal with Comcast SportsNet runs through 2019. Ricketts said the Cubs have a "great partnership with WGN" and the fact that fans across the country can see them on the superstation will be a "factor" in the decision.

But tradition and fans obviously won't play into the decision as much as money.

Sullivan being a [expletive] tool.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/ba ... 1485.story

To sum up the quotes, Sullivan said that the Cubs' have benefited over the years from having a national audience, thanks in part to WGN. The national audience helped increase the value of the club. Now the club can make more money if they ditch WGN. He also points out that the Cubs' are under no obligation to stay on WGN.

I think he pretty much sums up the situation.

The worst thing about the quotes, is that Ricketts is now claiming that a $150MM payroll is unsustainable for the team. Granted, payroll is not the only factor determinative over whether or not a team will be good, but with the right management, it should give a team a big advantage over smaller market teams.

EVEN THE EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBLE FOR GETTING THE SEVENTH-INNING STRETCH SINGERS!?!? WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END!?!? IS NOTHING SACRED!?!?

Hopefully they can just install Kelly Pickler as the full-time seventh inning stretch singer.

Make sure she's still got the implants and I'd get behind that

While true, I'm pretty sure that doesn't come from the baseball ops budget. If they have to take away from that, in order to restore the facilities, its not a good thing, in my opinion. Its not like this crept up on them, they knew going in(and received a discounted overall sale price) because of these factors. I understand the Ricketts family isn't the Guggenheim Group, but this team shouldn't have to rob Peter to pay Paul either. In the end, the new TV deal and renovations may make this a moot point, but it certainly makes sense why Theo took the route he did. He may not have had a choice.

Yeah, I agree. The computer system alone was expensive. I can't imagine we're spending more on these things though, than the numbers you threw out. The cover up phrase is "behind the scenes" and we'll never know. With them wanting to bring everyone along from the bottom up,I wish someone could ask Ricketts to elaborate somewhat. Not a dollar amount, just more about what that phrase even means, assuming its not just a coverup of spending less.

Yeah, I agree. The computer system alone was expensive. I can't imagine we're spending more on these things though, than the numbers you threw out. The cover up phrase is "behind the scenes" and we'll never know. With them wanting to bring everyone along from the bottom up, I wish someone could ask Ricketts to elaborate somewhat. Not a dollar amount, just more about what that phrase even means, assuming its not just a coverup of spending less.