Mark Cuban Blogs About The Cubs

By Marcus Gilmer in Miscellaneous on Jan 6, 2009 9:35PM

As we mentioned earlier today, the Chicago Cubs could be close to being officially sold. Meanwhile, one man who many fans and players favored for the team was Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who's bid took a hit with the announcement last fall he was being investigated by the S.E.C. for insider trading. Today, Cuban took to his blog to discuss the Cubs, his proposal, the obstacles to his bid, and the credit crisis. An excerpt is below, but you can check out the whole thing here.

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.

In my conversations with owners around the league, they seemed to understand this point. But what was most interesting to me, was that a recurring theme was that they thought I would be good for baseball. Many had talked to NBA owners who explained that I did my homework and was a good partner. That in my areas of strength, in particular technology, I would make sure I tried to contribute and help the league how and where I could. It was pretty obvious that more than a few of the owners hoped I would come in and stir things up and stand up and speak for the owners when it came to digital rights and the future of technology and how it would impact the teams and leagues profitability. They were hoping I would be the new guy to come in and take the commissioners’ arrows. Which of course I would be fine with and happy to do if it got me their confirmation vote.