Cuban's Populist Plans

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Dec 4, 2007 2:50PM

Mark Cuban was in town on Monday when his Dallas Mavericks faced off against the Bulls at the United Center. Of course the local media's questions directed at him regarded another pro sport team.

When asked about his pursuit of the Cubs, he reiterated his interest in buying the team and that he wasn't interested in owning any other baseball team. He has not filed his official paperwork, however — Cuban said he was "waiting for economic reports to be released in January." Huh? Overall U.S. economic data? MLB reports? Cubs financials? Personal net worth?

While Cuban hasn't even formally made an offer for the team, he's already touting his fan-friendly plans for the team. Currently selling some 1,500 upper deck tickets for just $2 and walk-up tickets for $5 at Mavs games, he envisions a similar plan for Wrigley.

If I'm really smart, maybe someday all the tickets in the upper deck will be $2 and we'll pay for it with advertising, call it the HDNet Upper Deck or whatever. The total revenue from the upper deck is like $180,000 a game or something. It's not enormous. So if you know anybody who wants to spend $200,000 per game, $8 million a year, I'll make those seats free.

Two-dollar Cubs tickets? Free tickets!?! When Chicagoist was young, we remember Wrigley bleacher seats costing little more than a movie ticket. Today ... not so much. Movies remain under $10, while bleacher seats will set you back as much as $45 following last week's increase in ticket prices. We only wish he wanted to buy the White Sox instead — they could use the marketing help a little more than the Cubbies. And he's the closest thing sports have to Bill Veeck these days.

Photo via sfgate.com.