Cubs May Gamble With Future TV Broadcast Deal
By Chuck Sudo in News on Sep 23, 2014 7:40PM
Under the ownership of the Ricketts family, the Chicago Cubs have often been wretched to watch, but the family and the team’s management structure has maintained a “What, me worry?” stance while rebuilding the baseball system from the ground up and battling with the rooftop club owners to begin the long-needed repairs to Wrigley Field. There have been signs of progress, however small, both on the field and on the business side of the organization. On the latter, everything is on the table as the Cubs look to leverage every asset they have for more revenue.
That includes broadcasting contracts. The Cubs radio broadcasts will air on WBBM Newsradio starting next season, ending a 90-year relationship with WGN Radio. And the team is currently in its final days of its television deal with WGN TV and can open the contract up to bid after the season. It’s something team chairman Tom Ricketts has been looking forward to for years.
Even with a rebuilding team, the broadcasting rights for Cubs games are a lucrative property. The Tribune’s Paul Sullivan wrote last year Ricketts envisions the Cubs having their own network, similar to the New York Yankees with their YES Network or the insane deal between Time Warner Cable and the Los Angeles Dodgers. But local TV stations and advertisers—the latter holding the key to the Cubs’ renovation plans—are pressuring the team to make a decision now.
Sources told the Tribune an announcement could come as this week regarding where the Cubs will call their television home, and a return to WGN TV isn’t out of the question. Between WGN and Comcast SportsNet, the Cubs earned nearly $60 million in broadcasting revenue this season. The team’s deal with CSN runs through 2019, so if the team wants to launch their regional sports network, a deal with WGN or another station would have to expire at the same time as the CSN deal. There’s the added uncertainty the Cubs would even receive Time Warner-Dodgers numbers, as cable providers are more wary these days of overpaying for rights fees. Which is why the Cubs are bringing in outside investors. Those same sources told the Tribune the club is negotiating with private equity firm TPG Capital, a company specializing in sports and entertainment, as a partner in any network venture.
And by that time, maybe the Cubs on the field will be well-established as a winning franchise worthy of networks investing in the club’s broadcast rights.