Tribune Co. cuts # of Cubs bids down to 5, John Canning out

Since last week, when opening bids for the Cubs were submitted, it has been learned that Tribune Co. cut the # of bids for the Cubs, Wrigley Field, and the team’s 25% stake in ComCast Sports Net Chicago down to 5 from the original 10. Among those 5 bids, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was one of them, and John Canning, considered by many to have had the inside track due to his ties to commissioner Bud Selig, was not. Additionally, it has been learned that Cuban’s bid was the highest at $1.3 Billion.

According to sources close to Canning’s group said that due to the fact Wrigley Field needs anywhere between what they estimated $300-400 million in repairs, any bid over $800 million would make the investment unprofitable, which probably explains why Canning’s group didn’t make it to round 2.

Grade A columnist Jay Mariotti, of the Chicago Sun-Times believes that Sam Zell would have rejected Canning regardless, saying:

It’s tough for Cuban to go on the record these days, particularly with me, a frequent critic of the lords [Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf]. But a source close to the situation reminded me of the underlying story: “MLB can’t be involved until after the Cubs pick someone.” Meaning, Zell and Cuban could bond like long lost brothers, and Cuban’s group could bid a trillion zillion dollars for the Cubs — and it still wouldn’t matter if Bud and Jerry drive the political wedge and opt for their kind of peeps. There is a precedent, by the way. It happened in 2002, when the lords rejected the highest bid for the Boston Red Sox and went with the lower, $660-million bid of Selig’s dude, John Henry.

This might explain why Zell, in an impressive pre-emptive strike, rejected the bid of a big-clout group presumably supported by the lords. John Canning is a Selig guy, an 11 percent owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. He’s a Chicago guy, chairman of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC. He had men influential in Reinsdorf’s world — Aon Corp. chairman and Chicago 2016 chief Patrick Ryan, Chicago sports mogul Andrew McKenna and restaurant legends Rich Melman and Larry Levy. It’s hard to believe their bid was so low that Zell buried it. But then, given the Red Sox case, can you blame him? This could have been his message to the lords — you can’t politically favor Canning if he isn’t part of the process.

Well since we know what the numbers are, Mariotti is wrong on the front that Canning’s bid wasn’t a low one. But his analysis of it is still a very thoughtful one nonetheless, seeing how Selig and JR are only interested in getting their cronies in. Additionally, when Sam Zell took the Tribune Co. private last year in a heavily leveraged $8.2 billion deal, he took in $13 billion of debt. Next year, in June 2009, Zell has to pay off $750 million of that debt. He is not interested in helping install a crony. He is interested in top dollar, and he realizes that by throwing out the crony, that task becomes a lot easier. Let’s hear a shout-out to Mr. Zell for throwing out John Canning.