June 12, 2008

Wrigley sale stalled as Cubs demand more subsidies

The proposed sale of Wrigley Field to the state of Illinois went from unlikely to pretty much dead this week, as state negotiators said they'd reached an impasse in talks with the Chicago Tribune, which owns both the Cubs and the ballpark. The reason, according to chief negotiator (and former governor) James Thompson:

The Tribune believes that ISFA's participation in such an acquisition requires either the transfer of future sales and amusement tax revenue from transactions at Wrigley Field for the next 30 years, or the imposition of new taxes, or the transfer of existing ISFA funds now pledged to projects at U.S. Cellular. ... In our judgment, there are no votes in the City Council or in the Illinois General Assembly for transferred or new taxes for Wrigley Field.

Translation: The Cubs owners wanted even more tax kickbacks than Thompson himself proposed in March, so much so that Thompson didn't think he could sell it to elected officials. Since team chairman Crane Kenney just about said as much back in January, this shouldn't come as a huge surprise, but I guess Thompson's just an optimistic kind of guy.

In other news, the Cubs' internal books reportedly show that Wrigley can do just fine with standard maintenance, though, the Tribune (the newspaper, not the corporation) adds, "There are, however, economic incentives, such as the addition of suites and other amenities, that might make a more immediate overhaul desirable." In other words, if somebody else were to volunteer to pay to upgrade Wrigley, the Cubs would be happy enough to collect the resulting revenues. No wonder they wanted to hold out for a tax-subsidized renovation.