So the Cubs Are Going Bankrupt. Huh?

The Tribune Company is in a wee bit of financial trouble. Perhaps you've heard about this. Whatever crazy real estate mogul tricks Sam Zell thought he was going to pull when he bought the company -- resurrect the newspaper industry! save journalism! tell those dumb inky hacks where to shove their ethics! -- it hasn't worked out so well. The Trib. is bankrupt, and Zell's the captain of the ship.

Understandably, he's shedding the few valuable assets the Tribune actually owns. (Think of a captain throwing his gold overboard, in order to keep the ship topside. This metaphor is horrible, but no matter. It's what Zell's doing, sort of, and the Cubs have been bought and sold and, guess what, are also kind of bankrupt themselves.

Or are they? "Chicago Cubs Bankruptcy Looms" are not the four words any Cubs fan wants to read in the morning. They're scary. But when they're immediately followed by "... As Way To Finish Sale by Tribune," they probably require a little explanation.

Basically, the Cubs are having a hard time getting the Ricketts sale done. There are few remedies to make sure the transfer of ownership can happen while the parent company, Tribune, is bankrupt. So Zell's idea is to put the Cubs into bankruptcy, which would, in theory, allow a disposition of the team's assets. So long as there's an agreed-upon bidder, this could work. As Bloomberg explains:

People familiar with the negotiations said a Cubs bankruptcy filing would be designed to allow for the fast disposition of the team’s assets. It could be accompanied by a motion to sell the team with an agreed-upon bidder. The entire process could take as little as 20 days, said Gregory A. Cross, the attorney who heads the bankruptcy practice at Washington- based Venable LLP and isn’t involved. [...]

“You take it in the front door, and it’s just like you’re getting radiation,” said Michael J. Cramer, a former president of the Texas Rangers who teaches sports business at New York University. “It comes out the other door about a half minute later. It’s clean.”

Of course, any baseball fan -- heck, any Chicagoan -- knows that the Cubs ought not be bankrupt. After all, Wrigley hosted over 3 million fans each of the past five seasons, and if you've been to the field, you know that many of these fans enjoy beer, brats and new baseball hats. The Cubs make plenty of money. No, this bankruptcy is a little trick to get the sale to Tom Ricketts finished -- and if that's what takes, bankrupt away.

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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