• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 22, 2009

Earlier this year, it looked like Tribune Co. boss Sam Zell found a buyer for the Chicago Cubs sports franchise, but now the team is back on the auction block, according to the Chicago Tribune. This is another setback for the beleaguered Tribune Co., whose financial well-being depends on selling the team.

In January, Tribune announced it had reached an agreement to sell the popular baseball team to the Ricketts family, led by patriarch J. Joe Ricketts, who founded TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., for $900 million. This was considered a fair price for the team, but less than the $1 billion sought by Zell. Yet plenty of obstacles remained.

To begin, the Ricketts family faced the difficult task of securing funding for the deal, amid a severe contraction of global credit markets. In addition, the final terms of the deal remained unsettled, as Tribune sought extra cash for the lucrative broadcast and cable rights included in the franchise.

With these negotiations apparently stalling, Tribune has turned to Marc Utay, previously a rival bidder who lost out to the Ricketts in the first round. Utay, who is still interested in the Cubs franchise, claims to have lined up a group of investors who could fund the deal on somewhat more favorable terms for Tribune.

This isn't the first reversal in the drawn-out Cubs auction.

Last summer, Zell was said to be negotiating a $1.3 billion sale to sports-franchise impresario Mark Cuban, but that deal was effectively scuttled when Cuban was charged with insider trading by the SEC in November. Zell then turned to the Illinois state government, hoping to sell Wrigley Field to the Illinois State Finance Authority. However, this deal became entangled in a long-running dispute between Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich -- now being impeached by the Illinois State Assembly -- and the writers for the Op-Ed page of the Chicago Tribune.

In essence, Blagojevich said he would block the sale to the ISFA unless Zell muzzled the writers by firing or reassigning them. John Harris, Blagojevich's chief of staff, who served as an intermediary for these secret negotiations, told the governor that Zell had agreed to silence his critics at the paper. However, the staffers were never fired or reassigned.

After the second deal fell through, Tribune had no choice but to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 8 -- the day before Blagojevich was arrested and charged with corruption by U.S. District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald for trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.