• by Erik Sass , August 24, 2009

After two years of false starts and reversals, Sam Zell, the embattled boss of the Tribune Co., has finally managed to sell the Chicago Cubs.

In the end, the buyers -- the Ricketts family -- ended up paying $845 million for the high-profile sports franchise. That was considerably less than the $900 million price tag reported some months ago, not to mention the $1 billion price tag previously suggested by sports business analysts.

Negotiations with the Ricketts -- who made their fortune from TD Ameritrade, founded by patriarch Joseph Ricketts -- dragged on for the better part of a year, prompting Zell to extend the deadline for bids, originally due in November 2008.

The first news of a tentative deal came in January 2009, but the sale soon became bogged down as the two sides haggled over the valuation of broadcast TV properties associated with the Cubs franchise, including Tribune's quarter-stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

Adding to the confusion, in June, it was revealed that Tribune Co. was also holding separate discussions with a group of investors from the Northeast led by Marc Utay, who had earlier submitted a failed bid for the franchise. Then in early July, The Chicago Tribune again reported that the deal with the Ricketts was almost wrapped up -- but another delay followed, with more rumors of a rival deal with Utay's investor group.

It would appear these counter-negotiations with Utay failed to force up the price as intended. In fact, the deal somehow ended up $845 million lighter than first reported. The original $900 million price was itself something of a disappointment, as Zell originally hoped to get $1 billion or more for the franchise.

In 2007, Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College and an expert on professional sports finance, speculated that the Cubs team by itself was worth $500 million-$650 million. Around the same time, Forbes valued Wrigley Field at $90 million-$120 million, although others said it could fetch $200 million or more.

Tribune's quarter interest in Comcast SportsNet Chicago, a joint venture with Comcast and the owners of three other Chicago teams, is said to be worth at least $50 million. Because all the properties have added value if sold as a package, a $1 billion price tag -- representing a premium of about $100 million -- wasn't considered unreasonable.

At one point in 2008, sports franchise impresario Mark Cuban offered $1.3 billion, but this deal was effectively scuttled when Cuban was charged with insider trading by the SEC in November. This last-minute foul-up sent Zell scrambling to find another buyer for the franchise.

Zell then tried to sell Wrigley Field to the Illinois State Finance Authority for $400 million, but 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. Blagojevich's chief of staff John Harris, 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. The failure to sell Wrigley Field forced Zell to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2008.