Ricketts' one goal: 'Best franchise in baseball'

Tom Ricketts has one simple plan for the Cubs.

"This will be the best franchise in baseball," Ricketts said recently to a group of Daily Herald reporters and columnists. "It's got the best fan base in baseball. It has the potential to be the premier franchise."

Following a sales process that took three baseball seasons to complete after the Tribune Co. announced the Cubs were for sale on Opening Day 2007, the Ricketts family finally has the keys to the store.

In a wide-ranging interview, Tom Ricketts, the point man for the Chicago family's purchase, responded to several questions about the Cubs.

Among the highlights:

• The baseball operations team, headed by general manager Jim Hendry and field manager Lou Piniella will remain in place, reporting to Ricketts through Crane Kenney, the chairman of the club under the Tribune.

• "Wrigley Field" will remain the name of the Cubs' ballpark, and Ricketts is "not looking at any naming-rights things right now."

• Wrigley Field's infrastructure is in good shape and it's the family's intention to "preserve and improve Wrigley Field" and that, "I don't think you'll see us move, ever."

• There likely will not be a large increase in the player-payroll budget for 2010, he said, citing "limited flexibility" on it for next year's team.

• Despite a disappointing 2009 season, "you'll see a slight price increase for next year" in ticket prices, he said.

• Going against a popular perception, Ricketts said he does not believe the Cubs are under any "curse," and that's not why they haven't won a World Series since 1908.

A lifelong Cubs fan, Ricketts has been the point man for the family's $845 million purchase, which was selected as the winning bid by the Tribune Co. last January.

Ricketts, 44, is the CEO of Incapital LLC, a Chicago investment bank. His father, J. Joseph Ricketts, founded TD Ameritrade, an investment company.

The transfer of 95 percent of the Cubs from the Tribune Co. to the Ricketts family signals a shift from corporate ownership, which many Tribune Co. critics called faceless and unaccountable, to family ownership.

Ricketts was asked why he and his family would want to get involved in baseball and specifically the Cubs.

"First of all, it's a family purchase," he said. "It's a collective purchase for myself and my siblings. I'm the point person for the family. It's really all of our investment. Why we chose this was we wanted to do something together, something as a family.

"It's one thing we all love. We all love the field. We all love the team. Three out of four of us live in Chicago, but all of us have spent a long time here. So we all love the city. It just seemed like a natural thing we could all get together on. We look forward to having it for generations."

The Cubs are arguably the most popular sports franchise in Chicago and one of the most popular teams in the country despite not winning a World Series over more than a century. Part of the mystique is because they've had a large number of popular players, such as Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg and Sammy Sosa, over the years. And part of it is because they play in Wrigley Field, built in 1914 and used by the Cubs since 1916.

Both the team and ballpark present opportunities and challenges for the new owner. As far as the team is concerned, Ricketts said he will spend his first year listening and learning.

"No, we haven't dug deep on baseball operations," he said. "Secondly, I think right now we're going to keep the structure kind of as is. We don't want to jump into something that we don't fully understand. We don't want to make decisions that aren't fully thought out, long-term decisions. So you'll see continuity on the baseball operations moving forward. We're going to learn a lot in the next year and be much more well-informed should we make any changes."

Ricketts seemed committed to Hendry, at least for the time being. Hendry's contract runs through the 2012 season.

"I talked to Jim a lot over the course of the season," Ricketts said. "I don't have enough information to really know exactly what his strengths and weaknesses are yet. I know that people are disappointed in 2009. But historically, three playoff appearances in seven years... people have higher expectations, and that's largely Jim's work, building a team that's really competitive.

"We don't have to make any decisions on Day 1. We'll get out, we'll learn more about the baseball operations and just have a lot more information a year from now."

Wrigley Field provides a picture-postcard image to most fans around the country, but the structure has endured its share of problems in recent years, including falling chunks of concrete from the upper deck. Repairs have been made, and the outfield bleachers were rebuilt a few years ago. Like any older structure, it needs constant maintenance.

"We had engineers and architects go through the stadium," Ricketts said. "We also had a lot of reports that were prepared for the Tribune and the previous ownership. The good news about Wrigley Field is that the infrastructure, the kind of 'bones' of the stadium, are in good shape.

"It is 100 percent the intention of me and the family to preserve and improve Wrigley Field... There's parts of it that are in pretty good shape, parts of it that could use a little extra love. The goal is, in the next 5-7 years, as we improve the stadium, to concurrently fix up the parts that perhaps need some more work."

Ricketts added he did not see the Cubs moving out for a season or part of a season so that work could be done.

"That's not in the plans," he said. "The plan is to do it much like the Red Sox model where we just accept the fact that we have a six-month building season over the winter and just plan accordingly."

Ricketts said there were no plans to put in a large-screen TV in the park to show replays. He did say he'd like to address frequently mentioned areas such as the cramped concourse, the washrooms and concessions stands.

"When you compare family ownership to corporate ownership, I think there's three things," he said. "No. 1 is there's only one agenda, really, and that is to win. There's nothing else that's confusing our goals.

"The second thing is we can reinvest whatever we can make on the team back into the stadium in numerous ways and help use those dollars to improve and preserve Wrigley Field for the next generation.

"The third thing is we can take long-term decisions. We're not meeting quarterly numbers. We don't have shareholders. We don't have to worry about, 'Is this year going to be an up year or a down year?' I think those combine to make a better ownership platform than a corporation for a baseball team. I think you see that in some of the teams that have been successful."

As far as changing the name of Wrigley Field or incorporating another name to increase revenues, Ricketts made it seem that is a ways off, if it ever happens.

"We're not looking at any naming-rights things right now," he said. "I don't think you'd want to lose the name Wrigley. Down the line, I won't say that it will never happen, that we won't look at some kind of extra sponsorship around the name. But right now, there are really no plans to touch that.

"It's a tough question. It's a good question. It depends on what the change is. There are certain things that maybe you don't want to sacrifice just to win a World Series. But I think if you survey fans, and said, 'OK, well, if you call it XYZ Park at Wrigley Field or whatever, would you care if it got you to the World Series?' I think people would be like, 'I could get over it.'"

On a lighter note, one thing that has been difficult for some to get over is the notion that the franchise is under some kind of "curse," and that's the reason there has not been a World Series celebration for the Cubs since 1908, despite a few near-misses.

Ricketts clearly dismisses that notion.

"You just got to move on," he said. "There is no curse. The reason that there aren't more World Series trophies here is not good teams. Bad teams that performed as expected, and then good teams that had bad luck in the playoffs. There's nothing more to it than that. What we have to do is be more consistent in getting more consistent results on the field to get to the playoffs, and then hope that once we get there the players hold it together and push forward."

Although Ricketts said he has not had time to allow himself to dream of what it would be like to be the owner when the Cubs do win a World Series, the thought definitely seems appealing.

"I'm not sure I've pictured myself there yet," he said. "This process has been pretty consuming. If we are the family that owns the team when that happens, which we fully expect that to happen, it would just be tremendous. When you think about a story, it would be one of those things where people say, 'I was there. I knew where I was when the Cubs won the World Series.'

"We're going to get there. It's going to be pretty momentous. We just have to be consistent, stop thinking about the past, look forward, be consistent, put teams on the field that get to the playoffs and then hope you have the hot hand when that comes around."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=333063">Grand entrance: Ricketts sees World Series for Cubs <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=332985">Excerpts from Tom Ricketts' interview with the Daily Herald <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=332929">As owner, Ricketts looks to keep a fan's perspective <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=332919"><B>Burt Constable:</B> Ricketts turns from die-hard fan into owner <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=332930"><B>Mike Imrem:</B> Can Ricketts handle the challenge of Wrigley? <span class="date">[10/30/09]</span></a></li> </ul> <!-- Start of Brightcove Player --> <div style="display:none"> </div> <!-- By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C found at http://corp.brightcove.com/legal/terms_publisher.cfm. --> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script> <object id="myExperience46550033001" class="BrightcoveExperience"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="width" value="300" /> <param name="height" value="254" /> <param name="playerID" value="18011347001" /> <param name="publisherID" value="1659832549"/> <param name="isVid" value="true" /> <param name="@videoPlayer" value="46550033001" /> </object> <!-- End of Brightcove Player --> </div> </div> </div>