Report: Cubs sale to Ricketts family complete

Tribune Co., the media company that sought bankruptcy protection in December, agreed to sell the Chicago Cubs and their Wrigley Field baseball stadium to Tom Ricketts for about $900 million, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

Major League Baseball, the bankruptcy court and a committee of Tribune creditors must approve the agreement, the person said. Dennis Culloton, a spokesman for Ricketts, who is chairman of Incapital LLC, didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The Chicago Tribune reported the deal earlier today.

"We continue an active dialogue with the Ricketts family with an eye toward reaching a definitive agreement," Gary Weitman, a spokesman for Tribune, said in a statement. "We don't intend to comment on the specifics of any potential transaction." He declined to comment beyond the statement.

Tribune Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Zell announced his intention to sell the Cubs more than two years ago. Zell, 67, entered into exclusive talks with the Ricketts family in January. Ricketts offered $900 million, the Chicago Sun-Times reported at the time.

Zell, in a May interview, said the sale was taking longer than expected because the buyer was having trouble raising the money amid a credit market slump.

Almost $13 billion in debt and a deteriorating advertising market caused Tribune to seek protection from creditors less than a year after Zell took the company private. The team and Wrigley Field weren't included in the bankruptcy filing.

Popular Franchise

The Cubs are one of the most popular franchises in baseball, drawing more than 3 million spectators to their 95- year-old stadium in each of the past five seasons. Fans pile into Wrigley Field, on the north side of Chicago, to root for a squad that hasn't won a World Series since 1908, the longest drought in baseball.

Ricketts, who met his wife at Wrigley Field, grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and attended the University of Chicago. The 43- year-old worked as a trader at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and attended classes at night to earn a graduate business degree in 1993.