Lawmakers not warm to state buying Wrigley Field

SPRINGFIELD -- Leading state lawmakers were stunned to hear the state might be considering buying Wrigley Field to possibly ease the pending sale of the Chicago Cubs.

Both the top Republicans and Democrats in the Illinois House said they had never heard it discussed before media reports of talks between Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Tribune Co. officials emerged.

With a mass transit funding doomsday looming and millions worth of added education spending still in political limbo, some lawmakers said the baseball team and stadium simply aren't a state priority.

"The current Democratic leadership even thinking of spending taxpayer money at this point in time to buy the stadium of a team that hasn't won the World Series in 100 years could only be topped in ridiculousness if Britney Spears purchased Enron," said David Dring, spokesman for House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Tribune Co. officials approached the state, and the governor is "committed to keeping the Cubs playing baseball in Wrigley Field."

"However, the governor has no intention of using tax dollars to acquire Wrigley Field," said spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff.

Any such deal likely would involve the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, an entity created to oversee the construction of a new Comiskey Park, now U.S. Cellular Field. That stadium was paid for with a Chicago hotel tax approved by lawmakers, and selling off the naming rights to U.S. Cellular funded recent renovations. The same hotel tax was again utilized by lawmakers to finance the new Soldier Field.

Tribune Co. is in the midst of trying to sell the Cubs as part of an $8.2 billion deal to take the company private under the leadership of real estate magnate Sam Zell.

"We're looking at everything," Tribune Co. spokesman Gary Weitman told the Associated Press on Thursday. "'We're looking at the best way to sell these assets. That includes looking at them separately, in combination, etc. But we're looking at the best ways to do that."