A new era begins for Chicago Cubs - With the Ricketts family in control, expectation are high

A new era begins for Chicago Cubs - With the Ricketts family in control, expectation are high
By Paul Sullivan
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
10:20 a.m. CDT, October 30, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-31-cubs-tom-ricketts-oct31,0,1791650.story


As the Ricketts family spoke publicly for the first time Friday after officially taking over the Chicago National League Ball Club this week, a new era of Cubs baseball is being ushered in on the North Side.

Team Chairman Tom Ricketts, along with brothers Pete and Todd and sister Laura, will oversee all aspects of the organization -- from the concession stands to the team payroll -- hoping to resurrect a historically inept franchise that hasn't won a championship in 101 years.

Their primary goal is the same as for every franchise owner -- win the World Series.

But the Ricketts know "hope springs eternal" and Cubs fans go hand in hand, and the obstacles in their path are familiar to anyone who has followed the luckless club.

"As a fan in the '80s and '90s, we'd all look at the roster at the beginning of the season, and the word 'hope' would always come out -- 'I hope they re-sign (Greg) Maddux, I hope (Ryne) Sandberg has another great year, or (Andre) Dawson,' " Todd Ricketts said in an exclusive interview with the Tribune last month, as the deal to take control of the club was being finalized. "I remember George Bell was going to save the Cubs. ... For us, hope is just not a strategy anymore."

Winning on the North Side is a tremendous challenge, and one which neither the Wrigley family nor Tribune Co. was able to meet during their respective reigns, despite some close calls over the last century. The apparent role model for the Ricketts in their new endeavor is the same one that entranced Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney -- the Red Sox ownership group that brought Boston a pair of championships while adding several creative revenue streams at cozy Fenway Park.

"The one thrown around frequently is the Red Sox, and the analogies are pretty striking," Tom Ricketts said. "(Fenway Park) was an older stadium that was saved and improved very effectively, and of course, the on-the-field performance of that team. ... But, that said, I mean, Boston and Chicago aren't the same place.

"There are things that make Wrigley different from Fenway, that we have to be respectful of as we go through and think of the things we're going to do with our stadium. I think the key is we definitely see what they have accomplished, and we'd like to emulate some of that success."

Of course, that is easier said than done. The Ricketts believe most of the pieces are in place for the club to succeed and the Cubs can benefit from what others have learned to reach the promised land.

"There are a lot of great owners doing great things," Pete Ricketts said. "We don't have to reinvent the wheel here. In many ways, we can see what other people have done and adapt it for Chicago. We have to make it a Chicago experience, but I think one of the things we want to do is go around and look at what are the best practices. What are (teams) doing that are really improving the fan experience?

"We're all believers that when we start improving the fan experience you're going to improve the bottom line as well. People will come and they'll stay, they'll enjoy it even more. Those are sort of the things we want to do."

Or, as Todd succinctly put it: "If you just win, everything else takes care of itself."

As the Ricketts era begins, here are some of the family's takes on other subjects pertaining to the Cubs:

Money mattersOne of the biggest changes will be the switch from corporate to family ownership. Many Cubs fans had no idea which Tribune Co. executive was in charge of the team over the years, and the latest company CEO, Sam Zell, did not attend games regularly. Tribune Co. executives usually remained in the background, letting top-level underlings like Andy MacPhail, John McDonough and Crane Kenney speak for the corporation.

Now Cubs fans will have someone either to credit -- or blame -- for the performance of team.

"It's going to be a big difference between family ownership and corporate ownership," Tom Ricketts said. "For one thing, as you can tell from talking to us, we all have the same agenda, which may not always be happening inside a corporation. We just want to win. We want to bring a championship back here.

"Secondly, one thing we can do that Tribune may not have been able to do -- or may have decided not to have done -- is re-invest the profits here. We're going to take the money we make and put it back into the stadium to preserve the experience for the next generation.

"And I think the third thing is, with a family ownership, you can create a culture of accountability and excellence that maybe was more difficult to do when they were just one asset under the Tribune umbrella. We want to build the best franchise in baseball, bar none.

"So everything we do is going to be world class. Everything we do is going to be first class. And we'll just keep investing in this asset, and I think if we keep doing that, there may be ups and downs in the wins and loss column, but as long as we show we're committed and people really know we're committed, then I think it will go well, the public side of this whole package."

The Cubs payroll was around $140 million in 2009, the third-highest in the major leagues. But they didn't get much of a return on their investment, missing the postseason for the first time since 2006. The Cubs aren't expected to spend freely this offseason because of the long-term contracts of Carlos Zambrano, Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Dempster, Kosuke Fukudome and Milton Bradley, whom the Cubs are expected to trade.

There's not a lot of flexibility going into 2010," Tom Ricketts said. "We'll leave it up to (general manager Jim Hendry) to balance out how he would take what flexibility we do have to round out the team and get us ready. We expect payroll to be comparable, if not slightly higher, next year. But, as you also know, the dollars leaving the door is not the issue. It's the third highest payroll. The issue is getting the right performance for the number of dollars you spend."

Upper managementHendry's job is safe, at least for the time being.

"Jim is obviously under contract, but we like Jim and want to give him the opportunity to bring us a winner in 2010," Tom Ricketts said.

Hendry has three years remaining on the deal he signed after the 2008 season.

"I think he has a pretty long track record of being a winner," Todd Ricketts said. "You can go back to taking over the Creighton coaching job and taking Creighton from a nobody baseball school to the College World Series."

Kenney also will remain in his current role, at least for the time being. Kenney will oversee Hendry's spending and be instrumental in any plans to revamp Wrigley Field and build a new spring training facility in either Arizona or Florida.

If Hendry wants to make a trade, he will go first to Kenney, not Tom Ricketts.

"Currently it would be Jim's responsibility to reflect that to Crane," Tom Ricketts said. "Crane keeps me in the loop. If it was a big decision, we'd get everybody to know about it."

The Ricketts will not be "hands-on" when it comes to making player personnel decisions.

"If we interject ourselves in those day-to-day decisions, then it's going to be very difficult to hold anyone accountable at the end of the year," Tom Ricketts said.

Added Todd: "Jim will have the parameters in which he'll have to work. We're going to have some payroll issues and things where he'll be limited. I mean, he can't just go out and sign everybody. But within those parameters, those decisions are his."

Wrigley FieldThe Ricketts family learned to love the Cubs by coming to games at Wrigley Field, and bought the team with the idea of preserving the ballpark for their children and grandchildren. They said they never considered buying the Cubs to build a new ballpark.

"Not if any of us ever wanted to set foot in Chicago again," Pete Ricketts said, laughing. "We like coming to Chicago way too much."

They also don't plan on selling the naming rights.

"That would be a tough one to change," Pete said. "Not sure how you'd get away with that one."

Tom Ricketts said the idea of leaving Wrigley "never would've been a thought that crossed our minds. And we also understand there's the actual game on the field and the actual experience of being in the stadium. We have to be respectful to both of those things. That's what combines to make this the magical place it is."

Do the Ricketts consider themselves traditionalists?

"You'd put us more in the camp of traditionalists, because we all have a feel for the Wrigley vibe," Tom Ricketts said. "There's something special about seeing a game here, that I think we all understand. ... We'll be open-minded to opportunities down the line to improve the stadium, but I think typically we're going to be pretty close to the experience the fans love already."

The Ricketts are interested in developing the long-planned Triangle Building in the parking lot west of the ballpark, bordering Clark Street, to provide fans with more food options and players with an expanded weight room and clubhouse. Tribune Co. shelved the original plan when it decided to put the team up for sale in 2007.

The Ricketts are not considering leaving Wrigley for a season to make any structural improvements, and the family has not decided on whether to move on the installation of a Jumbotron, either inside or outside the park, to increase advertising revenue.

Tribune Co. looked into the possibility, and portable video scoreboards were installed for the Winter Classic hockey game on New Year's Day. But there never has been any serious consideration to install a video scoreboard at Wrigley.

"We can look around and see, 'How can we adapt these things for the Cubs?' " Pete Ricketts said. "So for instance, when Crane Kenney puts the Under Armour (signage) there on the doors that lead into the garden area, or the tool shed, I thought that was a great way to improve the revenue but not to disrupt the look and feel of the ivy.

"That's a great example of how we have to look at what other people are doing -- think creatively and apply it to Wrigley Field. When it comes to things like the Jumbotron, or whatever it's going to be, we'll have to see what other people are doing, but remember we have to preserve the Wrigley experience here to make sure it's a Chicago fit."

Tom Ricketts said there will be immediate plans to upgrade the restrooms and concessions and improve the flow of traffic on the concourse after games. Long-range plans call for upgrading luxury suites, but that isn't a priority.

"There's not a lot of flexibility to really add any more suites," he said. "We can fix up the ones we have to a certain extent, but it's not like we're looking to turn any more of the space to a corporate sponsor."

Lou PiniellaManager Lou Piniella is returning for what he says will be his final season, and the Ricketts say they are happy to have him back.

"Lou Piniella is one of the best managers in baseball," Tom Ricketts said. "He has an option to come back next year and we hope he does. I think he's the right guy to improve on this year's performance."

Cubs fansThe Ricketts grew up in Omaha but consider themselves "old school" Cubs fans who care about the team's performance as much as the Wrigley experience.

"Calling Wrigley Field a beer garden is unfair," Tom Ricketts said. "Obviously, people come out here and socialize as well as watch a game. But there are a lot of people who come out here with a focus on baseball, and a lot of fans -- real fans -- when you talk to people around, it's not like they just got their season tickets.

"People have been coming here for 25 years or they came with their grandfather. Obviously there is a social aspect to Wrigley that's terrific, but I wouldn't call it a beer garden."

Odds and endsTodd Ricketts said he expects to sit in the bleachers and liked the idea of bringing back beer vendors there, while Pete Ricketts joked they will "landmark the troughs" in the men's restrooms.

As for Kenney's statement last winter that the Cubs eventually would like to increase the number of night games to 50, Tom Ricketts said it hasn't been discussed and he doesn't think the team needs more night games to be competitive.

He also said there are no current plans to start their own TV network, as the Yankees have done with their YES Network.

"The TV contracts are pretty long term at the moment, so I think it's pretty much as is," he said, referring to WGN-TV and Comcast SportsNet.

As for the importance of dealing malcontent Milton Bradley, Tom Ricketts deferred to Hendry. "That's a question for Jim," he said. "We'll just leave it at that."

psullivan@tribune.com