By: E&P Staff Tribune Co. Chairman and CEO Sam Zell is abandoning attempts to sell historic Wrigley Field separately from its home team, the Chicago Cubs, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times Tuesday.
Citing unnamed sources, the paper said Zell had rejected a "secret" plan by former Illinois Gov. James Thompson -- chairman of the state's Sports Facility Authority -- that would have put the Friendly Confines, as Wrigley is known, in state hands in a $400 million transaction.
To avoid using taxpayers dollars for Wrigley, the plan depended on an untested concept known as "equity seat rights," in which individual seats at the stadium are sold outright to individuals. The plan differs from the widespread practice of selling "personal seat licenses," a fee that grants the right to buy season tickets.
"Zell, Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney, and their advisers have concluded that the equity plan and its tax ramifications would violate both the Internal Revenue Service code and the rules of Major League Baseball, the sources said," the story by staff reporters Fran Spielman and David Roeder reported.
Zell has considered several plans to sell the stadium separately, including one that raised considerable controversy because it would have been funded by state sales tax revenue.
Analysts estimate the sale of the team and stadium could bring the heavily leveraged Tribune Co. as much as $1 billion.
With his deal to take Tribune private last December, Zell added $8.2 billion in debt to the Chicago media company. Interest on its total debt of nearly $13 billion will amount to about $1 billion this year, including a $650 balloon payment in December.
Monday, Tribune agreed to sell Newsday in Long Island, N.Y., to locally owned Cablevision for $650 million in a deal in which Tribune retains a 3% stake in the publisher to defer capital gains taxes.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here