JUNE SWOON

 In about a week, the Cubs went from first to 6 GB the Brewers.

It came after a historic combined no-hitter in LA.

It ended with a near historic blowing a 7 run first inning lead to get beaten 15-7 by the Brewers.

The excuses come easy to the optimists: the Cubs have had a rash of injuries (so have other clubs); the West Coast road trip took them out of their game (teams travel all the time); the pitchers are just coming back to their mean.

But angry fans on the sports radio shows complain that a series of unheard of minor league journeymen (below replacement player talent) shows that ownership is tanking the season. Tanking, so Jed Hoyer can sell off all the pending free agents to start a complete tear-down rebuild.

It is not surprising that the Cubs have fallen into a cesspool of mistrust.  The Yu Darvish trade for basically nothing was clearly a salary dump. The irony is that the Cubs desperately needed a quality starter to be competitive in the winnable NL Central. Any hope of acquiring one at the trade deadline is zero.

It is also not surprising considering the Cubs failed to sign any player extensions in the off-season. Kyle Schwarber was let go (to go on to have a career year with the Nationals). Bryant, Baez and Rizzo have all sat on the contract sidelines, with Rizzo being insulted by the Cubs last offer.

It is not surprising considering Tom Ricketts complained loudly about the 2020 "biblical losses" sustained by the team (but most believe the red-ink blood bath was the real estate development losses).

The team has not developed a quality starter under the Epstein-Hoyer regime. Only one home grown prospect, Alzolay, has made more than one start - - - and is clearly a 5th starter at best. The pitching staff has been a patch work of other team cast offs or free agents, for good or ill. It is clear Jake Arrieta's tank is pretty empty.

The June Swoon gives management the argument that the season is lost . . . so a fire sale is in the best interests of the club. If the team does not trade its pending free agents, the current CBA allows for a Round 1A compensation pick. But no one knows what the new CBA will look like (which will freeze the free agent market this off-season).

TEAR DOWN

 Part of the MLB Trade Rumors live chat from December 29:

Cubs (Comment)

2:01

Seems they just gave away Darvish. Also are Cubs in rebuild now.

 

Steve Adams (Response)

2:03

They pretty much did. They're a worse team now with Davies than with Darvish and Caratini, and no one else they acquired will help them before 2023. This team won the division and went to the playoffs -- and despite the fact that no one else in the NL Central is trying, the Cubs are content to just deliberately get worse. I'd be furious if I were a Cubs fan.

 

 "I'd be furious if I were a Cubs fan."

The Cubs are not in a rebuild. They are in a tear down. Epstein left early because he did not want the terrible job to trade away or cut his "friends" (players he signed). One commentator said of the Darvish deal, he did not realize that Jed Hoyer was still working for the Padres.

It does send an awful message to Cub Land.

It was reported that the Cubs lost $200 million in 2020. However, if you look closely, that is an exaggeration. And most of the losses were self-inflicted by ownership.

The Cubs biggest problem was its television deal. Or lack of one. The Marquee Network was a first year failure. Comcast did not pay the Cubs network until October.  The national TV revenue was probably cut to a third. The Cubs current radio rights deal is very small when it burned itself by leaving WGN in a bumbling fashion. The Cubs probably had total broadcast revenue of $25 million.

But the Cubs payroll of $214 million was prorated down to $71 million. Plus, the Cubs saved on not funding any minor league affiliates. Plus, early in the year, the Cubs laid off most of its scouting and development staff. In reality, the "baseball operations" may have lost $50 million in 2020.

But the Ricketts biblical horror has to do with the fact no fans came to games. They claim that 67 percent of their revenue comes from fans attending games. Again, there is no way to know if that is true.  But the argument is mixing apples and oranges as a great portion of Ricketts family revenue comes from non-baseball operations. Wrigley Field is a separate revenue entity. Ricketts lost all extra concert revenues. The bars and restaurants in Gallagher Way had no thirsty fans to spend big money pre and post games. There were several tenants in Ricketts buildings that went out of business, including Joe Maddon's restaurant, meant that rental revenues were seriously down. The hotel was closed for the entire year, so no revenue from that property. The other ancillary businesses, such as the parking lot revenue, also evaporated. But part of the problem of Ricketts financial cries is that they overbuilt the neighborhood, relied on public support at inflated prices, and bombed at creating their own cash cow network. If Ricketts lost $200 million, it is fair to guess that most of it is from bad ancillary business operations.

As it stands today, the Cubs projected 2021 payroll is $122 million. If the Cubs trade of Darvish is any indication, the pending free agents of Bryant (owed $18.6 M), Rizzo ($16.5 M) and Baez ($11 M) are also trade targets (but at much lesser value than Darvish). You might as well add Hendricks ($14 M) to the fire sale bargain bin. If you trade those players, Ricketts lops off another $60.1 million in payroll. NOW, YOU CAN BOAST you are at $62 million, small market level which means you may be able to break even on the baseball side in 2021.

It is obvious that Ricketts and the front office do not care about the fans. The Cubs WON the division this year. The Reds and Brewers already signaled that they were giving up on 2021. The Pirates are already in the early stages of a complete rebuild. The Cardinals lost veterans and seem to be willing to stay pat this off-season. The NL Central is going to be a weak and crappy division that the Cubs could win again if the team stayed as is. 

To say that Davies, Mills, Alzolay and Rea are just as good as Darvish, Lester, Chatwood and Quintana is an insult. The Cubs currently only have TWO outfielders listed on their 40 man roster. It speaks to the fact that the 2021 roster will be filled in with cheap, journeymen players at the end of their careers. It stinks like the teams Epstein pulled together during his rebuild (the ones he wanted losses from to get high, no risk first round draft picks).

The one elephant in the room that the Ricketts cannot see is that the great Cub fandom is not going to pay premium prices to watch a crappy, tear down AAA team play at Wrigley Field. Fans do not have to - - - they have their World Series Championship and those memories. The Cubs lost their "lovable loser" badge in favor of dynasty championship franchise. The latter did not materialize even though the Cubs did make the playoffs. The bitter taste is that the young core that has aged out underperformed (sat on their laurels) with only one World Series appearance.

This tear down will be brutal and further be financially destructive to ownership who still thinks owning the "Cubs brand" is like printing money. The pandemic may not be under control until July, 2021 when the vaccines will be readily available to the general public. The middle class that lost their businesses due to lock down closures, bankruptcies and lack of employment opportunities is not going to be season ticket holders or even cable subscribers as the season starts. 

No one is going to shed a "tear" for ownership during the tear down because the Ricketts are not very well liked in Chicago. The family politics and relationship with Sinclair still irks some fans. People will not pay premium dollars for an inferior product when there is a young and exciting baseball team on the South Side of town.

THE LOST SEASON

Chalk up 2020 as baseball's Lost Season.

Nothing the owners and players will do going forward will salvage the lingering bitterness of money issues in the middle of an economic crushing pandemic.

MLB will take this messed up world to screw with the game's rules and traditions. Some of the projected changes:

All teams will now use the Designated Hitter. The lack of the DH was the National League's last bastion of tradition - - - and baseball strategy of a manager thinking ahead in a game to use his bullpen and field players in a winning combination. The DH eliminates much of the manager's decision process: pinch hitting, pitching around hitters, double switches, etc.

There will be the realignment that sees each team play only within its own division and against the five teams of the corresponding division in the other league. The exact permutations of that scheduling arrangement could take a variety of forms (e.g. a pair of three-game series and one four-game series against divisional opponents, plus one four-game series against each of the five teams in the opposing league’s corresponding division), but the goal will be to generally limit travel schedules to the extent possible, not that it’s a perfect setup for all clubs. In the past many owners have sought realignment by geography to reduce travel expenses. This may be an opportunity to put that new framework in place, but to the potential cost of current rivalries.

A major change is to begin extra innings with a runner on second base in an alleged effort to avoid marathon games. (Pitchers would not be charged with an earned run if said runner scores.)  This is a terrible option. It fundamentally changes the purpose of fundamentals of the game: rewarding a team without getting a double. It penalizes a pitcher who at the start of an inning with a runner in scoring position. It also messes up the most sacred thing: statistics. A player's stats need to be fully earned.

If MLB and teams are so concerned that this short season will wreck havoc on pitching staffs because of extra inning games: allow bigger pitching rosters or ALLOW TIES. There is nothing wrong with a tie (it happens in many other sports, including the early history of baseball).
 
They have also discussed the possibility of allowing already subbed-out players to reenter the game once it reaches extras. Is this Little League??!!! It gives managers an unlimited Get Out of Jail free card for his line up mistakes.

Since the owners and players have been at odds for the entire year, it is doubtful that any meaningful agreement can be reached by the sides. Health and safety issues are still up in the air. Major league facilities were closed down within weeks after positive tests from players and staff. No one will address what will happen if a player tests positive during the season. Does he go on the DL? Does all his teammates have to be quarantined as being in contact with him? If more than 4 or 5 players test positive, will the club be suspended from play? Do they then forfeit games to get the season to the playoffs? What about umpires and coaches health issues?

There is no guarantee that MLB will get all this right, but substantially changing rules is wrong.

BEING THE FIRST

Apple's Steve Jobs once said that it is better not to be the first pioneer in a new market. It is better to be an innovative second player. The reason? The pioneer has to go through much trial and error, failures, private and public criticism for a first generation product released with flaws.Jobs was anal-retentive about his products working perfectly right out of the box. You can learn from others' mistakes.

Professional sports leagues are meeting constantly trying to figure out how to salvage part of their pandemic lost seasons. The networks, starved of new content, believe there is a huge pent-up demand from fans for live sports. The owners are gnawing their teeth to get their revenue streams back. The players are not getting paid which puts a financial strain on most of their families.

There are some league commissioners who want to "lead" the world back into the sunlight. Sports give people hope. They want bragging rights that their sport knows what is doing and doing it better.

But this is a tricky matter. Things are outside of EVERYONE's control: government, scientific, and private communities. At least 18 U.S. states have lock down orders in place which restricts any type of public gathering, including sports events. In hard hit states like New York, California and Illinois, 9 of the 30 baseball clubs (30 percent) are banned from playing games.

But baseball owners continue to make proposals to the players union to re-start the season. For two days, the parties have discussed the medical and logistics of re-opening camps and playing of games. Owners believe that they can acquire enough testing materials to have multiple player tests per week. (Critics said that would take away from critical need areas as the coronavirus continues to spread.) The issue about a player, coach, umpire or staff member testing positive is hard to grasp. The CDC states a positive test should quarantine the person for at least 14 days. Anyone with contact with the positive test subject should also be quarantined for two weeks. That means an entire team would be suspended. Some Euro soccer leagues think that they can get around the "contact" person rule by immediately testing everyone and only putting positives into isolation. But even then, it may be too late.

Stanford did a study of 5,200 baseball personnel. It found that 0.7 percent infection rate. However, the reports did not state when the tests were done and what the average was at the time of testing. Massive outbreaks in NYC and Chicago have changed the numbers. U.S. officials have been saying that the nation has not reached "the peak," and that there will be a second wave later in the year.

Several players have been vocal about "risking their lives" to play under such conditions (including a biosphere proposal where the players would be isolated from their families.) Further insult to players, owners want to change the fundamental guaranteed contract structure to a 2020 "revenue sharing" plan. Players are already taking a prorated pay cut. If there is no revenue, the players get half of nothing.

But there will be players who want to play. And there will be players who will refuse to play. If the season opens and a player refuses to report, what would happen? In the past, the player would be suspended without pay. But in this case, would owners try to void the players entire contract (to rid themselves of long term dead money?)

The NBA shut down quickly after one player tested positive. Pro basketball is a contact sport. The court is small. The virus could spread quickly through teams and staff. But the NBA is thinking of ending its season with a large, confined to one location, super-tournament.

An unemployed person who is struggling to make ends meet may wonder why sports leagues are so hell bent on returning to action when the national economy is falling apart. Simple: money. There is no income without games. Some teams, like the Mets, have been for years in a financial mess. There is a possibility that many teams could face bankruptcy.

South Korea had 10 straight days of no new domestic virus cases. It had done so well in early testing, on a massive scale, quarantine outbreaks and voluntary isolation that it has a very low fatality rate. But last weekend, one man went clubbing in Itaewon. He later tested positive. He may have infected 800 or more people. Based on the fatality rate, 20 people could die from this weekend party time. As a result, South Korea has re-closed its bars and restaurants.

What happens if a league rushes to re-open and it is a disaster? Does that turn off casual fans because of perceived reckless behavior? Are owners willing to take a public relations hit? What if re-opening spreads the disease - - - is there a liability risk as well?

That is why leagues need to be super-cautious about re-opening. Yes, the world is getting cabin fever. People need to get back to work in order to get paid. The pandemic may be more panic than scientific fact in some circles, but at this point in time no one knows the nature, extent and aftermath of the virus.

SYMBOLS & STRIFE

Yesterday, there was more non-baseball news than the actual Cubs-Marlins game.

Russell Addison returned from his 40 game suspension for domestic abuse to a chorus of boos and a light smattering of applause. Theo Epstein stressed before the game that the Cubs, as an organization, gave Russell the opportunity for a second chance for which he had fulfilled his conditions of his return. The Cubs also acknowledged that there would be many fans who would voice their displeasure at the return of a spouse abuser. Epstein said that the fans had their right to their own opinions on this issue.

The Cubs also announced it banned a fan for an alleged racist gesture that was caught on a live, mid-inning broadcast with Doug Glanville. The alleged offensive gesture was an upside down "OK" sign. There is a debate whether this symbol, which is part of a kid's "circle game," was intended to be a racist slur towards Glanville. But others have said that white supremacists have recently adopted this kid's sign as a racist slur. Most people watching the telecast were unaware of the gesture or its meaning. The Cubs stated that it had "zero tolerance" for any racist actions in Wrigley Field. Whether the Cubs did an investigation or interviewed the fan about his intent is unknown.

But the Cubs and ownership have created an even bigger problem. It has been well reported through the release of Joe Ricketts emails of his intolerant behavior toward minorities. Joe Ricketts, through a Cubs press release, apologized for his involvement in racist jokes and intolerant conversations he made in his emails. In the end, there was no further ramifications from that scandal. "Zero tolerance" apparently does not apply to ownership privilege.

The same is true with the inconsistent application of fan speech. The Cubs said it was okay for fans to boo the return of a spouse abuser, but it not okay to make an alleged racist hand sign. There are many more people offended about Russell's alleged criminal conduct than what fans say or do during a game.

If the Cubs have zero tolerance toward a fan's alleged action, why does the Cubs organization have great tolerance for spousal abuse behavior and its patriarch's racist remarks?

TRASH CAN FIRE

The Miami Marlins are a trash can fire that is soon to spread throughout baseball's reputation.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred insisted Wednesday that the commissioner’s office was not aware before the sale of the team that the Marlins’ new owners planned to dramatically slash payroll, a fact disputed by two people directly involved in the negotiating process.

In a combative interview on ESPN Radio, host Dan Le Batard told Manfred: “We are starting with a lie” when Manfred said he did not know the plans of new owners Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman during the approval process.

“I’m not going to have you call me a liar!” Manfred said.

In Chicago, we were acutely aware of the sale process when the bankrupt Tribune company sold the Cubs to the Ricketts family. MLB has strict financial review of any team bidders. MLB has rules in place on team debt ratios and ownership capital requirements. MLB also has access to team financials in regard to revenue sharing and luxury tax formulas. It also has had to step in to actually advance payroll for several clubs in the last decade. Every bidder needs to provide MLB with a detailed business plan so owners who vote on the franchise transfer can be assured that the new owners will not bankrupt the team.

Two people directly involved in the sales process said that Jeter and Sherman were required to tell other owners their intentions with payroll during the approval process, and that they informed the other owners that payroll would be cut from $115 million to the $85 million to $90 million range, with $85 million used at times and $90 million other times in those discussions.

Last year’s team would have cost about $140 million if it were kept together. The Marlins’ current projected payroll for 2018 stands at about $94 million after the team traded Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon and Marcell Ozuna.

Pressed by Le Batard about whether he was aware of Jeter’s plan, Manfred said: “No. We did not have player specific plans from the Miami Marlins or any other team during the approval ownership process. Those are decisions the individual owners make. We do not approve operating decisions by any ownership, new owner or current owners. As a result, the answer is no.”

Just as any bidder does due diligence to set its offer price, MLB does a due diligence on potential ownership groups, including their background, business skills and financial deep pockets. MLB was aware that the Jeter group borrowed more than $400 million of the sale price. With that debt load, the bank would need to have security and covenants for timely principal and interest payments over the short term of the obligation.

Besides Jeter coming to town to burn down the roster, Marlins fans were upset that Jeter kicked out fan ambassadors and terminated a long time scout while he was in the hospital. The new ownership immediately dismissed four well-known Marlins executives:  special assistant to the president Jeff Conine, who goes by the nickname Mr. Marlin, and three special assistants to the owner — Hall of Famers Andre Dawson and Tony Perez, and former manager Jack McKeon, who led the Marlins to the 2003 World Series championship.

Jeter was also criticized for not attending the Winter Meetings. Jeter also avoided the press after the Stanton trade. 

However, this week Jeter held a tense town hall with season-ticket holders Tuesday night. He was taken to task by angry fans. Jeter was under fire for selling off the team’s best players in a payroll slashing move that agent Scott Boras called MLB’s “pawn shop.” The Giancarlo Stanton trade for a nominal return angered fans as well as the Marlins have also traded notable big-name (and big-money) players like Dee Gordon and Marcell Ozuna this offseason.

Several fans questioned Jeter's moves and motivation. One fan mocked the $1.2 billion sale of the Marlins, saying Jeter spent "$1.2 billion and then ran out of money," ESPN reported.

Another fan told Jeter: "You act like you ran out of money. You're not going to win here with dancing girls. You're going to win with ballplayers who know how to win. The fans are alienated. They're upset. That's what you're dealing with here."

One memorable exchange involved "Marlins Man," a Marlins fan famous for traveling around the country to various high-profile sporting events and being seen on television wearing bright orange Marlins gear. He told Jeter he wouldn't pay high prices for a "triple-A team."

Marlins Man also asked to be more involved with the team. Jeter apparently drew laughs by offering to let him throw out the first pitch if he renewed his season tickets on a 10-year plan.

At times, the meeting got messy. The Miami Herald reported a crying fan told Jeter they could have signed a pitcher and contended for the playoffs, to which Jeter asked which pitchers they could have signed. When Jeter told fans to be patient, an older man said he didn't have many more years left.
The Marlins have posted a losing record for eight straight seasons and have not made the playoff since 2002. Jeter tried to explain his rationale to the angry fans.

"You can't throw money at a problem and dig a bigger and bigger hole and not have any depth in the organization,'' Jeter said. "You have to build from the bottom up. "I hear your pain. I know you've been through a lot. But we're trying to build something that is sustainable, and this is the only way to do it."

Other teams have announced rebuild plans (such as the Astros, Cubs and White Sox) with the expectation to fans that there would be some lean years ahead.  But Jeter's plan was crude, arrogant and condescending to fans without a clear explanation of how ownership is going to create a championship team. Trading away all your good players for no real value not only hurts the fan base but destroys clubhouse chemistry. Several Marlins players are now demanding trades because the roster has been gutted to be not competitive in 2018.

When former owner Jeff Loria owned the Marlins, he was a laughingstock in the league. He was crude, brash and blind to the needs of his own fan base. He once sued his own season ticket holders who complained they were not getting what they had been promised. With the sale of the franchise, fans thought they would be getting an owner with a new vision for the future. Instead, they got a harsher version of the former hated owner, Loria 2.0.

And MLB gets a major hit to its reputation for allowing a new owner to crash and burn a franchise within a few weeks of taking it over.

MAKING GREEN

The Cubs have announced three more private clubs for season ticket holders. Underneath the entire bowl of box seats will be private clubs where season ticket holders can spend a lot of money for an exclusive place to eat and drink before, during and after the game. The infield clubs have no views of the field and the bleacher club will have a peek into the Cubs bullpen.

It is another aspect of the Ricketts family trying to seize every dime from Cub fans who come to Lakeview for games.

But there is more.

ESPN's business sports reporter, Darrem Rovell, the Cubs are marketing to their season ticket holders a "piece" of the championship season. Literally, a piece of the ivy from 2016.

The  Cubs are offering up leaves of ivy that covered Wrigley Field's outfield wall last season to season ticket holders — and the price tag is $200 per leaf.

From Rovell:

The team emailed premier clients and season ticket holders on Tuesday offering the Ivy leaves that cover Wrigley Field's outfield walls from the 2016 season. Typically discarded when the ivy turns to red and sheds its leaves in November, the team, after the 2016 historic season, instead chose to collect the leaves for the first time and have them each authenticated with a hologram.

2,016 leaves will be sold. $403,200 in additional revenue to the Cubs.

How much more will premier season ticket holders have to pay to support their team?

BANNER NIGHT

Waiting two hours watching ESPN filler was like 108 years of torture.

Instead of a 6:15 p.m. championship ceremony, it was put off by the Cubs until 8:15 p.m. The team could have done all the opening junk before the rains hit around 7 p.m. but the PR people did not want to repeat the White Sox home opener stinker where the players were introduced and the game was not played.

The banner raising ceremony lasted too long. The temperature dropped 30 degrees from the time the pregame show started until the first pitch was thrown. But for the Cub players, the 45 minutes used to wander around the field and into the center field stands to timidly raise the WS banner was circus animal parade overkill. It looked like they were on an elementary school field trip to a textile mill. And only a few of them got to pull on the cord to actually raise the banner.

Then the cameras followed them through the underbelly of the bleachers, and past the new metal dungeons called the bullpens, and back into the light of the field. This time, Anthony Rizzo emerged holding the championship trophy. From the march to home plate, the players followed his lead, then dispersed when he handed the trophy to Tom Ricketts. Many people may have lost the symbolism of that moment: the players who won the championship were giving it to ownership who will keep it for themselves.

In the constant re-construction of Wrigley Field, the team installed four new flagpoles in center field. In the past, banners flew on the foul pole standards or on top of the upper deck roof. But now there are new flag poles for the banners. The one oddity is that the fourth pole now has the 2016 NL pennant on it (which someone diminishes the other NL championships).  I thought that they would raise the banner on the old center field scoreboard flag pole since this scoreboard is now merely an unused shadow of its former glory. Who needs pennants to tell the standings? Use it to fill the banners on those flag poles. But the team wanted BIG banners and more space to fly in last night's stiff winds.

ESPN announcers stressed for hours that this was the celebration of a championship season for players and fans. True. But it also marks the end of last season's wonderful run, and the beginning of the 2017 title defense. And it also marks the end of innocent traditions of baseball history as the Cathedral of Baseball is now another modern park with all the trappings of commercialism.

The start of another rash of merchandising sales, such as the special gold lettering Cubs home jerseys, were already on sale before the game. The championship banners will be for sale, too. And as Crain's pointed out before the game, the new "Park" construction outside Wrigley is forcing old merchants blocks away from Wrigley Field as the Cubs continue to monopolize the block around the field with its own proprietary and expensive merch centers.

THE GRINCH

From the beginning, the one golden business philosophy of the new Cubs ownership has been that no one else except the Cubs should profit from the Cubs in Wrigleyville.

It did not matter that Lakeview businesses such as bars and restaurants have been serving the community for generations (even when the Cubs product could not draw flies). Ricketts strong belief is that no one is entitled to make any direct or indirect money off his team.

No wonder there has been a contentious relationship between the Cubs and the neighborhood. The suit against the rooftop owners was a prime example. Even after the settlement, Ricketts attempted to block them out of business with new jumbotrons. The residents have pushed back on the unilateral demands of the Cubs, but the Cubs have steam rolled the city council to ask for more and more exceptions to the general business rules.

The Ricketts massive redevelopment plan in and around Wrigley Field is clearly "overzoning" for the residential neighborhood. The density and traffic concerns of the area was not truly addressed as the council rubber stamped the development in a time when Chicago is still reeling from the 2008 real estate collapse.

The Cubs sued a man who was selling on the street corner his own Cubs newsletter. Despite the First Amendment rights of publishers, the Cubs were trying to muscle out anyone who would "compete" with their vendors selling game programs. It would seem petty to try to drive out a man trying to sell programs to help support his kid's education, but the Cubs took the matter to the federal appellate court, which gave me a mixed ruling - - - including a statement that the Cubs themselves were violating a city ordinance against peddlers around Wrigley Field. In response, the Cubs quietly lobbied the city to change that ordinance for the team's benefit.

The Cubs placed their own souvenir shop across the street from Wrigley to compete with the other street merchants. The team pushed the envelope by offering official player signed game jerseys.

The Ricketts wanted the triangle space to be an unregulated, open air beer garden. Even that was too much for police and fire to handle. But this is part of the plan to capture every single dollar spent in a mile radius of the park. The idea of more Wrigley concerts is a way to try to diminish other live entertainment venues like the Cubby Bear. It is also a means of the Ricketts family trying to maximize revenue from Wrigley Field when baseball is not played. It is apparent that whole concept that Ricketts wants to create their own year round entertainment center like Disneyland.

But just as sinister of motivations is how the team treats its most loyal fans, the season ticket holders. Season ticket holders paid top dollar for years of horrible Cubs baseball. The Cubs have been near the top of the league with the most expensive ticket prices. Fans were rewarded during the bad stretch with the advent of "dynamic" ticket prices - - - you had to pay more for games with good teams. All prices inside the park increased as well, making it very difficult for an average middle class family to attend games.

So with the World Championship team of young controllable core of players, the Cubs first reaction was to significantly raise ticket prices 6 to 31 percent. The highest toll is being collected on the prime box seats season ticket holders, who are also being pushed to buy "memberships" in the exclusive lounge to be built under Wrigley Field. This lounge is to keep the high rollers inside the park before and after games so they spend their booze money inside Wrigley. Some called the rise in ticket prices a slap in the face to loyal season ticket holders.

Well, the slap has turned into a full sucker punch. The Tribune reports today that many season ticket holders have lost 2017 seats because the Cubs were upset that many "sold" their tickets during the playoffs for greater than face value. The Cubs already collected the face value on the tickets. But the team is upset that it "lost" the secondary market "profit" on those tickets. It is a really tenuous argument. The Cubs set the price of the tickets and collected the money. The Cubs did not lose anything except the notion that someone else is making money instead of the Ricketts clan.

The Cubs claim that its crackdown is to keep tickets in the hands of people who actually plan on attending the games. It is also a way for them to try to maximize revenues, or at least prevent others from profiting handsomely over their popular product, according to the Tribune story.

The Tribune story states that the Cubs season ticket holder agreement is a "revocable license."
Season ticket licenses are renewed on a yearly basis, the club said, "at the sole discretion of the team." The license agreement includes language advising fans their plan may be canceled if tickets have been purchased "for the purpose and intent of reselling the tickets on the secondary market."

It is ironic since the Cubs have been for years "reselling" their own tickets through their own ticket broker. And Major League Baseball has an official partnership with StubHub makes it easier than ever for fans to sell and buy tickets with a few clicks of a button or swipes of the finger. For high-demand teams like the Cubs, the puzzle is how to capture the maximum amount of dollars without alienating loyal and longtime fans, while keeping at least some prices affordable for the average fan, those who study sports business told the Tribune.

So instead of rewarding the most loyal fans who spent the most to support their team, season ticket holders get the harshest brunt of the Ricketts greed. It just puts into focus one of the realities of this era of the Cubs. The fans truly love and admire the players and coaches, but they do not like the owners.

During the playoffs, I told friends that a Cubs World Championship would be the WORST thing that could happen to the Ricketts family. The Ricketts have not completed the bulk of their real estate development work. They have not generated any new revenue from the McDonald's block or the new triangle building. They are spending millions of dollars with the expectation that more people will flock to their venue to see the Cubs.

But one of the driving forces for fans to come to Cub games was the 108 year championship drought. They came to be a part of history, when the curse would be broken. Many paid dearly to attend games or be around the park during the World Series. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

And that moment finished with a World Championship.

And that diffuses and crumbles one of the foundations of Cub fandom: the lovable losers are no more. People have their championship season. They have their World Series merchandise. They have the lifetime memories of the World Series run. Nothing will surpass that emotion.

So there is little reason for the average person to pay 31 percent more to watch in person the 2017 Cubs. Many will save their money for next year's expensive playoff games by watching games on TV. And for a few, once the top of the mountain was reached, there is no need to climb the trail again. They will become part-time, causal fans.  And those new fans who were caught up by the hysteria of the bandwagon, will probably drop off and return to their normal, non-sports centric lives.

All those elements bode for less revenue opportunities for the Ricketts because the Cubs peaked a couple of years too soon to capture all the Rickettsville revenue.

THAT WAS QUICK

The parade had not even started before the angry trolls and out-of-town columnists began to sandbag the historic Cub championship.

It was not mere jealousy. It was more like contempt.

The Lovable Losers moniker has been destroyed in dramatic fashion. The Cubs re-cemented themselves as the national baseball team, to the disdain of the folks in Boston or New York or St. Louis.

It may also be a combination of fear. Fear that the Cubs could go on a vintage Yankees run of several consecutive championship seasons. The young is is still very young. Most of the starting pitchers will be back in 2017. The Cubs could still spend more (given the chance by ownership) to get replacement free agents. Yes, other NL clubs are looking down the double barrel of a shotgun.

There may be also a sense in the negative fandom of other teams that their punching bag is gone. A security blanket that their own team does not suck as bad as the Cubs. The Cubs were destined to never be good. There were annual "Cubbie occurrences" which sabotaged their seasons. People outside Chicago loved to watch the slow car crash that was the Old Cubs.

But that has now changed - - -  forever.

There is no Next Year. There is no joke that the Cubs "can't lose today (because they are not playing.)" There are a hoard of screaming people waving "W" blankets in the streets and bars throughout the country. They are the New Cub Nation. Their overwhelming release of joy and relief was a tsunami of emotions for generations of fans, alive and dead.

The Game 7 telecast was the highest rated baseball game in 15 years. A media pundit may conclude in a few years that Cubs-Indians World Series was the turning point to put baseball back on the same television platform as the NFL, which has been the dominate American sports franchise but is now under the pressure of significant ratings drop.

The Cubs victory puts pressure on other teams and fans to be introspective and critical of their own teams success and failures. And that is usually not an easy thing. Being a fan is a form of escapism. Being a Cub fan was a form of communal penance for a long forgotten sin.

One of the least recognized fears is the Fear of Success. If you attain something important in your life, there is a sudden panic realization of "what's next?!"  Pause for a moment. You are no longer a door mat. You have achieved a life dream. You have had the greatest release of endorphin rush for the past two weeks. You have been in the clouds for the past 36 hours. It is like opening the greatest Christmas present, ever.

How do you top this feeling?

You don't. It is a once in a lifetime burst of wonderment and joy. It cannot be repeated at the same level of newness, surprise or desire. "Just win one in my lifetime" prayer has been answered by the baseball gods.

Even if there is a second, third or fourth championship (like the Bulls or Blackhawks), the first one is the most memorable, the most important, the most connected to the fans. it would be nice to go on a long run of winning to help enhance today's accomplishment. It gives one more ammo in bar talks comparing other teams to the Cubs.

But fans, especially the casual ones, will not mortgage their homes, max out their credit cards, ditch school or work, to spend 10 days in Wrigleyville buying expensive playoff tickets, $150 cover charges just to get into bars to eat and drink during games, or spend $50 for special event T-shirts. No, those premium prices will plummet in 2017. Supply and demand. The 2016 Cubs supplied what the fans always wanted - - - the championship. The 2017 Cubs could repeat, but fans who tapped out to see the promised land will not have the same level of interest to spend $3,000 for a playoff ticket. The casual fan caught up in the moment may not return. The demand for Cubs stuff, including games, will decline so the supply (cost) will have to be lowered to sustain a reasonable, connected fan base.

The great irony is that a Cubs world championship is probably the worst thing to happen to the Ricketts family. They paid a premium for the team because of its history and loyal fan base. The Cubs sold the possibility of ending a century of futility. They are paying a fortune to build a Disneyland of commercial properties around Wrigley Field. This season they received no revenue from these huge real estate projects. If the fan base does temper its expectations and spending habits, the Ricketts may be building an entire white elephant entertainment district.

There will be plenty of Christmas boxes filled with the discount championship logos. And by the time spring training will arrive in Arizona, there will be no crushing presence of whether "this is the year?" because 2016 was The Year. Hope will turn to Expectation of a repeat, but there will not be the emotional investment if the Cubs fail to achieve a second title. And thus, the Cubs marquee franchise will settle down into the peer group of being a very good team year over year to the knowledgeable fan. The only bristle will be the arguments with other team fans on where this Cub team ranks in history of the game. Or the fact the Cubs have only one title in 108 years. So what? Cubs diehards will reply. It does not matter anymore. The Cubs are the World Champions. That can never be taken away or diminished in bar talk or negative columns. It will be the permanent memory in the psyche of many people - - - hardwired in like the memories of where you were when JFK was assassinated, or when the planes hit the towers on 9/11.  But this will be a joyful memory that will comfort people for a long, long time.

SHUT OUTS

The season has not started by millions of baseball fans will be shut out.

NY Post reports the continuing saga of sports teams and cable operators over team license fees.

Cable operators are winning.

The head butt over broadcast rights fees continues at the start of the season by big carriage standoffs for regional sports networks in New York and Los Angeles.

The LA Times reports that Time Warner Cable sweetened its deal for SportsNet LA, the exclusive TV home of the Dodgers, but no deal has been come to pass.


The cable provider, which already cut the channel’s price by 30 percent for one year, offered pay-TV providers a new six-year deal to carry the regional sports net.

The first year would be at the lower $3.50-a-month introductory price with the rate ticking up in subsequent years, according to the LA Times, citing a source close to the talks.

So far, AT&T’s DirecTV and other pay-TV operators in Southern California have not responded to the latest offer, which means some 3 million homes in Southern California will miss out on Dodgers games for a third straight season.

The billion dollar Dodger cable network deal was based upon full coverage of the LA area. That has not happened, and it makes future megachannel deals unlikely for teams, including the Cubs.

The same situation is playing out in the New York area. YES, which airs Yankees games, has been blacked out on Comcast since November amid a carriage dispute with the network’s majority owner, 21st Century Fox.

The blackout affects about 900,000 Comcast subscribers who live in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

Under its old contract, Comcast was guaranteed the lowest price because of a so-called “most favored nation” clause. It wants to continue that even though it lost its title as the biggest pay-TV provider to the combined AT&T- DirecTV.

ST. LOUIS VILE

I cannot recall such vile vitriol from a city and fan base after a player leaves via free agency. 

When the Cubs signed Jason Heyward, Cardinal fans went nuts on social media. The insults were harsh and stupid. The St. Louis media also jumped on this hate bandwagon, calling Heyward "disloyal," a "traitor," and a "Benedict Arnold." They could not believe Heyward turned down a "better" offer from the Cardinals to play for the hated Cubs.

Heyward only played for the Cardinals for one year! He did not come up through the St. Louis system; he was an Atlanta Brave for most of his career. 

And if you break down his new deal, the Cubs actually are paying more than the Cardinals AAV deal. With the signing bonus and the op out clause, the Cubs are paying Heyward $26 million/season for the first three years. 

Is this still crass bitterness that the Cubs defeated the Cardinals in the post season? 

Or the impending fear and doom that the Cubs are now a championship caliber team?

But Heyward's explanation of his decision is noteworthy.

In his introductory press conference this week, Heyward explained that he was drawn to the Cubs in part because of the roster stability he expects them to have going forward. 

 “Knowing the core is young and those guys are going to be around for a while is very exciting,” Heyward said, according to ESPN. “I don’t want to take the highest dollar amount when my gut is telling me to go somewhere else. Being 26 years old and knowing that my contract would put me in any clubhouse for longer than most people there, you have to look at age, how fast the team is changing and how soon those changes will come about.”

TICKET HIKE

On average, Cub ticket prices for 2016 will go up approximately 10 percent.

The number of marquee games also has been increased from nine to 14 in the bowl and the bleachers, while one section of outfield terrace reserve has been reclassified to corner box reserve, with a 38 percent increase.

Colin Faulkner, senior vice president of sales and partnerships, said the team's annual analysis of ticket sales from 2015, along with its renewal numbers, the waiting list for tickets and the huge demand for postseason tickets, led to the team's highest increase since 2010.

"We've clearly seen an increase in demand, so that helped factor into an increase in our prices," Faulkner said. "Our goal is to remain competitive for the long term and provide value to our fans for a competitive baseball team, but also (value) in their tickets."

Faulkner said a team analysis found there was a 20 percent increase in 2015 for tickets on the secondary market over 2014, while postseason tickets were going for three to four times face value.
The first payment deadline of 20 percent is Dec. 2, with the full amount due Jan. 12. Faulkner said the majority of fans have put their postseason ticket refunds for the unplayed playoff games (Game 5 of the NLCS and three World Series games) toward next year's tickets.

In other words, the Cubs are trying to capture some of the "secondary market" value of Cub tickets. This goes back to the philosophy that ownership seethes about: no one but the Cubs should make money off the Cubs. The spike in prices for post season tickets is a natural occurrence and a benefit to season ticket holders who paid for years of dreadful teams. But the Cubs only want the team to profit from its success.

The Cubs had the third-highest average ticket price in the game in 2015, according to Team Marketing Report. They finished sixth in major-league attendance at 2.959 million fans after ranking 11th at 2.562 million in 2014.

The Trib reports  the increases will range from about 7 percent in the upper box midfield/outfield to 14.5 percent in upper infield reserve to more than the 38 percent increase in some of the newly reclassified terrace boxes.

The highest average ticket price, a club infield box, is $105.24 per game, or $118 with the 12 percent amusement tax added. The lowest, upper deck outfield reserve, is $20.37, or about $23 with the amusement tax. Bleacher tickets remain about the same, from $16 to $65 before taxes, though the addition of marquee games will increase the total price.

One section of the terrace reserved outfield, affecting about 900 seats, or about 350 season-ticket holders, will be reclassified.

"Those are going up 43 percent," Faulkner said. "We found the first five or six rows are much different than the seats that could potentially be in Row 28-29 or 30 at the back of those sections."

LOTTERY TRAP

The Cubs are holding a "lottery" for 2015 playoff tickets.

The Cubs have a 99 percent chance of making the wild card play in game.

The Cubs have decided to have a lottery for post season tickets. The lottery page screen:

There are a couple points to be made:

1. Despite what the Cubs marketing department has said, the team did not sell enough season ticket packages to have a built in base for all the post-season tickets. The league and opposing team are given a large block of playoff tickets to give to player families, league staff and baseball national sponsors. It is more probable than not that the Cubs lost many season ticket holders this year because of three years of bad teams at high prices and the bleachers being closed for construction early in the season.

2. The lottery page is a blatant data mining operation. If it was a pure lottery, none of the questions is relevant for your chances to "win" the ability to purchase nose bleed seats at inflated prices. If the Cubs are trying to weed out the die hard fan from the scalper, then just open the ticket windows at 6 a.m. one morning and see the true die hards line up. The team has not announced how many tickets are actually available for each playoff game, so thousands of people may be signing up with no chance of getting a ticket. But in order to feed off the high expectations of the fan base, the team is milking their fans to get valuable data to use or re-sell on the secondary information market.

SAFETY

There have been an epidemic of serious fan injuries this season at baseball parks.

Sunday's Cubs game was halted due to a fan injury.

The game was briefly delayed in the first inning after Kyle Schwarber's foul liner struck a female fan sitting just past the camera well on the first base side.

The woman was carried off on a stretcher and taken to a hospital. The Cubs said she was conscious, but had no further details on her condition.

''Oh my God, awful,'' Joe Maddon said.

Several fans around the majors have been hit this season by fouls and flying bats, and Major League Baseball has said it is studying the issue of crowd safety.

Maddon issued his own warning.

''Pay attention. I hate to say, but those are wonderful seats. Probably pay a lot of money for them, you're digging the fact that you're right there. I watch and and I see people turning their back to the field when action is going. You just can't do it, you can't do it,'' he said.

''But what I'm saying is, when you're at the ballpark and you're in those particular locations, watch what is going on. Don't turn your head away from the action. Every time a ball is pitched you look, you look and see, then you can go and talk. That's probably the best answer, to just pay attention.''

The problem with Maddon's advice is that it was fine twenty years ago but not today.

Tiger pitcher Justin Verlander went to social media to push for changes after a woman was hit by a foul ball in the eighth inning of a recent Tigers' home game against the Texas Rangers.

"More protective measures need to be put in place in all ball parks! Players are sick of seeing injuries that could easily be avoided!" Verlander said on the social media site after seeing medical personnel take the woman away in a neck brace, adding that Major League Baseball should make changes "before it's too late."

The Tigers said after the game that the woman, who was sitting behind the home team dugout, was hospitalized for tests but was alert and conscious.

Tigers third baseman Nick Castellanos said there was "no way" the fan could have reacted in time to avoid being hit by the ball of Anthony Goes’s bat.

He's in favor of increased security netting between the field and fans.

In July a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco seeking to have Major League Baseball install such protective netting down the baselines. Currently such netting is typically used only directly behind home plate.

In the past, the license printed on the back of your ticket insulated owners from liability. The legal concept is assumption of risk. It presumes to have certain knowledge about the likelihood that objects can fly off the field into the stands, so the law imposes a duty on fans to take reasonable precautions for their own safety. The legal effect is if a fan  is even 1% at fault for their own injuries, they are not entitled to any legal recovery whatsoever as a matter of law.

But there have been a few court cases that have versed this old doctrine and imposed some liability on teams. Truth be told, owners do not want to aggrieve high paying season-ticket holders who like the unobstructed view from their close seats near the field in foul territory, and they believe these premium fans do not want something as foreign as safety netting getting in the way. But baseball owners are adding the danger of fan injury caused by the wave of new ballpark improvements.

Technology has become today's addictive distraction. People bend over their cell phones like nuns in a church pew. The world around them is lost; these people don't pay attention to where they are going (running into people on sidewalk, stepping out into traffic; texting while driving). 

And baseball owners, in order to attract younger fans, push team apps, stats, fantasy sports to patron's smart phones. They want fans to tweet and retweet during the game. They are fans to have "an interactive experience." 

The addition of large electronic scoreboards showing replays and information further distract fans attention from the actual game on the field. 

Twenty years ago people came to baseball games to watch a contest but also to have a social experience with family and friends. Sitting a park, with the ebb and flow of down time between pitches, allowed fans to actually talk to each other during a game. Perhaps, with the advances in communications technology, the average person is less engaged on one-on-one personal conversations than in the past. And that is the point that baseball does not fully comprehend.

A split second reaction time looking at a foul ball racing toward your head can be the difference between life and death. (The last baseball fan fatality by a baseball in the stands was in 1970 at Dodger Stadium). The human brain is hard wired to make instant reactions to protect itself from harm. Reaction times have been decreased for fans in the stands as in the case of Wrigley Field, the foul territory from the field to the seats has dramatically contracted over the years. Closer seats without protective netting equals fan injury. A distracted fan by his own phone or the video boards is a sitting duck in the stands.

But owners will say that tradition and the fan experience outweighs the rare fan injury. In the NHL, a young woman was killed by a stray puck which lead to the league putting in protective netting around the entire rink. It is possible to put a clear, transparent netting around the box seats to catch screaming liners or helicoptering baseball bats. But in the cost-benefit analysis, teams won't do it. 

Economic models show that the value of a human life is $3.5 million. Is it worth that much money to install safety netting in each park to avoid serious to fatal fan injury? Or do baseball men think the money is better spent on a veteran utility infielder as the 25th man on their roster?

FAN SAFETY

For whatever reason, there have been more horrible fan injuries this year at MLB games.

Last night, a young woman in Boston was impaled in her forehead by a broken bat. She sustained life threatening injuries according to the Boston Globe report:

A woman sitting down the third baseline at Fenway Park Friday night had to be carted out of the stadium after she was hit by a broken bat, and her injuries appeared to be “life-threatening” that night, Boston police spokeswoman Rachel McGuire told Boston.com.

In the second inning, Oakland Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie shattered his bat on a pitch from Red Sox hurler Wade Miley; a piece of the bat flew into the stands, striking the woman in the head.

Boston Globe reporter reported that there was “lots of blood” and called it an “awful scene.”

The woman, who was sitting near the field with an unidentified man and her son, was transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, McGuire said. The game was delayed while she was treated and removed from the stadium.

Other reports indicated that fans offered paramedics their  t-shirts to help stop the bleeding as it was described as being more blood than anyone had ever seen. Fans in the section were in shock and silence when the grounds crew had to come to the area to clean up the blood. The umpires and players on the field who saw the incident huddled on the field during the delay, obviously shaken up by the event.

Fan safety was an issue when Wrigley Field opened up without any real sanitation. A woman was hit in the back of her head by a foul ball behind the plate as it stretched the netting causing the impact. More and more parks have little to no foul ground so as the owners can add more premium seats. But this adds an additional level of risk for screaming foul balls at 100 plus miles per hour hitting a patron, or as last night, a sharp projectile flying into the stands.

There is some precedent for ball park owner liability in these matters.

It may have come down to what hockey had to do - - - install nets all around the lower level of the arena. With current manufacturing technologies, one can assume that netting can be made clear and transparent as to not hinder the view of the fans in the box seats.

WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT

Even with a daily dose of Deadspin commentary and a few photographs, the callers on local sports talk radio on the evening commute made it clear that the situation at Wrigley on Opening Night was worse than previously reported.

The Cubs continue to sugar coat the situation as being opening night jitters, construction delays and that it will have fixed for tonight's game with portable toilets.

And the city officials have been silent on the issues that plagued the fans.

As more than one caller said it was a health and safety hazard. The concourse was packed for the entire night with people not moving, a crushing situation. The lines backed up into the stands, causing many sections to be blocked from viewing the game. The men's restroom floor was a soaked with standing urine. People began urinating in cups and discharging themselves on the walls in the concourse. Wrigley was a crowded and open sewer.  If you were any other Chicago business, you would have been red tagged, closed down, and not allowed to open for business.

As other callers stated, this is more evidence of the incompetence of Cubs management. Half of the restrooms were going to be out of commission before the season opened so management should have known there would be an issue for 35,000 fans (the Cubs knew the attendance in advance of opening the gates.) When the upper deck restrooms failed, the Cubs did nothing except adding to the confusion by directing patrons down the jammed and stopped ramps to the lower level two functioning restrooms. It was so bad, callers indicated that they stood in line for one to one and half HOURS. Many of them just quit and left the park to use facilities of neighboring businesses.

The Cubs said that once the bleachers are finished, the restroom capacity will be expanded under the left field area. But that is no comfort for a couple of callers who said they were very concerned about bringing their young children to tonight's game. No one knows whether the Cubs had a top to bottom Hazmat cleaning of the concourses and restrooms. Parents are concerned for the safety and welfare of bringing their children to Wrigley Field. There is no public relations spin today that can change that objective parental concern. Considering the Cubs fan price index puts the cost for a family of four to see a game at more than $300 (third in the MLB in cost), it is probably not worth subjecting children to sardine concourses, urine soaked restrooms and people peeing on stadium walls.

The Cubs also stated that they don't think it will be a problem tonight because they expect less people. But that is not the point. Even if they put in portable toilets inside Wrigley (which are actually made to be outside for ventilation purposes), the damage has been done. The team touted the improvements as enhancing "the fan experience." It was a total fail in the national spotlight.

Neither Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, Crane Kenney or Tom Ricketts have stepped up to the podium and admitted this failure of epic proportions. This shows the problem in how the Cubs are organized: Epstein is in charge of the baseball team while Kenney is in charge of the business side. But the business of the Cubs is baseball which includes ticket sales, concessions and fan service. In essence, no one is in charge of this mess. The idea to focus the night on how great the Jumbotron looked while looking away as their customers waded their way through urine soaked concourses is going to negatively affect any future fan goodwill.

BUCKING THE TREND

The White Sox had an excellent off-season.

And now, the team is bucking the trend of increasing ticket prices for part of the season.

ESPN reported that fans can  buy a package of 11 weekday home games in April and May is near impossible, except if you sell them for close to nothing.

That's exactly what the team is doing, announcing the "Ballpark Plan" that gives a fan every home game the team plays on a Monday through Thursday in the first two months of the season -- for $29 total. The cheapest ticket sold separately this season is $7.18.

"Given the weather we have and the product we've had in the past, we've had crowds under 20,000, it made sense for us to use these games to get people to sample, or snack, on us," said Brooks Boyer, the chief marketing officer of the team.

Actual seat locations for these games, for fans who buy the package, will be based on availability and will be sent to the phones of those fans on the day of the game.

The ultimate goal is to turn the fan into a season ticket holder.

The White Sox are offering another package, which includes every game in April and May for $49. That's $2.33 a game.

Both plans don't include Opening Day or May 23, fan favorite Paul Konerko's retirement ceremony.

Stub Hub ticket prices straight from the box office in order to get more people into the ball park is an excellent idea. Each team has an inventory of seats to sell, and if they don't sell there is no revenue. And once the game is over, unsold seats is lost revenue opportunities so getting anything for the attendance is a positive.

It also brings some tangible proof that some teams are aware that the average cost of going to games is cost prohibitive for a family of four or more. The "affordability" of the game is a sore point in some communities. The White Sox are at least giving every demographic the opportunity to see the team (even if it is in the colder part of the season).

BACK TO THE WELL

The Cubs have crawled back to WGN-TV to broadcast the last 45 games of their schedule,
through the 2019 season. The games will not be televised on the WGN America superstation.
The Tribune reports that last season, WGN-Ch. 9 paid about $250,000 per game and lost $200,000 per game because of weak advertising revenue, sources said. The new rights agreement is likely more favorable for WGN and could play out better than last year’s deal, sources said, despite a later start on ad sales.


Launching a regional sports network in 2020 could mean big bucks for the Cubs, who earned about $60 million last season as the team split its schedule between Comcast SportsNet Chicago and WGN-TV. 

 The loss of 45 games would equate to losing 27 percent of potential local broadcast revenues.  Even if the Cubs take substantially less (which WGN had previously offered only a "profit sharing deal" on game telecasts, i.e. meaning nearly nothing based on last season's poor ad sales), it is still better than losing fan interest.

The Cubs need the 45 games broadcast more than WGN needs to show them. People are still creatures of habit; if a fan does not have the opportunity to watch a non-televised Cub game, he or she will find something else to do. And if that something else is just as enjoyable, then he or she may stop watching games on TV in order to experience different forms of entertainment. This is the problem the Dodgers will face in 2015 after 75% of the their local fan base could not watch 2014 Dodger games due to cable operators balking at the Dodgers license fee demands. 

If the Cubs are going to launch their own network in 2020, it needs to keep its loyal base in tact and grow the Millennials.

 Millennials are defined as the generation of people born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. Perhaps the most commonly used birth range for this group is 1982-2000. The Millennial Generation is also known as Generation Y, because it comes after Generation X — those people between the early 1960s and the 1980s. It has also been called "the Peter  Pan  or Boomerang Generation" because of the propensity of some of them to move back in with their parents, perhaps due to economic constraints, and a growing tendency to delay some of the typical adulthood rites of passage like marriage or starting a career.

Millennials have been characterized in a number of different ways. On the negative side, they've been described as lazy, narcissistic and prone to jump from job to job.  The 2008 book "Trophy Kids" by Ron Alsop discusses how many young people have been rewarded for minimal accomplishments (such as mere participation) in competitive sports, and have unrealistic expectations of working life.

Time magazine said polls show that this group demands flexible, unrealistic work schedules and  more 'me time' on the job, while needing nearly nonstop feedback and career advice from their managers.  In the story, "The Me Me Me Generation," it begins: "They’re narcissistic. They’re lazy. They’re coddled. They’re even a bit delusional. Those aren’t just unfounded negative stereotypes about 80 million Americans born roughly between 1980 and 2000. They’re backed up by a decade of sociological research."

A 2012 study found Millennials to be "more civically and politically disengaged, more focused on materialistic values, and less concerned about helping  the larger community than were GenX (born 1962-1981) and Baby Boomers (born 1946 to about 1961) at the same ages," USA Today reported.  "The trend is more of an emphasis on extrinsic values such as money,  fame, and image, and less emphasis on intrinsic values such as self-acceptance, group affiliation and community." The study was based on an analysis of two large databases of 9 million high school seniors or entering college students.

They have also been described in positive ways. They are generally regarded as being more open-minded, and more supportive of gay rights and equal rights for minorities. Other positives adjectives to describe them include confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and receptive to new ideas and ways of living.

The next generation fan base is going to be a tough sell for traditional sports leagues. They do not crave escapism through sports fanaticism, since they view the world already revolving around themselves.

They may be more adapt at new technology and how to consume new forms of entertainment like short YouTube video content created by their peers, or streaming web shows on demand. Whether they have the patience to sit and watch a three hour baseball game is suspect.

FALLING FAN BASE

An ESPN study concluded that the NFL remains the most popular league among 12- to 17-year-olds in the United States, with 38.9 percent of respondents naming it their favorite. The NBA was next at 30.1 percent, surpassing NCAA football at 27.5 percent. Next were college basketball at 23.8 percent, the MLB and Major League Soccer at 18.0 percent, and the National Hockey League at 8.9 percent.
Selig's legacy may be that he lost the next generation of baseball fans. This is Selig's last World Series. Perhaps nothing demonstrates how baseball has turned off young sports fans than how young sports fans have turned off the World Series.

Television ratings were up for last year's World Series. And so was the age of the viewers who watched it. The average age of those who watched the series was nearly 54, which is believed to be the oldest in history.

On the other hand, only 4.1 percent of children between the ages of 6-17 watched the series, the Nielsen media research firm reported.

One criticism of Bud Selig's reign as commissioner is that baseball has lost the next generation of fans. The games are too expensive for a family of four. Teams charge fans for everything, including signing up their children in a team fan club. The games are too long to hold the attention span of more technology astute kids who now have iPads, iPhones and hundred cable channels to explore.

Selig's tenure will be marked by the rise of the massive television contracts, and the huge increase in team values to owners. However, many believe that this is the high water mark of the sport. The television deals will fall due to the new distribution model emerging in the mobile digital age. With the major influx of international players, many young kids do not identify with their local players. And if the kids aren't playing the game with friends, they will have little interest in practicing their favorite ball player's batting stance.

What will be left for baseball: the statistical data farm for fantasy leagues? You don't need to watch games to play fantasy baseball.

There may be a tread of truth in the fact that baseball is as American as apple pie and Chevrolets, but America is not the America of 1950. Its demographics have changed significantly. It's culture embodied in the American Dream has stalled after the financial crisis. And there is no guarantee that any sport will continue to receive widespread, national support. A prime example is professional boxing. It used to be the king of spectator sports, with international superstars like Muhammad Ali. But today, hardly anyone knows who is the heavyweight champion.