Cubs Finally Have a Winning Business Plan

When the Rickettses bought the Cubs, the team was coming off of three straight winning seasons. “I’ll be honest: I think we have a team that can do it next year,” Tom, the team chairman, said at the press conference announcing the purchase. The on-field performance, however, papered over institutional rot. Under Tribune, almost every dollar of the budget went to player payroll. Big-name free agents kept fans coming through the turnstiles and tuning in on TV; everything else was neglected. “We basically had this asset that was in a time capsule for 30 or 40 years,” Kenney says.