Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Would a new White Sox owner push the Cubs to spend more?

Transcript

Would a new White Sox owner push the Cubs to spend more? · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:13
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic. Patrick, we have
0:17
Speaker 1: a guest today to talk about potential new ownership in Chicago.
0:21
Speaker 1: But let's before we get to our guest, a couple
0:26
Speaker 1: bits of news from camp today. We're recording this on
0:29
Speaker 1: what days today? Thursday? This is Thursday training brain. Nico
0:35
Speaker 1: Horner will not be traveling with the team to Japan.
0:38
Speaker 1: It just doesn't make sense for him. They they've been
0:41
Speaker 1: targeting the US portion of opening the opener in Arizona.
0:47
Speaker 1: He's still on schedule. This is not a setback. This
0:49
Speaker 1: is not like a huge bit of bad news. I
0:54
Speaker 1: think the plan is why get him jet lagged. He
0:58
Speaker 1: needs to play, He needs to have a normal build
1:00
Speaker 1: up to the season. They've been they've been hopeful that
1:03
Speaker 1: he'd be ready for the US portion. That's the expectation.
1:05
Speaker 1: Doesn't sound like he needs an eel stint. That's like,
1:08
Speaker 1: there's these rules are weird with with Japan, so we
1:12
Speaker 1: won't need to go on the il. Other little bit
1:14
Speaker 1: of news that I think is important and we'll get
1:16
Speaker 1: into all this in greater detail next week. Matt Shaw
1:19
Speaker 1: is supposed is on target to play in a game
1:21
Speaker 1: on Sunday and everything is still on the table for him,
1:25
Speaker 1: so he has a chance to make the roster for Japan.
1:29
Speaker 2: Uh.
1:29
Speaker 1: I think that's that's a significant bit of news. And
1:32
Speaker 1: I would say this that we have I think we
1:34
Speaker 1: may have touched on this earlier in the week. But
1:36
Speaker 1: if you're talking about second base, age Workman is not
1:39
Speaker 1: in the mix for second base. If there's only a
1:41
Speaker 1: hole second base, it would be Birdie, Vidal Bruhan, and
1:46
Speaker 1: possibly Nick Nicki Lopez. Those are the three names I
1:50
Speaker 1: would keep in an eye on for second base. If
1:52
Speaker 1: there's a whole at third base, Gauge Workman is is
1:55
Speaker 1: in the mix as well, So we can touch on
1:57
Speaker 1: that more later. Bat For now, let's get to our
2:01
Speaker 1: guest second time on the show, right, guys, guy John Greenberg,
2:08
Speaker 1: what's a little, uh.
2:10
Speaker 3: Little.
2:12
Speaker 1: News. We always bring you on for the sock stuff
2:14
Speaker 1: wespond Yeah, yeah, uh, it's.
2:19
Speaker 4: Just for Nico Horner. We know he's not playing this year.
2:24
Speaker 1: He's fine, he's good. He gave the news to Jesse
2:27
Speaker 1: Is what I'm upset about. Why not come up to
2:29
Speaker 1: me and tell me that's that's the upsetting bit, right,
2:32
Speaker 1: You're being honest, all right, John, You've been all over this.
2:36
Speaker 1: You you broke this news, right, you had justin.
2:42
Speaker 5: It's like the biggest four story in Chicago.
2:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, in a long time.
2:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got I got Arizona brain.
2:50
Speaker 4: Dude.
2:50
Speaker 1: You know I can't keep up on everything White Sox.
2:52
Speaker 1: I stay out of White Sox business. Uh uh, why
2:57
Speaker 1: don't you just tell us how this came about? I
3:00
Speaker 1: mean it's pretty significant because the way I talked to
3:03
Speaker 1: Dan Hayes for the past over the past month, and
3:05
Speaker 1: it sounded like that was happening in Minnesota. So how
3:08
Speaker 1: did this happen?
3:10
Speaker 4: Yeah? I shocked Dan Hayes's world, and I texted like
3:15
Speaker 4: a week. It was actually like it was like last Wednesday.
3:17
Speaker 4: Maybe I found out about it and I texted him.
3:20
Speaker 4: You know, he's the first person I texted about it,
3:22
Speaker 4: or second person. But yeah, he couldn't believe it. So
3:27
Speaker 4: from what it sounds like from our reporting is that
3:30
Speaker 4: during the process of justin Ishbia looking to buy the
3:33
Speaker 4: Twins and you know, talking to people and doing all
3:35
Speaker 4: that behind the scenes stuff that the reinestorfs came to
3:37
Speaker 4: him about increasing his share with the team, and I
3:41
Speaker 4: suppose it had happened in the last month, you know,
3:44
Speaker 4: I'd actually I kind of remember this, but I forgot
3:46
Speaker 4: about it until after we started reporting. Is that Sportico
3:50
Speaker 4: reported in January that both the Ishbia brothers were like
3:53
Speaker 4: those silent limited partners of the White Sox and that
3:56
Speaker 4: that had been going on for like four years and
3:58
Speaker 4: no one knew about it had never been reported, and
4:01
Speaker 4: that was from when Michael hinstor If, Jerry Sun and
4:04
Speaker 4: his brother Jonathan started buying out the limited partners. They
4:08
Speaker 4: hadn't offering twenty twenty one to buy him out. It
4:11
Speaker 4: was at such a low valuation, like around nine hundred
4:15
Speaker 4: million that some people did sell, but a lot of
4:17
Speaker 4: people were like almost offended by it because it was
4:21
Speaker 4: under a billion, and it was just like why would
4:22
Speaker 4: we do this? But some people that you know, maybe
4:24
Speaker 4: had liquidity needs or estate planning needs just said screw it.
4:29
Speaker 4: And I had found out in the fall that how
4:32
Speaker 4: Jonathan Michael did it was they got people basically giving
4:35
Speaker 4: funding them money, like people investing with them. Almost They
4:38
Speaker 4: had some kind of like economic investing vehicle to make this,
4:42
Speaker 4: to make this happen. They didn't have all that cash
4:45
Speaker 4: on hand, I guess, so they were part of that.
4:48
Speaker 4: So I guess. You know, at first we were like, oh,
4:50
Speaker 4: just issue was buying into the White Sox, but it
4:52
Speaker 4: was actually increasing his stake. Now, the conflicting stuff is
4:57
Speaker 4: every bit of information that Dan and I got was
5:00
Speaker 4: that this was with a controlling interest in mind. You know,
5:05
Speaker 4: we didn't know we were. What I was trying to
5:07
Speaker 4: get was whether it's a guarantee, whether it was first
5:09
Speaker 4: writer or refusal, you know, when Jerry wants to sell
5:12
Speaker 4: or Jerry passes away, or whether it's like a timeline.
5:17
Speaker 4: Someone in baseball floated the David Blitzer scenario with the
5:22
Speaker 4: Guardians where he bought in in twenty twenty two, with
5:24
Speaker 4: like he could buy the team within like six years
5:27
Speaker 4: or something, and he bought like twenty five percent or something,
5:29
Speaker 4: and they actually made that public. The Guardians, right, White
5:32
Speaker 4: Sucks are much different. You know, they wouldn't even I
5:37
Speaker 4: don't think if I would have, if I wouldn't have
5:39
Speaker 4: broken this, that they would have told us at all
5:42
Speaker 4: that this happened. It would have had to come from
5:45
Speaker 4: ishb because you know, they told me when they gave
5:47
Speaker 4: me their statement denying that there's any kind of plan,
5:52
Speaker 4: that they don't make their Minority Limited partners identities public,
5:56
Speaker 4: and you can't find a list of them anywhere, like
5:58
Speaker 4: I know some that's what kind of you know, how
6:00
Speaker 4: he worked this. I was on with Bruce and he
6:03
Speaker 4: said he claimed there's thirty three of them. I asked
6:06
Speaker 4: one of the Minority partners and he said, there's way more,
6:09
Speaker 4: but maybe those people would all sold, you know, to
6:12
Speaker 4: this group the extra people. Now there's only thirty three left,
6:15
Speaker 4: so there's a lot of you know, you can't get
6:18
Speaker 4: a straight answer on some of this stuff. So they
6:20
Speaker 4: have till tomorrow and that would be Friday. Speaking on Thursday,
6:24
Speaker 4: they have till Friday to the Limited Partners to decide
6:26
Speaker 4: if they're selling or not. And the valuation that I
6:29
Speaker 4: believe is around one point eight billion. I know people
6:32
Speaker 4: that have already signed their papers. I would assume I don't.
6:36
Speaker 4: I can't imagine anyone's waiting till tomorrow's deadline. I think
6:38
Speaker 4: they've already decided. They've known about this for weeks, so yeah,
6:42
Speaker 4: there could be a new owner of the White Sox
6:44
Speaker 4: or you know, owner and waiting.
6:48
Speaker 2: I have lots of questions, but I think the main
6:50
Speaker 2: one for this podcast is is this gonna light a
6:53
Speaker 2: fire under Cubbs ownership?
6:55
Speaker 5: Because the funny part is like it.
6:57
Speaker 2: Has this name you just here and then you know
7:01
Speaker 2: as Ozigi, And I think once said like Chicago is
7:04
Speaker 2: a very big city that can feel like a very
7:06
Speaker 2: small town. And this is a guy who's in the
7:10
Speaker 2: same way Chris Gets and Jed Hoyer, you know, see
7:14
Speaker 2: each other pick up. Like all those Cubs executives in
7:17
Speaker 2: Ishbia live kind of in the same general area where
7:21
Speaker 2: you know, Isshubia is building this like mega compound like
7:24
Speaker 2: a mansion. Doesn't even do it justice, Like, is his
7:27
Speaker 2: presence gonna spur something with the wood Cubs.
7:30
Speaker 4: I mean, I think that's what Cubs fans hope, and
7:32
Speaker 4: I think that's what Cubs executives' hopes are. Like everyone
7:36
Speaker 4: should be, like, should be thinking about this because you know,
7:40
Speaker 4: we haven't really had a billionaire billionaire like this owning
7:43
Speaker 4: a team in Chicago. Obviously, you know, the Works family
7:45
Speaker 4: is a lot of money from their booze and the
7:47
Speaker 4: real estate, but that's hockey. That's like you know, it's like,
7:51
Speaker 4: oh my god, they're spending ten million dollars on this guy.
7:53
Speaker 4: This is like a ruin the franchise. It's a different
7:56
Speaker 4: kind of money we're talking about it. They've never had this.
7:59
Speaker 4: Jerry had this kind of money, you know, Ricketts does it.
8:02
Speaker 4: Rickets dad has this kind of money. Joe Ricketts has
8:04
Speaker 4: this money bomb just not the word Cubs do not,
8:08
Speaker 4: you know in the mccaskey's of course, you know, they're
8:10
Speaker 4: they're cash poor. They have this this big you know,
8:14
Speaker 4: I mean, they make a lot, they make more money
8:15
Speaker 4: than anyone with profits from the Bears, but they don't
8:18
Speaker 4: have their independent money to build a stadium, to do
8:21
Speaker 4: things like that. This guy's got the money to build
8:23
Speaker 4: a stadium on his own and to really invest in
8:26
Speaker 4: the team when it comes time to invest. So, yeah,
8:28
Speaker 4: I think you should put a lot of pressure on
8:30
Speaker 4: the Cubs. And yeah, the compound. You know, if the
8:34
Speaker 4: compound last price I saw was like estimated at eighty million,
8:38
Speaker 4: that would be more than any contract the White Sox
8:40
Speaker 4: have ever given out. House is worth more than any
8:45
Speaker 4: White Sox contract. That's pretty good.
8:48
Speaker 1: I have questions about money as well. Let's let's take
8:52
Speaker 1: a quick break and hear from a sponsor before we
8:54
Speaker 1: get to that.
8:54
Speaker 6: Your hair is so much more than what you see
8:57
Speaker 6: when you look in the mirror. With neutrofil, science backed
8:59
Speaker 6: whole body approach, nurse growth from within and achieve your
9:03
Speaker 6: best hair yet.
9:04
Speaker 3: Nutrifol is the number one dermatologists recommended hair growth supplement brand,
9:09
Speaker 3: trusted by over one and a half million people. See thicker, stronger,
9:12
Speaker 3: faster growing hair with less shedding in just three to
9:15
Speaker 3: six months with Neutrofol.
9:16
Speaker 6: Physician formulated with one hundred percent drug free ingredients, Neutrofol
9:20
Speaker 6: supports healthy hair growth from within by targeting keyroot causes
9:24
Speaker 6: of thinning like stress, hormones, and aging through whole body health.
9:29
Speaker 7: Start your hair growth journey with Neutrifol. For a limited time,
9:32
Speaker 7: Neutrifoil is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first
9:35
Speaker 7: month subscription and free shipping when you go to nutrifol
9:38
Speaker 7: dot com and enter the promo code fo UL. Find
9:42
Speaker 7: out why over forty five hundred healthcare professionals and stylists
9:45
Speaker 7: recommend Nutrifol for healthier hair. Neutrifol dot com spelled nut
9:50
Speaker 7: r a f O l dot com promo code foul.
9:53
Speaker 7: That's neutrifol dot com promo code foul.
9:57
Speaker 1: All right, John, I guess it's a lot more money
10:01
Speaker 1: than we're used to seeing with the owners in Chicago.
10:04
Speaker 1: But is this Are we talking about Steve Cohen type
10:08
Speaker 1: stuff like that where he's going to behave in that manner,
10:11
Speaker 1: or even even if it's not to that level, which
10:14
Speaker 1: is obviously unprecedented in baseball, it could be like the
10:18
Speaker 1: Phillies and John Middleton, what are we talking about it?
10:20
Speaker 4: I think Middleton. I think it's more of a middle
10:22
Speaker 4: Steve coins in his own like universe, right, and obviously
10:25
Speaker 4: the Dodgers have their money, But yeah, I think it's
10:27
Speaker 4: I think Middleton would be for him a good maybe
10:30
Speaker 4: good comp you know. I would think the Phillies obviously
10:34
Speaker 4: have a bigger the differences. The Phillies have a big,
10:36
Speaker 4: much bigger cable deal. They have the market to themselves.
10:39
Speaker 4: The White Sox are still, you know, the second team
10:43
Speaker 4: in Chicago. So I don't think we'll be seeing spending
10:45
Speaker 4: like that, but hopefully I'll see it, hopefully for everyone.
10:48
Speaker 4: He'll be aggressive. I mean, you look at his brother
10:50
Speaker 4: in Phoenix, and you know, yeah, they haven't done great
10:54
Speaker 4: and this has been a really pretty bad season, but
10:56
Speaker 4: he spent money, you know, and attracted big players. What
11:00
Speaker 4: I like is he's done things like he did that
11:02
Speaker 4: value meal this year at Sun's games, like a two
11:04
Speaker 4: dollars menu that, Like no team in Chicago does anything
11:08
Speaker 4: like that. If any team should do something like that
11:11
Speaker 4: in Chicago, it's yeah, we're the ones that should have.
11:14
Speaker 4: I mean, they do half price Tuesdays, but every day
11:17
Speaker 4: should be like that. There should be cheap water, cheap pretzels, popcorn,
11:21
Speaker 4: hot dogs, like that's the one team that needs to
11:24
Speaker 4: do And I just think just in general, he doesn't
11:27
Speaker 4: even have to do that. Just White Sox fans are
11:29
Speaker 4: so sick of Jerry Reinsdorf. They just are, and the
11:31
Speaker 4: way the franchise operates, everyone just is tired of them.
11:35
Speaker 4: And I just think having some fresh blood in there
11:39
Speaker 4: will change everything and people's opinions. The people's opinions who
11:42
Speaker 4: matter the most with White Sox fans, the ones that
11:45
Speaker 4: are going to go to the games, you know. I also,
11:48
Speaker 4: we don't know what's going on with their's TV network,
11:50
Speaker 4: you know, and that that craft shoots, so they need
11:54
Speaker 4: to spur some actual excitement about the franchise, because even
11:59
Speaker 4: when they're going good, people knew that, you know, didn't
12:01
Speaker 4: have any faith that Jerry would keep it going.
12:04
Speaker 1: Hey, you know what I'm hearing right now, Patrick, what
12:06
Speaker 1: I'm hearing is Kyle Tucker has a chance to stay
12:08
Speaker 1: in Chicago.
12:11
Speaker 4: It's gonna be a little long till he.
12:16
Speaker 1: I'm just messing with cubsmans now. Sorry, that was cruel.
12:23
Speaker 2: I like the idea of just like how low the
12:26
Speaker 2: bar is when he walks in. I think of, you know,
12:29
Speaker 2: the words situation of like hey maybe we should put
12:31
Speaker 2: our games on TV. It's like, oh wow, like like
12:34
Speaker 2: what a genius move, like put our home, you know,
12:37
Speaker 2: just like the the path towards like respectability and just
12:43
Speaker 2: like simple fixes like just kind of hitting your layups.
12:48
Speaker 2: I think this guy could be walking into a really
12:51
Speaker 2: good situation in that regard.
12:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, it would be interesting to see how he deals
12:55
Speaker 4: with like the public and the media. Shake. You know,
12:58
Speaker 4: Jerry never talks did that one when gets got hired.
13:03
Speaker 4: But I mean, you know, he's just not around and
13:05
Speaker 4: then like you know, you try to reach him for
13:07
Speaker 4: a story like this and you don't know what to believe.
13:10
Speaker 4: Like I'm still trying to figure out what the you
13:13
Speaker 4: know what I what we be working on is what
13:14
Speaker 4: the status is of this deal, like what it actually means,
13:17
Speaker 4: because I was thinking about today, like is it a
13:20
Speaker 4: first rate of refusal? Is it something like where his
13:23
Speaker 4: shares instead of being in the limited part of the company,
13:27
Speaker 4: the weird structure of the White Sox, would he be
13:30
Speaker 4: in like the other you know what I mean, when
13:31
Speaker 4: you get a seat on the board, is that a
13:33
Speaker 4: way to say, like, yeah, there's no guaranteed plan, but
13:35
Speaker 4: like he's gonna have so many shares that he should
13:39
Speaker 4: get the right to take over, you know, like no
13:40
Speaker 4: one could, no one will be able to have control
13:42
Speaker 4: over him. I guess the board is hilarious because it's
13:47
Speaker 4: the youngest person on their board is seventy six and
13:50
Speaker 4: the only one under eighty five. Yeah, Jay Pinsky, seventy six,
13:55
Speaker 4: He's the only person on the board under the age
13:57
Speaker 4: of eighty five. The oldest person on the board is
14:00
Speaker 4: former Chicago Sting owner Lee Stern.
14:01
Speaker 1: He was alive still in his ninety eight Wow, so
14:06
Speaker 1: there's no real timeline here. Then this isn't like something
14:09
Speaker 1: that you have GA, we don't know you know, that's
14:12
Speaker 1: I thought.
14:13
Speaker 4: There was and then they told me there wasn't. And
14:15
Speaker 4: I think the truth has to be somewhere in the middle,
14:18
Speaker 4: because you know, I wrote a follow up column on this,
14:20
Speaker 4: because you know, we broke it as a straight news
14:21
Speaker 4: store with me and Dan, and then I wrote a column,
14:24
Speaker 4: you know, with the obvious. We were trying to figure
14:26
Speaker 4: out a way to say it in the news story,
14:27
Speaker 4: but I just said it in the column. It wouldn't
14:30
Speaker 4: make any sense. This guy could buy the Twins easily, right,
14:33
Speaker 4: and he was on track to do so, why would
14:35
Speaker 4: he want to be spend more money to be a
14:38
Speaker 4: silent partner for Jerry reinstor for an indefinite amount of time,
14:42
Speaker 4: you know, if he wanted to buy a team, like
14:44
Speaker 4: he didn't have to buy a team, But it sounds
14:47
Speaker 4: like he was really interested in it. And Dan's reporting
14:49
Speaker 4: is rock solid that he was the guy for that team,
14:53
Speaker 4: and they people in the Twins thought it was happening
14:55
Speaker 4: by opening day, So like that just doesn't make any sense.
14:59
Speaker 4: Why would a billy this guy's got the money. This
15:01
Speaker 4: isn't a Dave Stewart situation. You know, we're a great
15:04
Speaker 4: reporter on Dave Stewart's interest, but he did his group
15:06
Speaker 4: didn't have the money, you know from what we the
15:09
Speaker 4: rumors we heard is that he met with Jerry and he's,
15:11
Speaker 4: you know, he just didn't have the cash to do it.
15:13
Speaker 4: He might, you might, you might have tried to put
15:14
Speaker 4: the team on layaway or something. And Jerry Runser's not
15:18
Speaker 4: getting taken advantage of the one thing Jerry doesn't know
15:20
Speaker 4: anything about running a baseball team. Well, there's a lot
15:23
Speaker 4: about running it, but not well, Jerry Rounser's not getting
15:26
Speaker 4: taken advantage of financially, right, So the deals happening.
15:30
Speaker 2: You know, Well a huge piece of this, too, John,
15:34
Speaker 2: is the seventy eight, And it's kind of like that
15:36
Speaker 2: last frontier in terms of like Chicago real estate. Like
15:42
Speaker 2: I'm almost surprised more people haven't or maybe they have,
15:46
Speaker 2: but like that represents such an enormous opportunity for these
15:50
Speaker 2: kind of like masters of the universe in Chicago. Like
15:53
Speaker 2: do you think Ishbia gives them not just the capital,
15:58
Speaker 2: but also maybe some of the credibility in connections to
16:01
Speaker 2: like build essentially like a whole other neighborhood in Chicago.
16:05
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, right, because i'd heard, you know, from people
16:08
Speaker 4: connected in that world that the fire Chicago Fire were
16:11
Speaker 4: the leaders to take that, to take that land and
16:13
Speaker 4: build the stadium there because their owner, Joe Answeedo, is
16:16
Speaker 4: willing to pay for the stadium on his own, you know,
16:18
Speaker 4: and willing to do it. Now if you have it
16:21
Speaker 4: should be a willing to spend money and build a
16:22
Speaker 4: stadium on his own. I mean, I think you would
16:25
Speaker 4: put the White Sox over the fire there. You know,
16:28
Speaker 4: I don't know, like I've been on that land. I
16:30
Speaker 4: don't know if it can really support a stadium, Like
16:33
Speaker 4: how that would work. There wouldn't be the parking, there
16:35
Speaker 4: would be the tailgating. But yeah, or I mean listen,
16:39
Speaker 4: I know we all kind of written off, you know, Bridgeport,
16:43
Speaker 4: but they could actually maybe for once develop that area. Right.
16:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a good point.
16:46
Speaker 6: Right.
16:47
Speaker 5: That was a massive failure by the White Sox.
16:49
Speaker 4: I'm just just massive And I know people involved, like
16:52
Speaker 4: very wealthy people that have told me like they don't
16:55
Speaker 4: think that's just like, oh, you've got to get out
16:57
Speaker 4: of there, Like if you actually build it up and
16:59
Speaker 4: you know, advertise it a little more as being safer.
17:02
Speaker 4: I think there's people in the suburbs that still don't
17:03
Speaker 4: think it's safe, even though Bridgeport is actually full of
17:06
Speaker 4: nice restaurants and like interesting things, you know, and like
17:11
Speaker 4: the White Sox. If you notice I leaned back into Bridgeport,
17:14
Speaker 4: you know, by having that their fake Sox festival were
17:16
Speaker 4: lay with theater, you know, and they're they're they were
17:20
Speaker 4: like really big at trying to like market Bridgeport. They're
17:23
Speaker 4: having a post, They're having a concert after the opener.
17:26
Speaker 4: The Bone Thugs is playing there. I was like, the
17:33
Speaker 4: Bone Thugs concert should be the stadium and the White
17:34
Speaker 4: Sox game should be played in the theater. Make people happy.
17:40
Speaker 1: This definitely eliminates any idea, Like I don't know if
17:43
Speaker 1: this was ever even a consideration, but with all the
17:47
Speaker 1: stadium talk and then Jerry going to Nashville at that
17:51
Speaker 1: one point, it eliminates any chance of the White Sox leaping.
17:55
Speaker 4: You just have natural connections. You went to Vandy Law school, Okay,
17:58
Speaker 4: minority owner of their soccer team there. I think he
18:01
Speaker 4: has an office there, so that doesn't automatically. But why
18:04
Speaker 4: would a guy build a sa eighty million dollar house
18:06
Speaker 4: in the city, buy the team in the city, and
18:08
Speaker 4: then move the team away to make his life more difficult?
18:11
Speaker 4: That doesn't. Again, we have to go to the logic here.
18:14
Speaker 4: But I've also heard in general, like we heard it
18:17
Speaker 4: from our Baseball Like one of our editors said to
18:19
Speaker 4: me we were doing the story, is that baseball doesn't
18:21
Speaker 4: want a team to move to Nashville. They don't want
18:24
Speaker 4: teams moving at all anymore. I don't, and I think
18:27
Speaker 4: that is a big thing. Like they want Nashville to
18:29
Speaker 4: be an expansion market because John Fisher costs the owners
18:33
Speaker 4: a lot of money, which that saysn't I don't think
18:35
Speaker 4: it's been talked about enough. He cost them a lot
18:37
Speaker 4: of money move into Vegas because they don't get those
18:39
Speaker 4: expansion fees. Tom Ricketts would lose his Tom Reckints would
18:42
Speaker 4: probably rather have the White Sox here because then, you know,
18:45
Speaker 4: because he wants that expansion money down down the road.
18:49
Speaker 4: You know, he's probably already marketing maybe there. Maybe Jed's
18:51
Speaker 4: budget will go up another five million dollars if he gets,
18:54
Speaker 4: you know, an expansion fee payout.
18:56
Speaker 1: Jedial have to fight for that, Jed, Jedial fight for it.
18:58
Speaker 4: He can get another four year old and Tom gets paid,
19:05
Speaker 4: you know, because the expansion, you know, they have to
19:07
Speaker 4: pay all their other bills.
19:08
Speaker 2: First, I do I do think this would be just
19:13
Speaker 2: such a fascinating dynamic because, as we all know, the
19:16
Speaker 2: Cubs like care about public perception, but they don't really
19:19
Speaker 2: like make decisions based on Like they constantly make unpopular
19:24
Speaker 2: decisions that irritate their fan base, and some of those
19:28
Speaker 2: have turned out well and are justified, But I do
19:31
Speaker 2: so I don't know if they'd automatically like change because
19:33
Speaker 2: of that, but clearly Steve Cohen's presence in New York
19:36
Speaker 2: has changed things for the Yankees, and this would be
19:38
Speaker 2: on a smaller scale because, like you say, John, like
19:41
Speaker 2: Steve Cohen's kind of a.
19:44
Speaker 5: You know, very much an exception, but like you know,
19:48
Speaker 5: Ishbia could certainly.
19:50
Speaker 2: And then there are people in baseball who actually I
19:53
Speaker 2: told you this, John, like as you were kind of
19:55
Speaker 2: texting me for the story of published, Like it's funny,
19:57
Speaker 2: like someone within baseball had kind of mentioned this. Not
20:00
Speaker 2: it be a specific but like what is it going
20:02
Speaker 2: to take for the Cubs to be that true big
20:04
Speaker 2: market team and say, well, the White Sox could really
20:07
Speaker 2: kind of push them.
20:09
Speaker 5: That may be wishful thinking to the.
20:11
Speaker 2: Extent that you know, certain fans may want, but I
20:14
Speaker 2: don't think it would hurt a little more competition, right.
20:17
Speaker 4: No, absolutely, competition always. You know, that's the whole point
20:21
Speaker 4: of baseball economics. When they went to free agency and
20:23
Speaker 4: stuff like that, when owners were crying poor, all competition
20:26
Speaker 4: did is increased the game. It couldn't it couldn't hurt
20:30
Speaker 4: this at all. And you know, I think the Cubs maybe, yeah, right,
20:33
Speaker 4: they don't make decisions with the White Sox in mind.
20:35
Speaker 4: But I do think the Cubs people do kind of
20:37
Speaker 4: operate with that kind of arrogance that like, okay, we're
20:40
Speaker 4: not the White Sox, like you know, the White Sox
20:43
Speaker 4: become when the White Sox, you know, they were good
20:45
Speaker 4: a few years ago and the Cubs were like, the
20:47
Speaker 4: team's gonna be really good, and then when they flopped,
20:50
Speaker 4: it became same old White Sox, same old Jerry, you know,
20:54
Speaker 4: and things like that. And I think that always gave
20:56
Speaker 4: the Cubs a little bit of cushion, like, oh, you say,
20:59
Speaker 4: we're not spending, but like, you know, white Sox have
21:01
Speaker 4: a White Sox payroll this year's mean less than their
21:04
Speaker 4: two thousand and five payroll, you know, I mean they
21:10
Speaker 4: can always say we're not the White Sox. You know,
21:12
Speaker 4: we run our stuff. You know, we're always gonna have
21:13
Speaker 4: full I think we're really I don't think baseball as
21:16
Speaker 4: because gets in Jed are close. I don't think there's
21:18
Speaker 4: really that kind of arrogance and our side anymore. But
21:22
Speaker 4: I do think it comes from the business side because
21:24
Speaker 4: they're full every night, you know, as the White Sox
21:27
Speaker 4: are scrambling for tickets, they can always kind of operate
21:31
Speaker 4: with knowing that they have it better than them.
21:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it's gonna be fascinating if they
21:36
Speaker 1: start to push, if it SHOULDA takes control of the
21:38
Speaker 1: next year or two.
21:40
Speaker 4: Uh, and they don't think I don't, I mean, unless
21:43
Speaker 4: you know, God willing. Jerry's okay, But I mean when
21:46
Speaker 4: someone floated the Blitzer thing, that made me sop think
21:48
Speaker 4: it was like four or five.
21:49
Speaker 1: Years okay, But so it would be post new CBA too,
21:53
Speaker 1: So who the hell knows what what type of money
21:56
Speaker 1: we're talking about right, Like it may just be a
21:58
Speaker 1: much more even playing field.
21:59
Speaker 4: If I'm Misbah, I would actually request not to take
22:02
Speaker 4: over until the new CBA for a couple of reasons. One,
22:05
Speaker 4: he doesn't have to look like a bad I mean
22:06
Speaker 4: he wouldn't be counted on anyway because he wouldn't be
22:09
Speaker 4: a part of any kind of big fights because he's
22:11
Speaker 4: a new owner. But you know, you want to come in,
22:14
Speaker 4: like like Patrick said, he's my a hero regardless taking
22:16
Speaker 4: over for Jerry. Come in after the new CBA signed.
22:19
Speaker 4: You don't have to be a hawk. You don't have
22:20
Speaker 4: to defend your fans, and the fact you'll have like more,
22:25
Speaker 4: you know, an idea of fiscal certainty, and even the
22:27
Speaker 4: richest people want that. They want to have some certainty
22:31
Speaker 4: to know what they're spending. We know the Cubs. I mean, look,
22:34
Speaker 4: Rickets is going to be a hawk in this CBA negotiation.
22:37
Speaker 4: I mean that's absolutely And if Jerry's still in control
22:40
Speaker 4: and still has any kind of say in anything, he
22:42
Speaker 4: will be as well. Because they're fighting for I mean
22:45
Speaker 4: it's like everything's being done, every decision, especially at Wrigley,
22:50
Speaker 4: is being made with the new CBA in mind. Right.
22:54
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're saying good with the Cubs. Oh yeah, yeah, Yeah,
22:59
Speaker 1: that's a big part of what why we're seeing a
23:02
Speaker 1: lot of the things that we're seeing. Ian's you know,
23:07
Speaker 1: couldn't go yeah there, they got to be careful with
23:10
Speaker 1: years especially money in years. So they're yeah, that's that
23:15
Speaker 1: is a big part of all the decisions that we're seeing.
23:18
Speaker 1: And and I mean, look at look at all the
23:20
Speaker 1: contracts they have. They have one one if you want
23:23
Speaker 1: to count show to two. But they like, they have
23:25
Speaker 1: so much money coming off their books now. It could
23:27
Speaker 1: turn out to be great, right if there are real
23:30
Speaker 1: restrictions made and and suddenly money is curtailed, spending is curtailed,
23:36
Speaker 1: the cubs will be set up really well right post
23:39
Speaker 1: cb A. But if it's the same thing. But if
23:41
Speaker 1: if the rules barely change, it won't matter. Like then
23:45
Speaker 1: they just did. They basically didn't leverage these two years
23:48
Speaker 1: when all these young kids are coming up and they
23:50
Speaker 1: have money in theory, money to spend, but aren't aren't
23:54
Speaker 1: leveraging their financial mind. But you know, that's that's the
23:57
Speaker 1: reality they're faced with. That's you know, they're the the
24:00
Speaker 1: mid market cubs.
24:02
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, then we got to see what's going on
24:03
Speaker 4: with our TV network. You know what's going on with
24:06
Speaker 4: the Comcast deal. They've been month to month for like
24:08
Speaker 4: a year, you know, CHSN. I assume they're both gonna
24:12
Speaker 4: end up just on the upper tier of Comcast.
24:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you know, you probably know more about
24:18
Speaker 1: that than either of us. What what is going on there?
24:20
Speaker 4: I mean from what I've heard. I mean so that
24:23
Speaker 4: you know, you've seen it in a couple other markets
24:25
Speaker 4: where the remaining rsns that you know are known by
24:29
Speaker 4: baseball on sports are going on like the pre a
24:32
Speaker 4: more premium tier of Comcast, And I'd have to look
24:35
Speaker 4: at the Comcast tiers, but like I know it in
24:37
Speaker 4: the Bay Area is one of them, and I believe
24:39
Speaker 4: there's another one too. I think, yes, maybe just did it.
24:43
Speaker 4: You know they're going in the upper tiers not as
24:45
Speaker 4: many people subscribe, right, you know, it's not going everyone
24:48
Speaker 4: wants them on the basic one where the most subscriptions
24:51
Speaker 4: that gets you the most people the most money per month.
24:54
Speaker 4: That you know, that's what the help teams stay rich
24:56
Speaker 4: for years. So if it's on the upper premium one
24:59
Speaker 4: yet that includes like different sports channels like that I
25:02
Speaker 4: don't even subscribe to. So that's what I think is
25:06
Speaker 4: going to happen to all sports ones that want to
25:08
Speaker 4: stay on Comcast or these these big you know, cable companies.
25:12
Speaker 4: So I think both I think both networks are going
25:15
Speaker 4: to wind up there. But I don't know, it doesn't
25:17
Speaker 4: sound like Comcast is you know, they haven't blinked too
25:20
Speaker 4: often with the Cubs and the White Sox.
25:22
Speaker 5: It's a new dynamic.
25:23
Speaker 2: It would theoretically be a new dynamic too of how
25:27
Speaker 2: tight the Rhinesdorf, and Wort's families were that essentially like yeah,
25:31
Speaker 2: you know, my understand the worst is just kind of
25:34
Speaker 2: let Jerry take care of all of that. And obviously
25:39
Speaker 2: the the joint ownership between the Bulls and White Sox,
25:43
Speaker 2: Like if you're putting together a network or if you're
25:45
Speaker 2: trying to like evolve these things, it would be those
25:48
Speaker 2: three teams who are almost impossible to extricate. And uh,
25:53
Speaker 2: you know, the Cubs certainly would have liked the Blackhawks
25:56
Speaker 2: to be like the Winter Program or key that was
25:58
Speaker 2: a non starter, and like, who knows it's gonna happen
26:00
Speaker 2: with any of these channels or the business in general,
26:04
Speaker 2: but it seems like there'd be more potential with you know,
26:09
Speaker 2: kind of an ish be a White Sox team off
26:12
Speaker 2: on their own rather than kind of those three teams
26:15
Speaker 2: you know, sort of joined it, right.
26:17
Speaker 4: Or do the White Sox become one of those Major
26:19
Speaker 4: League bas you know, do they just acquiesce to Major
26:21
Speaker 4: League Baseball's idea. Yeah, you know of major League Baseball
26:25
Speaker 4: running their stuffy interesting you got to see how that.
26:29
Speaker 4: I have no clue how any of this is going
26:30
Speaker 4: to work in terms of money. But you know, the
26:34
Speaker 4: thing we know. The thing we know though, is like
26:35
Speaker 4: everyone talks about it like it's you know, it's doomsday.
26:38
Speaker 4: But baseball is such a great product for TV because
26:41
Speaker 4: it's not every day. You'd have to think it's somewhat valuable.
26:45
Speaker 4: I mean, how else do people know? You know about Prevagen?
26:51
Speaker 4: I mean if I forget that, the wildest thing about
26:56
Speaker 4: Marque is that Prevagen is still like their biggest sponsor. Like,
27:00
Speaker 4: who the hell is buying these like fake memory these
27:03
Speaker 4: sugar pills? Yeah, what what is it for?
27:07
Speaker 1: Like I tune out, I'm so good at tuning.
27:09
Speaker 4: It's memory loss.
27:10
Speaker 1: That may not work if I need it. I've forgotten
27:13
Speaker 1: what very odd.
27:16
Speaker 4: The commercials are very odd. Everyone just seems kind of
27:19
Speaker 4: a little off. I would like it would be kind
27:22
Speaker 4: of funnier if, though, if they got like like actual
27:24
Speaker 4: like famous people to do it, you know what I mean,
27:26
Speaker 4: like get abstur or something to do it, like a prejudice.
27:31
Speaker 5: Biddy's get some good famous people on their commercial.
27:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, so what if Madden did a privage commercial and
27:38
Speaker 4: it was about him remembering all it like, like the
27:40
Speaker 4: story is that you can't remember all of his stories
27:43
Speaker 4: that would be commercial. And he starts telling a story
27:46
Speaker 4: about one of his guys, like who were his guys,
27:49
Speaker 4: you know, his angels guys, and he forgets like Genautry's
27:52
Speaker 4: name or something, and he takes a prevage in and
27:56
Speaker 4: then he starts telling them. He's like, oh, I got
27:58
Speaker 4: you know my guy babb a Loo.
28:02
Speaker 5: Babably was the name I was thinking of. He'd be
28:05
Speaker 5: good at any commercial. He's so good on camera, he's
28:08
Speaker 5: so convincing.
28:10
Speaker 4: And CBS in Prevagen if you're listening, credit me if
28:14
Speaker 4: you do this this commercial one day or so. How
28:17
Speaker 4: about a prevagen one where Sosa takes and they remembers
28:19
Speaker 4: he did PDS.
28:24
Speaker 6: Yeah, uh.
28:27
Speaker 1: Maybe very exciting.
28:29
Speaker 2: ISHBIA could bring back former White Sox player Sammy. Sosa
28:32
Speaker 2: is like the hitting coach. All I'm hearing in Mesa
28:34
Speaker 2: is how you know. Basically Sammy shows up and everyone's
28:38
Speaker 2: listening and he's making any changes and.
28:41
Speaker 4: He's not leaving. He shot out of Henna say he didn't.
28:44
Speaker 1: He didn't seem like he wanted to. Like someone asked him,
28:46
Speaker 1: it's like, are you going to Japan too? And he
28:48
Speaker 1: like kind of looked around. He's like, you know, maybe maybe,
28:52
Speaker 1: like I think he was like wanting an invite in
28:54
Speaker 1: the middle of that, in the middle of that press conference,
28:57
Speaker 1: he was kind of looking around, like so where the tickets?
29:00
Speaker 4: You know, how excited is Sammy to be Sammy again?
29:04
Speaker 4: Like you saw it at Cubs convention when he did
29:06
Speaker 4: like his second lap around the stage, like this was
29:09
Speaker 4: this is what he missed.
29:11
Speaker 1: He's thrilled.
29:13
Speaker 4: You're right, people like players love him. You know, he's
29:16
Speaker 4: everyone wants his autograph. He's it's it's this is perfect
29:20
Speaker 4: for his ego in his fifties.
29:22
Speaker 1: You talk about blow No, he said, he doesn't have
29:24
Speaker 1: an ego. That's why people listen to him. John that
29:29
Speaker 1: you talk about bloated coaching staffs, He's like their sixteenth
29:32
Speaker 1: hitting coach like he.
29:36
Speaker 7: He was.
29:37
Speaker 1: He is out there giving everyone advice and you saw
29:39
Speaker 1: the direct result. Vidal Bruhan hit a home run and
29:43
Speaker 1: I told Craig Council, like, you know, if everybody hits
29:45
Speaker 1: twenty plus home runs this season. We know what Sammy Sosa.
29:49
Speaker 1: He gave them advice during spring training, a direct correlation,
29:52
Speaker 1: so you know, all credit for the impressive offense that
29:56
Speaker 1: we're likely to see from the Cubs this season. I
29:59
Speaker 1: know where it goes.
30:00
Speaker 4: It's just gonna all of a sudden in the majors. Well,
30:02
Speaker 4: see Sammy like walking the dugout, like you know, like
30:06
Speaker 4: eating food after games, like just gonna be one of
30:09
Speaker 4: those guys that's just everywhere. I hope. I think it's
30:12
Speaker 4: great without the masking. You're just gonna come out there
30:16
Speaker 4: and throw out a pitch.
30:18
Speaker 1: It's no, we already have four first pitches. We're one
30:23
Speaker 1: of them.
30:23
Speaker 4: We're gonna look up and Sammy's gonna be doing the
30:25
Speaker 4: scoreboard with Ricky.
30:30
Speaker 2: Well, his team needs some charisma, right, I mean, just
30:32
Speaker 2: a little star power, a little like vibrancy. Like it's
30:36
Speaker 2: kind of a lot of cookie cutter in a lot
30:39
Speaker 2: of ways. Otherwise, the organization that he rejoined, yeah.
30:42
Speaker 4: What's also nice to have. Like he's like the only, uh,
30:45
Speaker 4: non white guy with a beard.
30:50
Speaker 1: Well, okay, so last episode I can't grow a beard,
30:54
Speaker 1: but he does not. Last episode, I I went a
30:57
Speaker 1: little hard on on what Kevin contract can be, right, Patrick,
31:02
Speaker 1: it's a little little you know, his his upside, right,
31:06
Speaker 1: But he's the one that told us that his upside
31:09
Speaker 1: is superstar in Hall of Famer. So if you're looking
31:12
Speaker 1: for a little confidence and someone with that swagger, Kevin
31:15
Speaker 1: Alcontra when he whenever he arrives at the big leagues
31:17
Speaker 1: for you know, for good, Like that's a guy that
31:20
Speaker 1: has the swagger. Add him with PCA. I think we're
31:22
Speaker 1: we're seeing a different vibe around this team. So like that,
31:26
Speaker 1: that's that's where it comes from. But you're right, it's
31:30
Speaker 1: not like Kyle Tucker is going to be out there,
31:32
Speaker 1: you know, bat flipping and giving you, you know, crazy quotes.
31:36
Speaker 1: He's a great ballplayer.
31:38
Speaker 4: He's not He's not a good quote. He's good.
31:42
Speaker 1: That's all.
31:42
Speaker 4: You know. You should do. Bring up the Paul George
31:44
Speaker 4: Stufty and happen see, you know, because Paul George said
31:46
Speaker 4: he's giving up his podcast to focus on the season.
31:50
Speaker 4: Even though the Sixers are twenty and thirty seven and
31:53
Speaker 4: this season's almost over, he's now giving up his podcast.
31:56
Speaker 1: Apparently, let's find out. Well, I mean, the season hasn't
32:05
Speaker 1: started yet, they're they're NL central favorites. Uh, fan grafts
32:10
Speaker 1: even like some fan grafts BP. You know this is
32:12
Speaker 1: ever everyone's projecting great things for the Cubs. I know
32:16
Speaker 1: you're super into projections, John So uh and and just
32:20
Speaker 1: so everyone knows, no conspiracy theory. With Nico Horner. I
32:23
Speaker 1: just watched him take BP. Uh. He's he's good, He's
32:27
Speaker 1: good to go. We almost Fergie Jenkins head his back
32:30
Speaker 1: to the to the in field and standing in center field,
32:32
Speaker 1: and he almost smoked Fergie Fergy's okay though I missed
32:36
Speaker 1: him by a couple of feet.
32:37
Speaker 4: No. Yeah, I talked to Horner at Cubs convention and
32:40
Speaker 4: he was telling, you know, he felt pretty good about
32:42
Speaker 4: where he was at, like physically that and so and
32:45
Speaker 4: you guys have seen it all camp. So yeah, no,
32:48
Speaker 4: I that makes a lot of sense. And I'll be
32:50
Speaker 4: there too for that. Me and me and Nico will
32:52
Speaker 4: both be at that that Arizona opener because I'm always
32:57
Speaker 4: bring training that last week and the cop I think
33:00
Speaker 4: we're staying. We're leaving that Friday, so I'm going to
33:02
Speaker 4: go that Thursday night.
33:04
Speaker 1: Okay, coming back there.
33:07
Speaker 4: It will still be doing saki bombs in Japan.
33:11
Speaker 1: I'll be back by then, but I'll probably need some
33:14
Speaker 1: sake bombs to stay awake. All right, John, thanks so
33:21
Speaker 1: much for coming on the show. This is Northside Territory.
33:25
Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, Subscribe to the YouTube channel,
33:28
Speaker 1: which I know John does multiple on multiple accounts. Subscribe
33:33
Speaker 1: to The Athletic where Patrick and I are on top
33:36
Speaker 1: of all things cubs and John is on top of
33:38
Speaker 1: all things justin Nishbia. Thanks for listening everyone. Thanks John,
33:43
Speaker 1: appreciate you coming on.
33:45
Speaker 4: Where's my Madden's gift card that's.
33:48
Speaker 6: In the mail.
33:49
Speaker 1: Yes, we're sending that Staale mail. Thanks everyone. Take care.
34:00
Speaker 1: The name, the name, Day, the