Apr 6, 2009 11:28 pm US/Central
Trib Stood To Make Millions In Blago-Wrigley Deal
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) ―
Tribune Co. would have received as much as $45 million and a 5 percent stake in a leased Wrigley Field under a deal involving a state loan of $300 million toward restoring the historic ballpark, a proposal found in state documents shows.
A Nov. 19 memo released Monday night by the Illinois Finance Authority, marked "strictly confidential -- for discussion purposes only," outlines a complicated deal in which a new owner of the century-old stadium's tenant, the Chicago Cubs, would pay $25 million a year for 30 years.
But finance authority chairman William Brandt said that was what Tribune Co., which is trying to sell the Cubs and Wrigley, wanted.
"The IFA was nowhere near that deal," Brandt said Monday night.
He would not elaborate. Brandt has said previously, however, that a deal the authority was negotiating was within the range of $200 million to $300 million.
Secret talks for the pact between Tribune Co., owner of the Cubs and its home field, and Illinois state officials came to a screeching halt Dec. 9 when former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges.
Among the allegations was that he pressured the media company to fire unfriendly Chicago Tribune editorial writers in exchange for helping with a Wrigley Field sale. Blagojevich was indicted by a federal grand jury last week.
He faces 16 counts of wire fraud, racketeering and extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and making false statements in a "pay-to-play" scheme to trade government action for personal and political enrichment beginning in 2002.
A spokesman for Tribune, which filed for bankruptcy just a day before Blagojevich's arrest, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
The Nov. 19 agreement, released to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, shows the finance authority, through a complex venture, would retain 95 percent interest in a company set up to lease Wrigley to a new Cubs owner until 2039.
In addition to the upfront contribution, the Tribune would control the other 5 percent.
The agreement carries the logos of the finance authority and the Cubs and appears to have been sent from the Tribune's law firm to an attorney representing the state agency. He then forwarded it Nov. 25 to Brandt and the agency's executive director, John Filan, asking to set up a time to discuss the proposal. In a separate e-mail Nov. 24, the lawyer said state officials had removed the logos "for now."
Even after the arrest, Brandt suggested the Wrigley deal could go forward, particularly because baseball revenue, and not taxpayers, would repay the loan.
But e-mails released to the AP show Tribune's bankruptcy gave him pause.
"No use of tax dollars is one thing, an IFA-assisted bailout is quite another," Brandt wrote on Dec. 7, when alerted to a news report that Tribune was preparing a request for protection from creditors.
The next day, John Harris, then Blagojevich's chief of staff, added his own take on the bankruptcy's impact:
"Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln," Harris wrote just 24 hours before federal officials arrested him along with Blagojevich. Harris is charged with a single count of wire fraud in the wide-ranging corruption indictment and is cooperating with authorities.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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