Dec 13, 2007 6:08 pm US/Central
Daley Questions State Purchase Of Wrigley Field
Mayor Says Illinois Has To Worry About CTA Funding Before Being Saddled With Park Renovation Costs
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Mayor Richard M. Daley Thursday confirmed a CBS 2 exclusive reported Wednesday night about negotiations to buy Wrigley Field. The state of Illinois is talking to the Tribune Company about a possible deal.
As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, the sale of historic Wrigley Field to the state was the Tribune Company's idea. Selling the Cubs without saddling the buyer with the necessary and expensive renovation of their ballpark is an idea which doesn't sit too well with the mayor.
"We can't even get money for the CTA, any money for the CTA, and they're worried about the Cubs," Daley said. "They've made money every year and it's very profitable and some way we're supposed to bail them out?"
Gov. Rod Blagojevich found the deal attractive because it would force the new owners to stay in Chicago and guarantee the preservation of the friendly confines. Blagojevich, a spokesperson says, calls Wrigley Field, "a big tourist attraction, and economic engine, and has a special place in Chicago history."
Owning and operating US Cellular Field is already a money-losing proposition for the state, partly because the White Sox pay less than $10 million in rent in a good year. The Cubs might be expected to pay twice that amount.
But while the Tribune Company has already torn up and replaced the playing surface at Wrigley Field at a cost of more than $! Million, the price tag for maintaining the stadium, with its crumbling concrete and aging infrastructure, could be tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars.
Former Gov. Jim Thompson, chairman of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, who wouldn't comment Wednesday, now says, "The state of Illinois does not have any intention of using tax dollars to acquire Wrigley Field, and would not consider the transaction if it involved any state taxpayers' dollars going to the Tribune Company."
That doesn't deal with the costs looming down the road.
"Sam Zell came and talked to me about it," Daley said. "He came in and talked to me a couple of weeks ago and I listened to him and I said you know there's a lot of questions to be asked on this issue. You're basically asking the taxpayers to basically, some way, to help the Cubs."
Thompson is very enthusiastic about making this happen. But he admits it can't happen without Daley's support and approval in Springfield, neither or which is likely without a financial formula that doesn't include tax dollars. And that might be a very tall order.
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