No shortage of potential buyers for Chicago Cubs, Selig says

CHICAGO – Bidding is certain to be fiercely competitive when the Chicago Cubs go up for sale at the end of the season, but baseball’s commissioner stressed Thursday that all offers will have to go through Major League Baseball first.\n“We have very stringent rules,” commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday at a meeting of the Associated Press Sports Editors. “I’ve had meetings with the Cubs and we will set the rules up, and everybody has to come through Major League Baseball before they do anything with them.”\nThe team is a “month or two away” from getting any prospective buyers, Selig said.\n“They’re in the process of setting up a procedure.... There will be a significant number of prospective buyers,” Selig said.\nCubs parent company Tribune Co. earlier this month accepted an $8.2 billion buyout offer from billionaire investor Sam Zell, who said he will sell the team and storied Wrigley Field at the end of the season and use the proceeds to pay down debt.\nThe announcement puts one of sports’ most storied and star-crossed franchises on the block, a year shy of the 100th anniversary of its last World Series title. Analysts have estimated the Cubs could fetch $600 million or more.\nBillionaire entrepreneur and IU alumni Mark Cuban, Phoenix sports executive Jerry Colangelo and actor Bill Murray are among those reported or rumored to have interest, along with numerous Chicago business figures.\nSelig touted local ownership Thursday.\n“I believe in local ownership wherever possible,” Selig said. “There will be Chicago groups, there’s no question in my mind about that. Will they be the only groups? No. But there will be some very good Chicago groups.”