Re: What sucks more than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Phil1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
AND THE WINNER IS!!
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Krav69</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The Chicago Cubs. They'll probably suck for another 100 years at this rate. </div></div>
Cubs File Bankruptcy Under Sale to Ricketts Family
By Steven Church
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Chicago Cubs filed for bankruptcy as part of a plan by owner Tribune Co. to sell the baseball team to the family of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. founder Joe Ricketts.
Chicago National League Ball Club LLC listed assets and debts of more than $1 billion in documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.
The company’s board approved the bankruptcy, saying it “is desirable and in the best interest of the company,” according to the Chapter 11 petition.
Under a process approved last month by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey, Tribune plans to transfer the Cubs to a new entity controlled by the Ricketts family. Tribune, the bankrupt newspaper and television company, would retain a 5 percent stake in the team.
The deal, worth about $845 million, would bring Tribune creditors $740 million, according to court records.
Because the transaction is a so-called leveraged partnership, it will enable Tribune to avoid paying about $300 million in taxes, according to tax consultant Robert Willens, who teaches a class on tax law at the business school at Columbia University.
December Filing
Should Carey grant final court approval for the deal, Tribune would take cash out of the partnership, which is funded by debt. The structure allows Tribune to avoid taxes it would pay as part of a traditional sale, Willens said.
Tribune filed for bankruptcy court protection in December, about a year after billionaire real-estate developer Sam Zell led the $8.3 billion purchase of the company. Tribune’s properties include the Los Angeles Times and the namesake Chicago newspaper.
The Cubs have drawn more than 3 million spectators to their 95-year-old stadium in each of the past six seasons. Those fans fill Wrigley Field, on the city’s North Side, to root for a squad that hasn’t won a World Series since 1908, the longest drought in baseball. The team finished 83-78 this season, second place in the National League Central division behind St. Louis.
The Cubs haven’t reached the World Series since 1945, when the team lost to the Detroit Tigers in seven games after tavern owner William Sianis cursed the franchise because his pet goat was ejected from a game.
The case is In re Tribune Co., 08-13141, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington). </div></div>
This really does suck but...I still think the suckage (Suckishness? Suckination?)of the Bucs has a certain pathetic pedigree to it that overwhelm their 8-10 respectable years, thus revealing the rich sucky contrast from well owned, managed and populated teams.
Thus, I am unpersuaded thus far that anything other than Detroit and the C____(deleted to keep post free of offensive, though entirely true, political content), suck as much as, let alone more than the Bucs.