Financial Crisis?s for Mets and Cubs Ownership Outline Similar Challenges

This past week, ownership for the Mets and Cubs were both rocked with major financial crisis?s that could influence how they conduct business. Last Monday, the Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Cubs, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors. Tribune reported last week that it had $7.6 billion in assets and debt of $12.9 billion. On Friday, Bernard Madoff was charged by the SEC in a Ponzi scheme that could be the largest swindle in history. Investors could be hit with losses of up to $50 billion. At the time of Madoff?s arrest it was reported that he was working with 23 clients. Among those is Fred Wilpon, owner of the New York Mets. His investment firm, Sterling Equities, also made investments with Madoff, a man that Wilpon had known and entrusted for more than 40 years. Both crisis?s skirt the edges of both MLB organizations. The Cubs? assets, which include Wrigley Field, and a 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago, were not reported as part of the Chapter 11...