Tom Ricketts Invites Famous Cub Fans to Invest in Team
This sounds like a good idea on the surface:
Bill Murray’s lifelong love affair with the Chicago Cubs may turn into something more. The actor and Wilmette native has met with Tom Ricketts, who is negotiating to buy the Cubs from Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co., about investing in his favorite baseball team, multiple sources said.
Ricketts, the son of the founder of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. who is leading his family’s pursuit of the Cubs, has been trying to raise capital from private investors, but the fundraising is not critical to reaching a deal with Tribune Co., sources said.
As talks with Tribune Co. grind on, Ricketts, an investment banker who lives in Wilmette, has held separate discussions with a handful of celebrities to raise money from them and other wealthy Cubs fans willing to pony up as much as $25 million. In addition to Murray, he’s met with Jim Belushi and John Cusack, said two sources familiar with Ricketts’ proposal. The meetings took place several weeks ago, and sources were not sure if the talks had advanced. Representatives for Murray and Cusack did not respond to requests for comment. Belushi’s publicist declined to comment.
$25 million seems like a lot to ask, even from guys as rich as Bill Murray and Jim Belushi. Those dudes have alcohol bills and alimony payments to think about. And don’t even get me started about the John Cusack thing. Damn it man, someone needs to inform Ricketts that Cusack is a phony bandwagon-jumper. He’s almost as big a front-running fake as Eddie Vedder.
