Chicago Cubs: future sports broadcast network a political pawn?

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The Chicago Cubs organization is not officially linked with one political party or another. But recent moves by ownership makes me wonder if that’s changing.

It’s no big secret that most of the Chicago Cubs owners are conservative and tend to support the Republican Party. Many Cubs fans watched the last election and saw members of the Ricketts family endorsing, stumping and campaigning for now-President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Personally, this was not such a revelation to me as it is well-known the Ricketts family is wealthy and the president has longstanding relationships from his time in the private sector. So it was not surprising that the Ricketts were on the Trump train to Make America Great Again.

I, like many fans, didn’t think much of it. The Ricketts have the right to support whoever they want in the political arena and if Trump was their man, so be it. No big deal. Cubs fans who supported Trump were overjoyed their new owners were backing their man. But I think most baseball fans would agree with the following: when I go to a ballgame, I don’t want to get solicited to join a political party or vote a certain way.

The most fans can tolerate at a ball game is the “get out and vote campaign”. This campaign runs very neutrally saying you can vote for whoever you’d like – just vote. That’s it. That’s the extent of politics that any real fan of the game wants to hear when they go to the ballpark.

Chicago Cubs: Potential broadcast partner could be telling

Now it seems that politics may be drawing closer than ever to the ball field as the future Chicago Cubs Regional Sports Network (CCRSN) television partner Sinclair Broadcast Group, a proud, right-leaning broadcasting company has joined the party – according to Sage Kelley of 12UP:

So, what’s the problem with Sinclair? Earlier this year, they forced their anchors on almost 200 television stations to record a promo “informing” the audience about the dangers of fake news. The right-leaning media brand, however, is famous for defending and making apologies for the same U.S. President that weaponizes fake news to protect his fragile ego. The boilerplate statement read word-for-word by allegedly local journalists sets the stage for coordinated campaigns of disinformation, plain and simple.

The new Cubs television network isn’t expected to make its debut until 2020 and so Kelley may be a bit paranoid thinking Sinclair is ready to turn Cubs baseball fans into minions of the president. If Sinclair does decide to use the Cubs platform to reach conservative audiences, it isn’t out of the question to think we may be hearing, “Make America Great Again,” around Wrigley Field next.

There certainly is a little smoke there as the Ricketts have not had the best history running one of the most popular, national sports organizations out of the heartland.

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: Ricketts family battles with progressive Chicago mayor

It was widely reported when the Ricketts committed to the renovations at Wrigley Field that Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, former cabinet member of the Obama administration was not giving out any grants for this work from the city.

The Ricketts requested to split costs with the city for their heavy dollar commitment to the renovation which was bound to bring in more fans from across the country spending not only dollars on the Cubs but hotels, restaurants, clubs, stores, souvenirs and more. Again and again, Emanuel turned down the Ricketts request for money.

Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote last December that the Ricketts almost moved the team out of Chicago to the suburbs they were so upset with City Hall.

More from Chicago Cubs News

“It was definitely considered. There was discussion about that at the time. Tom made mention of it at a City Club speech,” Culloton said. Emanuel’s communications director, Shannon Breymaier, said Tuesday that the now-outgoing mayor told Ricketts in 2013 “the same thing he told the owners of the Hawks and the Bulls.” That is, “You own it, you pay for it.”

Of course, many cities help their local teams, especially in the NFL. Given the at the time new owners were shelling out over a half-billion dollars for the project, you’d think Emmanual would at least consider helping out, right?

Not if it was politically motivated as reported by Deadspin’s Molly Osberg last December:

Though Tom Ricketts tends to (wisely) keep his political opinions under wraps, and the family does contain a sole Democratic activist in daughter Laura Ricketts, the remaining Cubs owners are deeply involved conservative players. This presents a problem when, say, a racist anti-Obama ad funded by a Ricketts-founded PAC leaks and the mayor is so furious he refuses to return your calls.

To think that politics hasn’t already entered Major League baseball is to be a bit naive about what’s happening in the world. Although it hasn’t gotten to the point of campaigning during games, the next evolution of politics in baseball is bound to come up during the upcoming 2020 election.

Of course, if Chicago were run by a Republican mayor, who knows what kind of goodies might abound around Wrigley Field? The last Republican mayor of Chicago was three-term winner “Big Bill” Thompson who left office in 1931. That’s 88 years of Democratic mayors at the helm in Chicago. Maybe the Ricketts should let the Dems in the family talk to the mayor. Just a suggestion.

Chicago Cubs: A team-based regional sports network or Fox News clone?

So back to the notion that Sinclair Broadcast Group will begin to promulgate the Republican Party and its ideals when they finally begin to produce the long-awaited Cubs TV network; does this mean Cubs baseball is being invaded by politics? I guess we’ll have to see if the show feels like an ESPN, MLB.TV show or a Fox News special.

We’ll also see who the sponsors and endorsements come from in between Cubs programming. Heck, I can always watch or walk away during commercials and truth be told, most times I just record the shows and fast forward through the ads these days. That’s what’s great about technology – freedom to choose.

Unless I see Anthony Rizzo or Ben Zobrist commercials saying, “Vote for whoever…” I won’t believe Cubs baseball has turned political. When I go to the game, I’m not checking what political party card everyone is carrying that is sitting around me. We laugh, yell, chant, drink, eat, dance and sing – together.

Just like when the whole stadium sings “Take me out to the ballgame…” We aren’t Democrats, Republicans or Independents ( a case can be made for the Bleacher Bums) and we aren’t black, white, Hispanic or Asian; upper class or middle class; we’re Cubs fans – everybody in!

Next. What was the worst decade to be a Cubs fan?. dark

Fans just aren’t that interested in politics when there is a World Series to win. I hope the Ricketts, Sinclair and Kelley remember that. Fans need to remember that just because we don’t want politics in our game or on our sports network, doesn’t mean someone isn’t trying to put it there.

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