Playboy CEO Christine Hefner has been short-listed as a potential buyer for the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise. Rich Walden, head of sports financing for JP Morgan Chase, told CNBC today that Hefner and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, are currently among the top bidders for the team.
According to Digital Wire Media, The Tribune Co. has said it will sell the Cubs at the end of the year. Initial estimates place a $600 million price tag on the franchise.
Some analysts have reportedly questioned the value of a club with a stadium as small and old as Wrigley Field. However, Walden told CNBC, the next Cubs owner would have "the opportunity…to mine the base of 3 million-plus fans that I think the Tribune hasn't fully taken advantage of. Baseball is about as strong economically as it's been since the sport began."
Walden added that William Wrigley Jr., executive chairman and CEO of the Wrigley Company, and Bruce Rauner, principal and chairman of Chicago-based GTCR, are also eyeing the Cubs acquisition.
