He offered 1.3 bill in the first round. Noone else is even close. If owners approve him, Cubs are his. I hate Dallas and Cuban as much as any Kings fan. As a Cubs fan, season ticket holder or resident of Lakeview, I would LOVE, absolutely LOVE Cuban to buy the Cubs. This is the only time in the history of this franchise that team owners/amanagement invested big money on par with Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and Angels. I have to believe they're opening their wallets because they know they will never have to pay out those salaries from their profits/bonuses and historically Tribune owned Cubs signed only washed up veterans at the tail ends of their career (one exception being Sammy Sosa who made them millions to begin with). We're talking about an organization that is always in black ink, with healthy positive cash flow. The organization that effectively subsidized Tribune's other ventures like Comcast Sports (at the expense of the team as most of the games are not available nationally on the flagship WGN superstation). Not to mention that Tribune waited for pieces of concrete to start falling on people's heads as they were watching games before they spent some money on restorations. The list goes on and on.
On other hand, Cuban has demonstrated that he will spend money, and a degree of organizational excellence. Just ask Dallas fans. He will be getting a team with a huge payroll (all in last two years really), but a team that still turns healthy profit and Wrigly field that is a top tourist attraction. My ticket prices go up every year and yet they are still mere $7 more then parking in Wrigleyville (and about 4 times less then cheapest standing room only tix on stubhub) so there is a lots of headroom there. Price of modernizing and fixing Wrigley may scare off some bidders from pursuing the Cubs at all costs, but I am sure that Cuban realizes that Chicago and Illinois will do anything to keep the place open and attractive as it is a huge source of revenue. Not to mention that a whole economy surrounds the stadium and Chicago cannot afford to lose any more businesses to the county or suburbs (hence huge payoffs they made to attract Boing and for United to move downtown). Cuban will make money here and if he wins World Series with Cubs he will make tonnes of money.
He may be egotistical jerk, but he is definetly a sports fan too. No more soulles suits. And he will make Reinsdorff's head explode.
