The Tribune Co. announced an agreement to sell all but 5 percent of the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field to the billionaire Ricketts family.
"Our family is thrilled to have reached an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs," said Joe Ricketts, who founded the Omaha, Nebraska-based online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. "The Cubs have the greatest fans in the world, and we count our family among them."
The agreement was valued at 845 million dollars.
Tom Ricketts, 43, is die-hard Cubs fan who first met his wife at the stands of Wrigley Field. A family spokesman said that Ricketts is a 'big Cubs fan and Major League Baseball fan.'
Ricketts and the Tribune Co. still have to work out the final logistics of the deal, meaning the Ricketts family won't get control of the team until mid-October.
It is still unclear what plans Ricketts has for the Cubs and Wrigley Field. The Cubs have not won a World Series in over a century, and fans hope that Ricketts will be more aggressive than the Tribune Co. was in bringing a championship to Chicago.
The deal still needs to be approved by 2/3 of Major League Baseball owners.