April 16, 2010 at 4:26 p.m.
Filed under:
Sports,
Technology
Associated Press | The tally is in: NBC lost $223 million on the Winter Olympics in the first quarter.
That’s slightly better than the most recent estimate of $250 million in losses. Advertising sales have improved a bit since NBC parent General Electric Co. made that projection in late January.
The Olympics did bring about $800 million in extra revenue to GE. But NBC had a lot of production and other expenses, including $820 million just to acquire the rights to carry the Vancouver Games on television and online. That expense was cited as the main culprit for the red ink.
Get the full story »
April 16, 2010 at 7:37 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Food,
Sports
From New York Sports Journalism | Kraft Foods has signed a three-year deal to create the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl as the title sponsor of the annual college football game played between teams from the Pacific-10 and the Western Athletic Conference,previously known as the Emerald Bowl. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Get the full story: nysportsjournalism.com
April 15, 2010 at 12:13 p.m.
Filed under:
Real estate,
Sports
Cubs fans on Sheffield Avenue outside the Lakeview Baseball Club on Thursday . (Phil Velasquez)
By Ameet Sachdev | The owner of a rooftop overlooking Wrigley Field faces a foreclosure lawsuit
from a suburban bank after defaulting on $3.15 million in mortgages on
the property.
Lakeview Baseball Club, 3633 N. Sheffield Ave., remains open while it
deals with the foreclosure action. The building is known for featuring a
sign in Latin that says “Eamus Catuli,” which translated means “Let’s
go little bears.” But the owners of the club were stripped of its
control when a Cook County Circuit judge appointed a receiver earlier
this month to take over operations.
Get the full story »
April 14, 2010 at 5:40 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Food,
Sports,
Technology
From BrandWeek | Northfield-based Kraft Foods is launching a new social media effort to continue promoting its Macaroni ‘N Cheese Dinner Cheddar Explosion. Kraft will be showing videos of its sponsored implosion of the former home of the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Stadium. One video features the voice of ESPN’s Chris Berman counting down the minutes to the stadium’s implosion.
Get the full story: brandweek.com.
April 14, 2010 at 10:12 a.m.
Filed under:
Mortgages,
Sports
From Crain’s Chicago Business | Lakeview Baseball Club, a Wrigley Field rooftop club located at 3633 N. Sheffield Ave., is facing a foreclosure suit from a suburban bank seeking $2.5 million.
Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com.
April 14, 2010 at 7:33 a.m.
Filed under:
Real estate,
Restaurants,
Sports
From Crain’s Chicago Business | A deal for a Michael Jordan steakhouse in a Near North office building at 353 N. Clark fell through when Cornerstone Restaurant Group and office developer Mesirow Financial couldn’t finalize a lease deal.
Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com
April 14, 2010 at 7:22 a.m.
Filed under:
Housing,
Real estate,
Sports
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | New Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers has purchased a 12-room house in Highland Park from retired Chicago Bulls guard B.J. Armstrong, Peppers, 30, joined the Bears last month after signing a six-year, $91.5 million contract that made him the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player ever and provided him with a league-record $42 million of guaranteed money. And on Monday, Peppers closed on his purchase of his new house in Highland Park, paying Armstrong $1.8 million for it.
Get the full story: Elite Street
April 13, 2010 at 8:17 a.m.
Filed under:
Media,
Sports
By Phil Rosenthal | The Chicago Blackhawks have agreed to a three-year extension of its rights deal with WGN-AM 720, its radio home the past two seasons. The agreement, which will keep the Blackhawks on WGN-AM through the 2013-14 season, long had been anticipated.
Get the full story: Tower Ticker
April 12, 2010 at 8:38 a.m.
Filed under:
Housing,
Real estate,
Sports
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Former
Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman, now with the Washington
Redskins, has sold the last of his Chicago-area real estate, unloading
his three-bedroom town home in Lake Forest on Friday for $750,000.
As also was the case with another area property that he recently sold,
Grossman, 29, took a loss on the 2,714-square-foot town home, which he
purchased in 2005 for $797,275. Grossman also lost money on his
3,437-square-foot unit in Chicago’s Trump International Hotel &
Tower, which he bought in 2008 for $2.681 million and sold in January
for exactly $2 million.
Get the full story »
April 9, 2010 at 4:59 p.m.
Filed under:
Sports
By Ameet Sachdev | Some rooftop owners outside Wrigley Field are opposed to the proposed sign the Chicago Cubs would like to erect in the left-field bleachers.
The Wrigley Rooftop Association said in a statement Friday that the planned 360-square-foot sign featuring Toyota’s logo would violate the landmark ordinance governing Wrigley.
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April 8, 2010 at 11:21 a.m.
Filed under:
Sports
Tom Ricketts poses at Wrigley Field in October 2009. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Tribune News Services | The Cubs are worth $726 million according to the annual estimates by
Forbes magazine, which ranks fifth among major-league baseball teams.
It’s a 4 percent increase from the 2009 rankings, but is $119 million
less than the $845 million that new owner Tom Ricketts paid to acquire
the team last year.
The New York Yankees are worth nearly twice
as much as any other team at $1.6 billion, up 7 percent from a $1.5
billion value last year. The magazine said the team had $441 million in
net revenue in the first season at its new ballpark after paying to
baseball’s revenue sharing program and financing the stadium.
Get the full story »
April 1, 2010 at 8:26 p.m.
Filed under:
Housing,
Real estate,
Sports
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Former Chicago Bulls forward-center Ben Wallace, now with the Detroit Pistons, has taken a significant loss on his 6,983-square-foot, traditional-style mansion on 1.74 gated acres in Lake Forest, selling it on Thursday for $2.0575 million.
With the Bulls from 2006 until a 2008 trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Wallace, 35, lost almost $1 million on the five-bedroom home, which he purchased in late 2006 for exactly $3 million.
Get the full story »
April 1, 2010 at 2:21 p.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
Sports
From Reuters | Although the U.S. unemployment rate remains high, league executives and team owners are cautiously optimistic for the new season that begins Sunday. “Baseball is like comfort food,” said Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts. “People will cut out expensive vacations, but they won’t cut out their baseball season.” In a good early sign, ticket prices in the secondary market entering the season — as tracked by SeatGeek.com — are up 22.5 percent from the second half of last year, to almost $75.
Get the full story: reuters.com.
March 29, 2010 at 4:50 p.m.
Filed under:
Sports,
Taxes
Relief pitcher Mike Parisi of the Chicago Cubs pitches to Travis Buck of the Oakland Athletics during the sixth inning of a spring training game at HoHoKam Park in Mesa, Ariz. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
By Paul Sullivan | At a rally in Mesa, Ariz., Monday, Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts praised the spring training season, saying “We’ve had great attendance and a lot of fun out here.” But he declined to discuss the proposed “Cubs tax,” a ticket surcharge on all spring training games.
Get the full story: chicagobreakingsports.com.
March 29, 2010 at 3:21 p.m.
Filed under:
Litigation,
Sports
From Bloomberg | Fortune Brands’ golf business, Acushnet, was a winner today after Callaway Golf Co., the maker of Big Bertha golf clubs, lost a bid for $246 million in patent-infringement damages.
Get the full story: businessweek.com.
