Winning in Major League Baseball is hard enough. Fans don't need to be worrying about whether their ownership cares about it.
When the Chicago Cubs broke their 108-year World Series drought in 2016, hardly a soul held any ill will towards the ownership group that ended the curse. Corporate bond magnate Tom Ricketts and his family had bought the team in 2009, and they deserved credit for getting the Cubs over the hump.
As the Cubs have progressively gotten worse over the past decade, though, some of that goodwill has dried up. In fact, Ricketts found himself on the receiving end of some scalding criticism this week.
On Wednesday, Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter took Ricketts to task in a piece about MLB's "not-so-secret-crisis," saying too many owners are failing to properly invest in their teams.
"Tom Ricketts, Chicago Cubs: A big-market owner who sees big payrolls and stars as optional," Reuter said.
Reuter also referred to Ricketts and several of his fellow owners as "goons" who are taking the allegiances of their fans for granted.
The Cubs rank ninth in total payroll across MLB this season, according to USA Today. It's a subjective topic, but given that Chicago is the nation's third-largest media market, and Forbes rated the Cubs as the league's fourth-most-profitable team in 2024, one could make the case that the payroll needs to be higher.
And it's hard to argue with the "stars" aspect of Reuter's critique, because the Cubs have notably avoided chasing after the biggest fish in free agency. They made no serious attempts to sign Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani, and there's yet to be any serious evidence that they will pursue Juan Soto, either.
Ultimately, there will always be calls for an ownership group to do more, especially within a passionate sports city like Chicago. If Ricketts wants to prove Reuter and his detractors wrong, though, he has a golden opportunity to make a splash in free agency this winter.
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