Chicago Cubs: Reasons championship window is quickly closing

Reason #1: The Ricketts Family

I know, it’s very easy to blame ownership for almost any perceived problem with a professional sports franchise. When it comes to the owners of the Cubs, Joe Ricketts and his three children, things are a bit different.

It was all sunshine and roses for the Ricketts family in the winter of 2016 after the team’s first championship in 108 years. Fans around the world were personally thanking the family for making it all possible.

And the thing is, the family did deserve those congratulations. They had a plan to turn the team around when they purchased the Cubs in 2009, and they executed it pretty perfectly. They landed esteemed GM Theo Epstein to oversee the transition, and it worked.

The team didn’t reach the mountaintop again, but the family continues to rake in money. They had the audacity to claim the team “Didn’t have any more money” when asked about the lack of free-agent signings in winter 2019.

They remain staggeringly rich, and they’re building on that wealth with new real estate developments in Wrigleyville as well as an upcoming new TV network.

Speaking of that, the Marquee Network is supposed to launch in just over a month, and there doesn’t seem to be much information available. Chairman Tom Ricketts got booed when he brought it up at the convention last week.

The network still hasn’t reached an agreement with Comcast Xfinity to carry the channel. Asking the Ricketts family about this is tough for fans as they canceled last year’s Q&A panel at the convention and didn’t even have one this year.

Criticizing these owners can feel somewhat hollow as they’re obviously not going anywhere. But the ownership group seems to be ready to rest on their laurels of 2016, and fans shouldn’t be okay with that.