Here is the piece I wrote for my college's paper on Cuban:<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>With last week's sale of the Tribune Company to real estate mogul Sam Zell, the Chicago Cubs will be sold at the end of the season to help pay off some of the debts the Tribune Co. owes. Because Zell is also a minority owner of the White Sox, unless he sells his shares, he will be required under MLB rules to sell the Cubs.Analysts have predicted the team will sell for over $600 million. That's a far cry from the $21.1 million Tribune Co. put up to buy the team in 1981. It has been reported that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former Suns and Diamondbacks executive Jerry Colangelo have expressed interest in purchasing the team.Between Colangelo and Cuban, Cuban seems to be the better owner. Colangelo may have built a World Series team in Arizona in only four years, but he piled on massive debts to do it. The team was also aided by inferior competition to get into the playoffs and was then able to ride shutdown aces Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson to take the title.Cuban, on the other hand, has turned the Mavericks from the laughingstock of the NBA into a title contender in just seven years since he officially bought the team midway through the 1999-2000 NBA season. Success is not measured only by titles. Consistent winning is the key. Arizona made the playoffs only a couple times and then tanked. In each of Cuban's first six full seasons as owner, Dallas has made the playoffs, including a trip to the NBA finals last year.Cuban would be a great fit because of his fan-friendly attitude. Most owners tend to watch games from their own private suite where no one can see them. At Mavericks games, Cuban can be seen sitting courtside with the fans, wildly cheering on his team, often wearing team jerseys and shirts.Only a fan of an enemy team (Cardinals, White Sox) wouldn't want Cuban as owner. Cuban gets the Cub thing: Wrigleyville, the Bleacher Bums, the ivy, the beer and the hot chicks. He likes having fun, but he also likes spending big money to win, as can be shown by his brilliant job building Dallas from a cellar dweller into a title contender.Cuban comes from the George Steinbrenner School of payroll: spend. He has the kind of money Steinbrenner has, and the Steinbrenner attitude on spending: You got the money, spend the money.In an era where baseball is flush in cash, a major-market team like the Cubs should throw around the money they have. The Tribune never re-invested the profits back into the team, despite giving good payroll. Cuban's attitude says he will take that next step and put the extra money into the team to make it a title contender.Thanks to the Tribune's $300 million offseason spending splurge, the new team owner will have to pay massive money to keep this team intact. Doing so would require committing $55 million to just four players (Alfonso Soriano, $17M/year salary, Aramis Ramirez, $15M/year, Derrek Lee, $13M/year and Ted Lilly, $10M/year) through the 2010 season. Not to mention a big contract coming for Carlos Zambrano, supposedly in the $17M/year range. Cuban will spend the money.However, it is unlikely Bud Selig will want anything to do with Cuban.The appropriately called 'maverick owner' has been fined several times for saying what he thinks of the NBA. Selig can't take it when writers blast him. Seeing how Cuban has blasted David Stern, who's to say he won't rip Selig apart? And who thinks Selig will stand for such behavior?Also standing in the way of Cuban getting ownership is Selig's right-hand man, White Sox majority owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Reinsdorf serves on the Executive Council and Ownership committee of MLB, which is the first step in getting prospective buyers approved. It's unfortunate that a White Sox owner gets to influence who owns the Cubs, but such is life, just as the 1994 MLB Players Strike that Jr. caused was.While doubtful MLB will want anything to do with Cuban, having him as owner would provide a true feeling on the North Side that there will be a season where the team is built to win the World Series.</div>
