It’s like Illinois politics:
“They want Ricketts, and it’s always been Ricketts,” a source said.
While the others might have bid a higher price for the team, the source said the Ricketts offer had more conservative financing, an important factor when credit is extremely tight.
Also, Ricketts lives in the Chicago suburbs and represents what it essentially a family bid. Baseball owners, who must approve any Cubs sale, are known to favor tight-knit groups of owners with local ties.
Ricketts has an advantage because he hired the law firm Foley & Lardner to assist him in the ownership quest. A Foley partner is Robert DuPuy, who is president of Major League Baseball.