This conversation is part of The CEO Series by Executive House. Watch the full interview on YouTube.
What’s the best thing about being chairman of the Chicago Cubs?
The best thing about being the chairman of the Cubs is game day, when it’s a beautiful day in June, and I get to walk around and talk to fans and watch baseball and just be part of what I think is the most special and magical experience in all of sports.
What’s the most difficult part about running a sports franchise?
I think the most difficult part about running the franchise is you always have to be getting better. It’s something we’ve learned: you just have to always be improving. It’s a very, very competitive industry, and you can never stop.
You’ve run another company. What’s the difference between a sports franchise and a more traditional company?
The difference between running a traditional company and a sports franchise is just the profile. A lot of the basic stuff about how you treat people and how you incent people and how you create goals, a lot of that stuff is very similar. But when you do it with the Cubs or another sports organization, it’s so high profile. You want to make sure you get everything right. You make sure you do everything the right way, because not only do you have millions of people counting on you for a great summer or a great year, but everybody’s watching, and it’s all just well reported. So you just want to be very careful, because it’s such a high-profile organization.
What was it like winning the World Series, especially after the Cubs hadn’t won since 1908?
Well, the feeling of winning the World Series, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to top that. I’m not sure anyone in sports can. It was the most amazing playoff journey, the longest history for a team, the most exciting Game Seven. I’m not sure how anyone could ever top that. For me, it was a great sense of relief in a sense, because you really feel like you promised this to so many people. And to be able to deliver, it feels great because you’ve accomplished something, but that just gives you a chance to exhale. It was just an amazing experience, and I’m glad that me, everyone here, and ten million other Cub fans got to enjoy it.
How often do you wear the ring?
I don’t wear the ring that often. I bring it out for special events. People do want to see it, so when I do a speaking engagement, I’ll bring it along. But the idea of the ring is you get it, and then you put it in your drawer and go try to get the next one.
For someone who might not know, what’s the most important revenue driver for a baseball team?
Well, on the business side, with baseball, and it’s not the same with every sport, the number one revenue line is tickets. So getting people to the park. That’s the most critical thing we do: get people into the ballpark and give them a great experience. I feel like the NFL is a great TV sport. The NBA is a great superstar sport. But the most important thing about baseball, and how a fan feels about their ball club, is how they feel when they walk into the ballpark. So our number one priority is making sure it’s a great day at Wrigley Field.
Do you have any interest in esports or competitive gaming?
I think esports is very, very interesting. Certainly there’s a generation of people that have come along playing the various games. There are certainly tens of millions of fans around the world that watch competitive gamers play these games. I think it’s a real thing. For us, I’m not sure what role we would play or how we would ever participate in an esports situation, but it’s certainly a trend.
Can you tell us about the network you’re starting?
This year we’re launching Marquee Sports Network, which is the Cubs channel. It’s really exciting because we can drive the kind of content we want, get the kind of coverage we want of our games, and put all the games in one place to make it easier for our fans to find the games. We’re just really excited about having the editorial control of a Cubs channel, and I think people will love it.
What’s it like having a franchise in a city with two teams in the same sport?
It’s interesting having two baseball teams in Chicago, but a lot of the fan bases are pretty distinct. I think a lot of people are born a Sox fan or born a Cubs fan. One of the things I think we have a nice advantage in is that people, when they move to Chicago and get to Wrigley Field, it’s a special place for them. We’ve also had a much bigger national footprint over the years, so our fan base is a little bit different. But yeah, Chicago can support both teams.
If you could have any retired player on the Cubs right now in his prime, who would it be?
Wow. Obviously guys like Hank Aaron and Willie Mays are such incredible players. Former Cubs players, I don’t know, Ernie Banks in his prime. I loved Ernie. That’d be pretty special. Maybe Ryne Sandberg.
Who’s another owner in MLB or another league that you really get along with?
I’m friends with a lot of the Major League Baseball owners. The owner of the Dodgers is actually a Chicago resident, so I know him pretty well. But I look up to a lot of them. There are a lot of guys I learn a lot from, like John Henry of the Red Sox and Jerry Reinsdorf. These people have been leaders in the business for a long time, and I consider them people that I’m friends with, but also people I can learn from.
If you could own any other team, which would it be?
Well, my number one love, of course, is the Cubs, but my first love is the Nebraska Huskers. If I could own the Huskers, that would be the most amazing thing, because that’s just the first place to start. But professional sports-wise, I really can’t name one. This is such a special relationship that my family and I have with this team that I’m not sure there’s another one that is on that level.
Outside of baseball, what sport do you watch the most?
Outside of baseball, football. I’m a big college football guy. I like the NFL playoffs. Football’s just a great TV sport.
You’ve worked with a lot of nonprofits. What are you most proud of?
When we bought the team, we laid out three goals: win the World Series, preserve and improve Wrigley Field, and number three was be a better neighbor. I wasn’t really exactly sure how that was going to take shape. Locally, literally, being a better neighbor has become this: we donate to schools, we give millions to the security of the neighborhood, and we built a great plaza for neighbors to enjoy all year round. We’ve really added to the neighborhood. But we’ve also become among the top, if not the top, team in Major League Baseball in charitable fundraising and donations throughout the city. We’re no longer the Wrigleyville Cubs or the North Side Cubs. With our giving and everything we’ve done, we’re truly the Chicago Cubs.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I think my leadership style is help set the goals, give the direction, and then let people do their jobs. We have a really good management team here, an A-plus team that really knows how to execute, and they do an incredible job. I let them do what they do best and empower them to be successful. Same thing on the baseball side. I don’t get involved in the baseball decisions in general. Just let people know you trust them and let them do what they do best.
Do you have a game day routine?
Right before opening day in 2010, our first year, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was a little worried, like, “What do you do during the game? I don’t want to be like a football owner behind the plexiglass with a tie on.” That didn’t feel like Wrigley at all to me. So I have a dozen baseballs printed. It’ll say “March 30, Cubs versus Brewers,” and then I just go hand them out in the crowd. Try to find a kid. If you find a birthday, that’s an extra plus, or a first game, that’s an extra plus. We have a lot of people at Wrigley from out of state, out of the country. If you can find someone like that to give a baseball to, it’s just fun. It’s a fun part of my routine, and I look forward to it every game.
What do you wish you knew when you first started that you know now?
I think my steepest learning curve with owning the Cubs was Chicago politics. It’s just something you’re not really prepared for if you haven’t been involved with it your whole life. But over time, you pick up a few things and work through it, and it’s all kind of worked out for us.
What’s the future of baseball? Are there any rule changes you’d make to improve the game?
Well, I think the future of baseball is looking up. More kids are playing baseball than the last few years. Little leagues have been booming, which I think is a good sign for our future. That said, I think the number one thing we should be focused on is increasing the number of balls in play. Too many walks, too many strikeouts, too many home runs. We need to get baseball back to the baseball we grew up with, a lot of first-to-third baseball. How we do that is a subject of debate. The league has a bunch of ideas, and we’ll work with the players to come up with that, but I think everyone’s focused on that.
A few people in this room want to own a sports franchise someday. What’s something we’re not thinking about?
If there’s a downside to owning a sports franchise, particularly a high-profile sports franchise, it’s that you do lose a little bit of your anonymity. You lose a little bit of your privacy. I’ve seen people go through my garbage. Certain newspapers have come and photographed my house. People come to my door with suggestions. Some of them are normal, some of them are a little less than normal. So I think that’s the only real trade-off. Otherwise, it’s an incredible position to be in, and something that I love every day.
You stay out of baseball decisions, but is it difficult to maintain relationships with players and coaches while also running the business?
I think it’s easy to maintain a good relationship with your general manager, because you talk to him every day. He’s part of the core business team. Players, it’s tough. They come and go. They’re all good young men, and you get to like them, and then as soon as you start to like them, they move on. They get traded or they become free agents. So you do what you can. In the early days, every single player that got called up from Iowa, I would make an effort to go introduce myself and welcome them to Wrigley Field. But after Theo came in, there were so many roster moves that it got to be impossible. Anyway, you do end up meeting some guys and getting to know them. And Cubs Convention, which is something we do every year, brings back a lot of those players, so you can keep those relationships for a long time.
What’s your favorite bar in Wrigleyville?
It’s a political question, because I own five of them. I’ll answer it a different way. Wrigleyville has so many great places to go. Before our development, we did a lot of Murphy’s and a fair amount of Cubby Bear and the other bars around here. Now we have a lot more options, and I think the nice part about Wrigleyville now is there’s something for everybody.
What are three of your favorite Chicago restaurants?
Another political one. We own restaurants. In terms of Chicago restaurants, there are so many, and more importantly, there are great restaurant groups. There are a lot of really good restaurateurs in our town. If I want to go out for Japanese, I like Momotaro. That’s one of my favorites. We’re partners with the guys at Boka on a Momotaro pop-up right now. Around the neighborhood, we’ve got some great restaurants. Mordecai before a game is really special. It’s a great place. Five years ago, there wasn’t a place to have a really nice dinner before you go to the game. So I like those, and of course the guys at Lettuce do such a great job with all their restaurants. It’s really hard to pick just a couple, but Chicago is restaurant rich.
If family or a good friend is visiting Chicago, where do you send them?
Anyone that comes in from out of town, number one is you have to go to Wrigley Field, of course, and hopefully on a game day so you can see it in its full glory. But when I have people on other days, I really think people get a lot out of the architecture tour, the river tours. I think people don’t appreciate what kind of great architecture we have here in Chicago. And then of course, the Museum Campus is incredible, and there’s so much to get from that too.
You go to a lot of baseball games. Do you ever get tired of them?
I don’t know if I ever get tired of watching baseball, but there are those games early in April against a relatively uncompelling team, and it’s 39 degrees and raining, and you’re just kind of getting through it. Some nights are a little bit less enjoyable than other nights, but never get tired.
Favorite baseball movie?
Field of Dreams got me. It really did. And obviously Bull Durham’s a classic. I think those are the two that probably jump out.
What’s a great thing about running a business in Chicago, and what’s a difficult part?
The good side of it is it’s just a great city. I just love this city, and the people here love the city. Particularly on a great summer day when everybody’s out on the sidewalks, and maybe there’s a game, and there’s so much going on, that’s when Chicago’s at its best, and undoubtedly one of the best cities in the world, particularly on those days. I think the hardest part about Chicago is that obviously the politics are complicated, and I think a lot of people are worried about the future of the city, which has this kind of dark cloud over all the excitement that’s going on here and all the growth we’ve had in the last 10 years. So it’s a bit of a trade-off.
What’s your go-to ballpark food?
It’s another political question. At Wrigley, one of the things that has probably received less attention than some of our other accomplishments is how much better the food is today than it was just a few years ago. We built new kitchens and brought in new partners to work on different items. I’m still a grilled dog with onion guy, but there are so many great options at the ballpark. I think people can find anything they want.
Which competitor do you respect the most?
When you look at competitors, the Cardinals are just such a great organization. No one in baseball matches them for the consistency of their performance over the past 60 years, 100 years, whatever. I think that’s one thing that we aspire to. The other thing you can say about the Cardinals is it’s an incredible fan base. St. Louis itself isn’t a particularly large city, but they have a whole section of the country. They have great fans. It’s a great game, and I love going down to St. Louis for the Cubs-Cardinals games. I think they’re really just an incredible organization.
Anything about the Sox?
Anything I say will be used against me.
Chicago pizza or Chicago hot dog?
There’s a time and a place for both, but I’ll take the hot dog, because that’s one of the things we sell the most of.
Cubs or Sox?
Cubs.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received or given?
One piece of advice I live by, and what I tell people, particularly young people, is the first half of your career will be defined by your accomplishments. Are you willing to do the work? Are you competent? Do you work hard? Do you work well with people? But the second half of your career is going to be defined by your relationships. As you were building your career, did you build the kind of relationships, make the kind of friends, and gain the kind of respect that people will want to work with you in the future? I think that’s really important. I think people can forget that, particularly in today’s world where people change jobs so frequently.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
When I really jump out of bed is when we have a really important game. You probably didn’t sleep that great the night before because you’re focused on it and you’re kind of excited about it. Particularly a playoff game. The playoff games are exciting games in and of themselves, but there’s so much to do when you wake up that morning. You’ve got to make sure your family all has their tickets taken care of and everything’s all good, and we’re picking up the kids from school at the right time and all that. There’s a lot that goes into those days. So that gets me out of bed.
Day games or night games?
Well, I love all games at Wrigley Field, but day games have a magic. It’s not a very practical strategy to have too many day games, because it’s difficult, particularly early in the year, to get people here. Even Wrigley has trouble sometimes with day games. But there is something really magical about that Wednesday afternoon game in July, when everyone kind of took a half day off to get there, and they’re just enjoying it. They’re playing hooky, and it’s really a special thing.
What’s the best seat in the house?
Well, there are no bad seats in Wrigley Field, of course, but the best seat in the house is in the bleachers. The bleachers are such a unique animal in the world of sports, and I think it comes down to two words: general admission. When you walk into the bleachers, you don’t know who you’re going to sit next to, who you’re going to meet. I met my wife in the bleachers. It is a unique social experience in all of baseball, and one of the things that makes Wrigley so magical.
You met your wife in the bleachers? How did that happen?
Yeah, it’s a true story. I was there with both my brothers and my sister and a few other friends, because we used to go to all the Saturday and Sunday Cubs games, and we always sat in the front row of center field. We were a little too lazy to get there early enough to sit in the front row of right or left. You’d have to get there really early for that. And on top of that, in the old stadium design, the front row of center field was low enough that you could send a guy down to hand up beers. This was before the tyranny of the two-beer limit. You could send a guy down and get 16 beers and just hand them up. So we had a system. My wife and a bunch of her college friends were sitting next to us, and we started making conversation, and 25 years and five kids later, here I am.
Can you walk us through some of the trophies in your office?
We have a more recent trophy than this, but the Cubs won the World Series in 1907, and on opening day of 1908, the local newspaper gave this silver cup to the team. Now, of course, the team won again in 1908, but the local newspaper didn’t give the team anything. So this is for two years, basically.
We do have a lot of great awards. We have our ESPY for Sports Moment of the Year. We’ve won Sports Business Journal awards on a bunch of different things, but we’re really proud of our Emmys. We’ve come a long way. Producing our own original content has been something we’ve actually become pretty good at, and that will be really helpful as we launch our network this year. We have a bunch more Emmys too, so we’ve got a whole collection of them.
This one is pretty interesting. There’s a global sports foundation called the Laureus Foundation. It was started by Nelson Mandela, and he worked with a man named Rupert at Richemont, which is a luxury brand conglomerate. They do a global sports award every year, and we were the first American team ever to win Global Sports Team of the Year. The award ceremony was in Monaco, and it’s broadcast all over the world. Michael Phelps gave me that. Usain Bolt was there. It was just incredible, everybody there.
And then of course, this is the top of the list. That’s third base from the end of Game Seven in 2016, and the ball that Kris Bryant threw to Anthony Rizzo, which Rizzo then gave to me at the parade, the Grant Park event, which was about as crazy and good as life gets.