MESA, Ariz. – Cubs fans are thinking repeat. Tom Ricketts is thinking world domination.
The team’s chairman met with the players and coaches Saturday, thanked them for last season’s World Series title and challenged them to become a global brand associated with excellence. The instinct might be to say, “Easy there, tiger,’’ but with the Cubs finally having shed 107 years of bad history, forget coyness. Toned-down expectations? Burn ’em.
Make no little plans.
“I think we have a unique opportunity to not only be considered one of the great sports teams in the U.S., but I just got back from Europe, and I think our long-term goal should be (to be) considered one of the great sports organizations in the world,’’ Ricketts said.
He had been in Monaco, where the Cubs won the Laureus World Team of the Year Award, which got him thinking. And thinking big. He’s thinking along the lines of Manchester United and Real Madrid in soccer and New Zealand’s All Blacks in rugby.
“What separates a really good team from a truly great team is the consistency of results,’’ he said. “We’ve won one World Series. Hopefully we’ll be in the mix again for many years to come. That’s what you associate success with. If you look at the Yankees of 15 years ago, the Patriots of today, they’re just always right in the mix.’’
For the longest time, the only way the Cubs had something in common with Man U was if someone told them, “Man, you stink.’’ Which was often. But with a championship under their belt, a young superstar in Kris Bryant and more youthful excellence in Anthony Rizzo, Javy Baez, Addison Russell and possibly Kyle Schwarber, the Cubs have changed the storyline completely.
It’s to the point where Ricketts can mention the Cubs and those other international luminaries in the same sentence, and no one in the room thinks he’s a raving lunatic.
“They set the standard for how people perform, and their team means something all over the world,’’ he said. “I’d like to think that one day, if we’re consistent enough and we win, that Cubs logo will mean something to people around the world, not just a team that didn’t win for a long time.’’
There’s still an incredible buzz in Chicago and in baseball over the team’s championship. Part of that is because of how big the achievement was and part of it is because the offseason seemed to last as long as a grade-school Christmas break.
The players and manager Joe Maddon have spent the last few days talking about the importance of moving on from last season, of focusing on the approaching season and the opportunity to win another World Series.
Good luck with that.
One of the inherent conflicts after a championship is that, although the performance side of a franchise is concentrating on doing it again, the business side is trying to remind everyone at every turn that OUR TEAM WON THE TITLE! And this will be especially true of the Cubs. You’d have to be a complete idiot as a marketer not to focus on the recent success.
The Cubs have always been good at selling the past, even if that past could never be mistaken for successful. Some former players have made a ton of money despite having never gotten a sniff of a World Series. Now the Cubs have something real to sell, and they should be trying to sell anything that says, “2016 World Series Champions’’ on it. Never mind that the calendar says 2017.
“We’re trying to be the best organization in sports,’’ Ricketts said. “We have to look for every way to get better, every way we can.’’
That includes lots of new building projects or, if you prefer, turning Wrigleyville into Rickettsville. Plans are on schedule for a new Wrigley Field plaza, which will include a merchandise store and a Starbucks, and a four-star hotel that will house several restaurants. All that in addition to the rooftop buildings the Cubs have bought across the street from the ballpark. World domination, indeed.
Ricketts said he doesn’t see his family’s ties to Donald Trump’s polarizing presidency as a possible perception problem for the team. His brother Todd, a Cubs board member, is Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of commerce. Ricketts is right and wrong here. Cubs fans would buy tickets and merchandise if Darth Vader were somehow associated with the team, but that doesn’t mean it’s good business or that it won’t have an impact down the line.
Last fall, Ricketts vowed to get a “W’’ tattoo if the Cubs won the World Series. His memory seemed to fail him when reminded of it.
“Did I say it exactly like that?’’ he said, laughing. “Well, I’ve got to think that one through. Maybe I said if they won twice.’’
In the old days, that would have been a when-pigs-fly proposition. Not anymore.
