Chicago Radio: New Deal Could Mean More Concerts at Wrigley

Maybe the most significant part of the new seven-year broadcast deal with CBS Radio WBBM 780 AM is the expanded, “50-50 partnership” on concert staging and overall event promotion, which figures to increase the number of concerts at Wrigley Field and includes concert dates at the new spring ballpark in Arizona, according to The Sun-Times.

It’s an element that makes the CBS deal an “apples to oranges” comparison to WGN’s deal, according to CBS Radio marketing manager Rod Zimmerman.

And while adding significant potential value to the overall deal for both sides, it also provides the Cubs with a potential shelter for some of their local revenue from the MLB revenue-sharing system into which the Cubs have historically been a large contributor.

Neither the team nor the network have made the breakdown of the rights deal public. But depending on how much of CBS Radio’s contribution is tied to the concert/events promotions part of the deal, the Cubs might be able to demonstrate no increase in rights fees and thereby avoid a one-time uptick in revenue calculations for a “new broadcast adjustment” as outlined in the revenue-sharing system.

Because the concert business would seem “wholly unrelated to the business of Major League Baseball” and related only to the fact the Cubs own a stadium, it would be exempt from revenue-sharing calculations, according to language in the collective bargaining agreement.

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