Chicago, Oct 13 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Chicago Cubs baseball team has filed for bankruptcy on Monday as part of the team’s planned sale to the Ricketts family by the Tribune Co, according to court documents.

Tribune declared bankruptcy in December last year itself and is now trying to sell the Chicago Cubs to the billionaire Ricketts family, who will have a 95% stake in the company and will contribute cash to the new company too.

As part of the agreement that received the approval of a bankruptcy court last month, Tribune will contribute the Cubs, Wrigley Field and its stake in a sports television network to a new company.

“Today’s action has been anticipated for some time and is part of the process involved in transferring a controlling interest in the Cubs assets to the Ricketts family,” Tribune said in a company statement.

The Baltimore Orioles in 1993 were the first ones to declare bankruptcy as a Major League Baseball club, and now the Chicago cubs are following suit.

According to media reports, Tribune is all set to sell 95% of it, together with a 25% stake in sports television network Comcast SportsNet Chicago for $823m (£523m) to the family of Joe Ricketts, founder of the online brokerage TD Ameritrade.

The Cubs have not won baseball’s championship, the World Series, for 101 years. Lets see if the new owners can change their luck.