The state is set to make a bid for Wrigley Field next week, which should be at least mildly comforting to any baseball purists out there. Theoretically, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and its director, former Gov. James Thompson, would know best what to do to preserve the integrity of a local landmark while ensuring the long-term economic benefit to citizens.

As you may or may not recall, Thompson was the guy who stopped the clock on the Capitol floor June 30, 1988, when Jerry Reinsdorf and the rest of Sox ownership were threatening to move to St. Petersburg unless some combination of the city, county and state paid for a new ballpark. Thompson’s masterful wheeling and dealing eventually garnered the money necessary to build a new stadium on the South Side and kept the Sox in Chicago. This all sounds well and good, and to the typical Cubs fans this is most likely encouraging.

But the key point to remember to all this is that Sox’ ownership doesn’t own the current park, and the situation at play was entirely different. The new park opened as Comiskey II, there was room in the neighborhood to build the new park without immediately boarding up the old one, and there was not yet another ownership group coming in with a lot of money to make back in a hurry. Considering that Comiskey II was publicly funded, Reinsdorf and Co. actually had absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Meanwhile on the North Side, you’ve got a cantankerous new owner who’s billions in the hole after buying the Tribune Co. and has a goldmine on his hands in the form of the naming rights to whatever’s left standing at 1060 W. Addison. Sam Zell didn’t get rich through sympathy, and this is the same man who told all his new employees that “If you all lose your jobs, I’ll still be a billionaire.” With Wrigley being the asset of a private company – essentially of Zell himself – there’s absolutely no incentive to wait for the highest bidder, even in the likely event the ISFA can show how their plan would be better for civic interest.

Remember, this isn’t about civic betterment. This is about a minority owner in the Sox crushing the olde-timey hellhole the Cubs call home for the sake of keeping a hobby business of his afloat.

Sam Zell, you may be my new favorite sports figure.