Photo

Click on photo to enlarge

Chicago Cubs fan Mandy Calucin stands by the marquee outside of Wrigley Field before the start of Game 1 of the MLB National League Divisional Series playoff baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs in Chicago, October 1, 2008. REUTERS/John Gress

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bids for the Chicago Cubs baseball team being sold by Tribune Co are due the week of December 1, a top official with Major League Baseball said on Friday.

Representatives of four bidding groups have met in recent weeks in New York with executives from the commissioner's office, the sport's advanced media unit and its new television network, said Bob DuPuy, president of the U.S. sports league.

Tribune, which owns the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times newspapers, put the Cubs on the block in April 2007 when it announced it would be bought for $8.2 billion by a group led by real estate magnate Sam Zell. It is selling the team to cut debt it took on as a result of the leveraged buyout.

"Bids are expected the week after Thanksgiving," DuPuy said in an email. "Mr. Zell claims the team is for sale and they're moving forward."

A Tribune Co spokesman had no comment, but Zell said in October that he expected to sell the Cubs before year's end and the Tribune would soon narrow the list of bidders to two.

Analysts have said the team, its storied home ballpark Wrigley Field and a stake in a regional sports television network could attract bids topping $1 billion.

However, the process has been repeatedly delayed and the slumping U.S. economy has led to speculation that final bids could be lower than initially expected. There have been reports Tribune Co could retain a stake in the club of as much as 50 percent to help complete a deal.

DuPuy declined to identify the four bidders. However, a source close to the bidding process who asked not to be identified said they are Jim Crane, the former chief executive of freight-forwarding company EGL Inc; Tom Ricketts, chief executive of Chicago investment bank Incapital LLC and the son of the founder of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp; Marc Utay, a managing partner with New York-based private equity firm Clarion Capital Partners LLC; and Chicago real estate executive Hersh Klaff.

Internet billionaire Mark Cuban, who was charged by federal regulators on Monday with insider trading, has not been part of the bidding for months, another source close to the process said.

Cuban, who owns the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks team, was one of the five finalists in the bidding and reportedly had bid the highest at $1.3 billion for the team in an earlier round.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman, editing by Matthew Lewis)