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After buying the Cubs as part of his purchase of the "T-word Corporation" (don't know if I can say the whole thing here), billionaire Sam Zell looks to be trying to create as much controversy as he can before he allegedly sells the team sometime this year to one of Bud Selig's cronies since Mark Cuban's money apparently is not compatible with Major League Baseball -- kind of like trying to use a Canadian quarter in a soda machine. Close, but not good enough.

In a moment of brilliance, Zell has decided he wants to sell (notice the rhyme) the naming rights to Wrigley to the highest bidder, supposedly looking for somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 million over 20 years.

As expected, people are shocked, but I'm kind of wondering why. This is the same organization that looks to squeeze every penny of "revenue" that it can from any source it can find. It's the same team that sells seats 500 feet from home plate for $50 and watered-down beer for $8.

It makes me think back to when I was in college and spent a semester sleeping through an economics class. About the only day I was awake (or present) was when the prof talked about supply and demand. The price of beer, pizza, widgets or gidgets is set by demands of the customer. If the demand is such that you can keep increasing the price without losing customers, you can keep doing it -- or something like that.

No matter how outraged people are and how many boycotts they try to put together, if one person leaves Cub Nation, another will be there to take his place. The fact that I have only been to two games in the last five years, but they still draw 3 million-plus fans, is a sign that no matter what they do, people will keep coming. They wouldn't if the Cubs tried to pull this in a market like Tampa Bay, Kansas City or Minnesota, which is why the franchises there don't have the same type of revenue stream.

There are enough people that don't care that a front-row seat costs several hundred dollars, just like enough people don't care that they get charged as much as $3 to take money out of a bank machine. If they did care, businesses wouldn't do what they do.

Like it or not, this is the future of pro sports. I'm not that old, but I remember the days where I paid $5 to get into a Sunday doubleheader at Wrigley, or once got half-price tickets to and Indiana Pacers game for $2. But those days are long gone, replaced by endless commercials, the sponsorship of games that start at 7:11 p.m. and huge contracts to players who strike out too much and are scared of the outfield walls in his own home park.

We try and act all self-righteous when we talk about money-hungry people like Sam Zell, but we give our approval to these kinds of things by our continuous participation. If the backlash were more than just the wailing and gnashing of teeth, and we as fans and consumers stopped the revenue stream, the whoring of the Cubs, and other franchises who do the same thing, would end. Quickly.

They are playing on our fears: if they don't have this revenue the team can't get players and won't win. If we don't pay for them to build a new ballpark they'll move to a city that will. We hate to see our teams lose, and god forbid if they were to leave town, so we open up our pocketbooks and let them turn on the vacuum cleaner and clear out our wallets.

We can complain all we want, but in the end they are really, truly just giving us what we are asking for. At least that's the impression we are giving them.