Barring something unexpected from either a federal bankruptcy judge or the owners of the other 29 Major League Baseball franchises, the Ricketts family will be the next owners of the Cubs after they finalized an agreement to buy the team. Tom RIcketts will be in control of the team, and a number of questions need to be answered.

1) What happens to Jim Hendry? I don’t think Hendry has done a bad job as Cubs general manager. Even though this season is disappointing, the team will likely finish as winners this year. Three winning seasons in a row is hard to do, and it’s probably not grounds for firing. But Ricketts may have his own ideas about how he wants the team constructed, and the falloff from a 97-win season to wherever the Cubs end up this year is a good pretext for firing the man who constructed the team, if he wants to bring in his own guy.

2) What will the payroll be? The Cubs are profitable, so their payroll isn’t necessarily too high. But Ricketts will have to pay interest on the debt he took out to buy the team. With payroll at about $140 million this year, the next couple of seasons could be difficult if Ricketts feels the need to reduce his expenses. The Cubs have $120 million and $96 million committed in salary in the coming two seasons, so that doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room if payroll is to go down.

3) What happens to Wrigley Field? The Cubs are in a unique position with Wrigley Field. It’s a cash cow that they can fill no matter what. But it’s an aging and perhaps dangerous facility that locks them into playing a ton of day games and limits their opportunity to generate new revenue streams. Furthermore, the training and practice facilities for players are not exactly top notch. And to change any of these things, he has to get powerful alderman Tom Tunney’s approval. Will he seek to rebuild Wrigley on its current grounds like they did with the bleachers? Or will he look to move the team elsewhere?

4) What about the stretch? OK, this may not really be important, but we’ve already covered two big-picture questions. If there was one single move the Cubs’ owner could make to endear himself to me, though, it would be to get rid of the embarrassing seventh-inning stretch. I’m aware Ricketts is not trying to please me personally, but if I never have to sit through another awkward interview in the bottom of the seventh with someone with no connection to the Cubs or baseball, it will be too soon.

5) What new revenue streams will Ricketts find? At Another Cubs Blog they detailed the impact a jumbotron and naming rights could have. What else is going to happen? There’s a good argument to be made that ticket prices are in fact not high enough, since the secondary market prices them well above face, most of the time. What else will he and his people be able to come up with?