November 11, 2005
Strib: Take our team, please!
So the Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial page beat Sid Hartman to the punch: Today's Strib informs readers that "the significance of [Reggie] Jackson's and other interest in [buying] the Twins is the growing realization that the team's best hope may lie beyond Minnesota." Why, you ask? "The team has been essentially homeless since 1997, when its long-term lease at the Metrodome expired." But, but... I thought the homeless were supposed to happy to live in domed stadiums!
Aside from comparing billionaire bankers to the homeless, the Star Tribune raised the specter of the Montreal Expos to throw a scare into the populace:
Do the math. Even after covering operating losses in Montreal and paying other expenses, MLB's owners stand to make a windfall of $150 million. The lesson is clear. Moving a struggling team makes money for all owners. Reinvesting the windfall in the next movable team -- the Twins -- may be irresistible. As early as next year, look for MLB to make Pohlad an offer he'll have trouble refusing.
While Pohlad would no doubt love to sell out to MLB - he tried once before, after all - there's still the problem that the U.S. is plumb out of Washington, D.C.'s for teams to relocate to. The next tier of cities - Portland, Las Vegas, and their ilk - would be a major step down from Minnesota in terms of media market and corporate presence (you know, the folks who buy up luxury boxes and ad signage). Even accounting for the Twins' Metrodome lease, which irks both Pohlad and the league because the team has to actually share revenues with its public landlords, finding windfall profits in moving the Twins would be much harder than with Les Expos. And as you may recall, even that was no cakewalk.
