We need new owners

[C-Gangster]

Alot of people recently have been blaming our Maneger Rocco Balddeli for stuff that isn't even his fault. Like our bullpen lately. Our bullpen recently has had a E.R.A of over 6 our only highlights in the bullpen Have been Griffin Jax and sometimes Okert and Duran. But it's not Rocco Baldeli Or Derek Favelys fault. It's simply The Pholads family's the Pholad family has more then 4 billion dollars one of the richest owners in the MLB. But they're afraid to spend money why because of a profit. Like for example are biggest signing ever has been Carlos Correa at 200$ Million dollars And every year since the Polhad family has came in they've disappointed us every off-season. The only good moves I can think of are Carlos Correa and Carlos Santana. So I expect something better in the 2025 off-season the Polhad family should be spending more for us. Also every year we sign with Bally is another year of no Twins games. We should start our own channel and bring everyone with us like the yes network for the Yankees. Also we should not be afraid to sign people lets make our team better. A big example of these was our last 3 games every game our bullpen was the problem. It was not Roccos fault he didn't have anything to work with. Our record with them is 3175-3261 wich is a 499 win percentage wich is not exactly that good So if the pholad family could spend more money on the Twins that would be great. Because theyre not doing their job.

[Craig Arko]

I can’t speak for the rest of you, but nobody owns me. :)

[C-Gangster]

Just now, Craig Arko said:

I can’t speak for the rest of you, but nobody owns me. :)

😂 I mean for the twins

[jaimedude]

Not all is bad and I wouldn't say we have to get new owners. Would be nice if for once in awhile, the Pohlad ownership would stretch to win a World championship on payroll. I understand media rights like TV and radio have been an issue. They cut in the baseball department, front office,  area scouts, analytics, and game day operations. One of the reason's attendance suffered is because of the TV blackouts and announcing your cutting payroll and messaging from ownership. I actually think coaches and front office have been doing a really  good to decent job. Revenue has suffered on game day operations because pricing is a little steep in merchandise and beer, and some ticket areas. You have to have price points that appeal to wide variety of fans. Would help if we had better April and May weather and this year was fairly mild. Some of this can be made up with volume like family stand stuff they are doing. I think sales group could do better at selling group tix,  advertising, signage, sponsorships and theme areas of ballpark. The Truly area for ticket areas is very nice.  I'm not always annoyed with Pohlad ownership, they kept team here, do good things with Twins foundation and community, team has been decently competitive/successful this decade and last. The concerts they put on generate good revenue and bring good acts. Be better at fan relations and media rights, access. 

[August J Gloop]

The Pohlads are terrible. But that's cuz rich people don't need to care about the outcomes of their actions, nor react to any sort of criticism. We have no democratic process to force them to actually consistently provide player payroll in keeping with their standing as 10th biggest combined market in MLB. 

It would be cool if Ryan Reynolds bought the team.

[Obsvr]

lol.

[Irishman]

On 8/22/2024 at 11:42 AM, August J Gloop said:

The Pohlads are terrible. But that's cuz rich people don't need to care about the outcomes of their actions, nor react to any sort of criticism. We have no democratic process to force them to actually consistently provide player payroll in keeping with their standing as 10th biggest combined market in MLB. 

It would be cool if Ryan Reynolds bought the team.

Agreed.    Just don't show up at Target Field!   That's what I did.  Haven't been to Target Field in 10 years.   

[August J Gloop]

16 hours ago, Irishman said:

Agreed.    Just don't show up at Target Field!   That's what I did.  Haven't been to Target Field in 10 years.   

But that's the worst! We shouldn't have to execute decade long boycotts to get people just to give a rip about the product they put on the field.  

[AlGoreRythm]

It's pretty obvious the decade long boycott hasn't worked. 

They have a monopoly on MN professional baseball. They can do whatever they want and we can either watch or not. Eventually if enough fans jump ship, they'll move the team.

There are no good options when dealing with billionaires. They have outsized influence in everything because money talks louder than anything else in this society.

[Twinkies are for eating]

We do need new owners. Carl threatened to move the team if he didn’t get a publicly funded stadium. The evil/corupt Bud Selig had his back. Well we built that stadium and the cheap ass Pohlad family still doesn’t spend money to justify the states commitment to their team. It’s time MLB did something about it. And if they don’t, fans need to start boycotting our beautiful stadium. That would force the Pohlads hand. Spend or sell.

[yeahyabetcha]

The Twins are 24th in average attendance in 2024.  Isn’t it fair that the payroll matches that?  

[USAFChief]

9 minutes ago, yeahyabetcha said:

The Twins are *24th in average attendance in 2024.  Isn’t it fair that the payroll matches that?  

*22nd.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance

[tony&rodney]

6 minutes ago, yeahyabetcha said:

The Twins are 24th in average attendance in 2024.  Isn’t it fair that the payroll matches that?  

Cleveland is drawing more people to their baseball games than are going to Target Field. I'm not sure how a population that doesn't heavily support a team can complain, except that anyone has that right. Let's face it, Minnesota favors football, hockey, and basketball above baseball. I only follow baseball closely while checking in on hockey and basketball once or twice a week. I haven't watched a single football game in a decade or more. That's not important but the comments on Twins Daily often include football references and I have wondered how many people are more tuned into football and suspect a majority would choose football or hockey over baseball. Again that is anyone's choice but the economics of attendance makes a difference. If the Twins averaged 32,000-36,000 fans per game, it seems likely the roster payroll could be higher. In any event, Falvey had the resources and money to put together the team he wanted for 2024. It would be difficult to believe that both of Puk and Erceg were too expensive for ownership to add at the deadline. The ownership angle is overplayed from the vantage point of this opinion of a person who opposed the Pohlads in 1984.

[tony&rodney]

14 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

*22nd.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance

Yes, and the Twins are 18th ($131.0M) in spending while Milwaukee, at $116.3 million, is 22nd in spending. Cleveland is 23rd in spending ($105.8M) while ranking 20th in attendance. I don't think the roster budget, which leads the AL Central, is a factor or worthy of much attention.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

1 hour ago, yeahyabetcha said:

The Twins are 24th in average attendance in 2024.  Isn’t it fair that the payroll matches that?  

Vice versa, had the Pohlads not 1) cut spending, and 2) not advertised it, and 3) not screwed around with Bally, what might the average attendance be?

they averaged 8th out of 15 in the AL last year after finishing below .500 in 2022. Typically teams see an increase in attendance after making the post season, but this one saw a decrease.

the Pohlads suck, but the devil I know, is better than the devil I don’t.

[strumdatjag]

On 8/22/2024 at 10:42 AM, August J Gloop said:

The Pohlads are terrible. But that's cuz rich people don't need to care about the outcomes of their actions,.

That’s crazy - Charities routinely seek large donations from wealthy people, because they donate.

But owning a sports team is not charity.  The Pohlads had reduced revenue this year (Tv contract problems), but they still put a competitive team on the field.  You really think the Twins should have re-signed old pitchers Maeda and Sonny Gray, or overpaid at the Deadline. 
Ryan Reynolds is not a Minnesotan.  He’s a Canadian who became successful in Hollywood.   He has no allegiance to this area!!! He’d move the team at the first sign of financial trouble as an owner.  

[TwinsFanGuy]

All you people whining about how little the Pohlad's spend. #1. When they spend and that player underperforms (i.e. Buxton and Mauer) you jump on them for giving a huge contract. 

#2. When they spend, they will most likely make up for it by raising concession and souvenir prices....the last time I went to a game...a 20oz bottle of water was $4. Tap water is free...

#3. Does paying players really lead to a championship? (Ask the Wilfs how much they gave Kirk Cousins for 3 playoff appearances in 6 years...)

[Richie the Rally Goat]

2 hours ago, TwinsFanGuy said:

All you people whining about how little the Pohlad's spend. #1. When they spend and that player underperforms (i.e. Buxton and Mauer) you jump on them for giving a huge contract. 

#2. When they spend, they will most likely make up for it by raising concession and souvenir prices....the last time I went to a game...a 20oz bottle of water was $4. Tap water is free...

#3. Does paying players really lead to a championship? (Ask the Wilfs how much they gave Kirk Cousins for 3 playoff appearances in 6 years...)

1) who that money is spent on is theoretically the responsibility of the front office. The owners give the budget and approve large expenditure 

 2) tap water isn’t “free”. If you live in a city, you pay city water bill, if you live rurally you own a well. It is cheap, but many cities subsidize the resident drinking water price with business water prices, ie car washes and stadiums pay a lot for their water so the residents pay a smaller proportion of the total water bill. All this is to say the bill you pay may not be directly related to the cost. Your Brooks Lee shirsey at the ballpark is the same on MLB shop dot com, and you can look at every team’s prices there. Not a lot of difference.

3) unlike football, baseball isn’t salary capped. Spending more doesn’t guarantee anything because there is a surprising amount of parity between mlb teams, but spending helps a lot. This 2019 article had 24 of 25 previous World Series winners had payroll in the top half of the league. The only exception was the ‘03 Marlins. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/world-series-champion-opening-day-payroll-ranks-in-the-wild-card-era/

[jaimedude]

Wish we could swap owners with another team. Just getting rid of the penny pinching Pohlads would be a relief to Twins fans. This Twins team needed help at the trade deadline and Joe Pohlad said no to adding additional payroll, limiting potential trades by demanding bad salary's be swapped. Too much sunk cost on this team and we have stick in the mud owners. 

[Major League Ready]

On 8/25/2024 at 8:46 AM, yeahyabetcha said:

The Twins are 24th in average attendance in 2024.  Isn’t it fair that the payroll matches that?  

You are on a reasonable track but it's not the measure I would use.  During covid it was widely reported that gate receipts and other attendance related spending represented roughly 40% of revenue.  Why use a measure that represents 40% of revenue instead of just using total revenue?

At least you are associating revenue with spending.  Every responsible adult determines the amount they spend based on the amount they bring in.  So does every other for-profit business in the world.   I really wish a TD reporter would take it upon themselves to write an article this off-season that provided a revenue vs spending comparison for every team in the league.  That would definitively illustrate how the Pohlads rate in terms of willingness to spend.

[tony&rodney]

24 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

 I really wish a TD reporter would take it upon themselves to write an article this off-season that provided a revenue vs spending comparison for every team in the league. 

This is an excellent suggestion. My age has increasingly diminished my interest in research. More and more I could care less about the Pohlads or Steinbrenners. I have been in a Walmart exactly once in my life and try to support small businesses wherever possible. Still, it seems like the conversations this year mirror the last decade of the Calvin Griffith years. This makes some sense as the reduction this year from the all-time high roster payroll of 2023 roiled many people. Perhaps an in depth article could provide a dose of levity to Twins Daily. 

Another small detail to remember is that MLB does not simply allow franchise sales. It is a club where the members get to vote no or yes to any potential owner. So if I offered to buy the team for cash for $2 billion, it would not be accepted. I think the Pohlad corporation will own the Twins for a long time though. 

[nicksaviking]

On 8/25/2024 at 10:04 AM, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Vice versa, had the Pohlads not 1) cut spending, and 2) not advertised it, and 3) not screwed around with Bally, what might the average attendance be?

they averaged 8th out of 15 in the AL last year after finishing below .500 in 2022. Typically teams see an increase in attendance after making the post season, but this one saw a decrease.

the Pohlads suck, but the devil I know, is better than the devil I don’t.

Right, attendance problems are their own undoing. The best way to advertise going to a game, is to remind people about going to the games by PUTTING THEM ON TV. This is all on St Peter and the Pohalds. They've worked three terrible TV deals since their attempt to create a terrible Twins-only TV station about two decades ago. It's insane that they haven't hired someone with a background in marketing, Wall Street or TV deals to lead this organization. Instead it's a former intern with a law degree and no experience outside of this organization. Poor decision making.

As to your last point, I also completely agree. I am not happy with our ownership, but recognize that this team is more likely to get a John Fisher or Derek Jeter led ownership group than they are to get a Steve Cohen. It could get much worse. We're kind of just screwed.

[ewen21]

On 8/25/2024 at 10:15 AM, tony&rodney said:

Yes, and the Twins are 18th ($131.0M) in spending while Milwaukee, at $116.3 million, is 22nd in spending. Cleveland is 23rd in spending ($105.8M) while ranking 20th in attendance. I don't think the roster budget, which leads the AL Central, is a factor or worthy of much attention.

I agree.  My main beef is when will this organization produce starting pitching?

We have kids in the pipeline now, but I will not believe it until I see it.  The main issue this team has had for years is its inability to draft and develop starting pitching.  Mid and lower level payroll teams need to do this to be a contender with a reasonable shot to make noise in the playoffs.  
 

Johan and Liriano were not even drafted by us.  You need to go back to Matt Garza to find a starting pitcher we raised that had success at the ML level and it goes back well before that.  It’s extremely frustrating.

 

And for all Rocco’s real faults and perceived faults I am past tired of people acting as though it’s his fault.  Our lineup is not all that great, we don’t have a lot of depth and our pitching is mostly unproven.  There’s some talent, but this is no playoff team.  One only needs to look at our record against above .500 clubs.  We’ve done well against KC but there than that we’ve been very bad

[jaimedude]

5 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Right attendance problems are their own undoing. The best way to advertise going to a game, is to remind people about going to the games by PUTTING THEM ON TV. This is all on St Peter and the Pohalds. They've worked three terrible TV deals since their attempt to create a terrible Twins-only TV station about two decades ago. It's insane that they haven't hired someone with a background in marketing, Wall Street or TV deals to lead this organization. Instead it's a former intern with a law degree and no experience outside of this organization. Poor decision making.

As to your last point, I also completely agree. I am not happy with our ownership, but recognize that this team is more likely to get a John Fisher or Derek Jeter led ownership group than they are to get a Steve Cohen. It could get much worse. We're kind of just screwed.

Dead on about the media rights deals being poor and lack of TV causing attendance problems at the gate Nick. Sometimes devil you know is better than don't  but not on media rights deal. Why Dave St Peter is still president of the Twins should be examined by ownership. I waffle between not disliking Pohlad group to getting annoyed by them. They are part owners of the Loons too who have bad TV deal. Great stadium poor utilization for events outside of soccer. Twins really need to invest in player development and scouting not cut. 

[jaimedude]

Yes we need new ownership. About time they cash out and get what the Pohlads love, straight cash homey. 

[August J Gloop]

On 8/25/2024 at 11:09 AM, strumdatjag said:

That’s crazy - Charities routinely seek large donations from wealthy people, because they donate.

But owning a sports team is not charity.  The Pohlads had reduced revenue this year (Tv contract problems), but they still put a competitive team on the field.  You really think the Twins should have re-signed old pitchers Maeda and Sonny Gray, or overpaid at the Deadline. 
Ryan Reynolds is not a Minnesotan.  He’s a Canadian who became successful in Hollywood.   He has no allegiance to this area!!! He’d move the team at the first sign of financial trouble as an owner.  

Tasty, tasty billionaire boot. Of course MLB teams aren't charities. But they're also not total free market enterprises, since the venues are by and large taxpayer funded. 

What allegiance do the Pohlad's have to this area? They threatened to move and outright murder the team in the messy lead up to Target Field. 

All of the Twins struggles this year are direct results of the truly moronic choices made on the business end. 

[nokomismod]

People who rant about Pohlads sucking typically are Kfan rubes. Kfan's on air personalities denigrate the Pohlads and Twins because they are salty, they keep failing to secure the broadcast rights. The Pohlads are really good members of the Twin Cities community. They step up for many different nonprofits and arts organizations. They also tend to spend more than teams with similar market share/ticket sales.

Yours truly,

Pohlad Pocket Protector

[howeda7]

It's not realistic to expect an owner in a medium/small market to lose tens of millions every year. But is realistic to expect them to do it once in a while when they are in  a winning window. The Pohlads never, ever do that. And their GM will never challenge them on it. Nor will he trade prospects to make up for it. So they will never have any real chance to get to, let alone win a World Series with this ownership/front office. The Pohlads selling would be a blessing but it's not likely to happen.

[$tryf4Life]

The ideal is to have owners who want to win a championship. That isn't the Pohlads. Their measure of success for 2024 isn't the same as the fans and suggesting a manager or front office change means we think their measure of success is a championship. It isn't. 

They are gonna be a happy when a profit margin is hit and they don't focus on a championship as doing so would take away from the primary goal: profit margin. The Pohlads ideal is to have a management group that wants to win but never at the expense of profit margin and hope that one day they strike gold and everything comes together. Thats why fans say "competitive window" and the Pohlad's say "right-sizing", which is a business term meaning bringing the profit margin back up. That's why we think we are a good pitcher away and they say we can't afford it. 

I agree that I cannot see the Pohlad's selling. Not so long as the Twins can generate a profit margin worth collecting. 

Do I wish for owners who wanted a championship? All day. Do I think it will change? No. 

Its really hard to win a championship. Its harder with a shrewd business managers. The Twins are a conservatively run business designed to generate profit. Not championships. 

The cold truth of the 2024 is that ownership is mostly concerned with the final profit margin for the their enterprise and management team who isn't gonna challenge that model. That means they aren't working behind the scenes on some new TV deal that is gonna be better for fans or thinking of a front office change or contemplating a better coach. Its only % above operating cost they are looking at. 

[Craig Arko]

16 minutes ago, $tryf4Life said:

The ideal is to have owners who want to win a championship. That isn't the Pohlads. Their measure of success for 2024 isn't the same as the fans and suggesting a manager or front office change means we think their measure of success is a championship. It isn't. 

They are gonna be a happy when a profit margin is hit and they don't focus on a championship as doing so would take away from the primary goal: profit margin. The Pohlads ideal is to have a management group that wants to win but never at the expense of profit margin and hope that one day they strike gold and everything comes together. Thats why fans say "competitive window" and the Pohlad's say "right-sizing", which is a business term meaning bringing the profit margin back up. That's why we think we are a good pitcher away and they say we can't afford it. 

I agree that I cannot see the Pohlad's selling. Not so long as the Twins can generate a profit margin worth collecting. 

Do I wish for owners who wanted a championship? All day. Do I think it will change? No. 

Its really hard to win a championship. Its harder with a shrewd business managers. The Twins are a conservatively run business designed to generate profit. Not championships. 

The cold truth of the 2024 is that ownership is mostly concerned with the final profit margin for the their enterprise and management team who isn't gonna challenge that model. That means they aren't working behind the scenes on some new TV deal that is gonna be better for fans or thinking of a front office change or contemplating a better coach. Its only % above operating cost they are looking at. 

Who you got in mind?