The Pohlad Empire (Part One): Banking On The Future

[Peter Labuza]

This week at Twins Daily, we're running a five-part series detailing the history of the business ventures of the Pohlad family. Even as they prepare to sell the Twins after a 40-year ownership, it's an important subject, given the way they've left their stamp deep in the heart of the franchise.

 

Image courtesy of JHansen23 - Wikimedia Commons - Cropped to Size

"I've always bought and sold things. It's what I've done all my life. "
—Carl Pohlad, 1989

Carl Pohlad could have bought any number of teams. He looked into buying the San Francisco Giants in the 1970s. He put down a bid to buy the Philadelphia Eagles in 1983. He later tried to buy Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby. Instead, he ended up with a baseball team for the bargain price of $32 million.

But why the Minnesota Twins? After all, Carl admitted he had “no particular interest in baseball.” Instead, like many things in his portfolio, it was seen as a savvy investment. As he told the press, “I think there is a good baseball market here and we can turn it around. In fact, I think we may already have.''

Cut to 40 years later, and baseball in Minnesota is in trouble. While almost every team in the league saw a notable increase in attendance in 2024, the Minnesota Twins saw their numbers dip. The causes are manifold, but the buck stops at the Pohlad Family, who have owned their baseball team longer than almost every other team in the league. That will likely come to an end this year, but before that, we need to understand how and why the Pohlads made the decisions they made. Baseball, the way it has been played at the major-league level for decades, is a business. And if it’s just one business among many for the owners of the local nine, we need to understand the other cogs in the machine.

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For more on the history of the Pohlad family and their business interests, please see Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 of this series.

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This week on Twins Daily, we’re diving into the financial history of the Pohlads. If they are indeed on their way out—whether in favor of the Ishbia brothers, or elsewhere—we need to understand the origins of these frustrations. Baseball owners do not simply walk into the job (unless they are handed it on a silver plate). And the way they make their decisions needs to be understood in the context of their financial dealings. 

Over five parts, I’ll be tackling different aspects of the Pohlad empire: the successes, the failures, the swindles, the alternative paths. In many ways, the stories that pepper Pohlad’s non-baseball past are no different than those you might find in any owner’s past. But the lessons along the way here include this one: the Pohlads have never necessarily run any business in a typical manner. Seeing their actions in other businesses often reveals why the Twins have been run the way they were.

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Let’s get one story out of the way. It has become almost common lore that Carl Pohlad began his foray into business by, as many sources say, foreclosing on homes during the Great Depression. As much as naysaying Twins fans would love to believe such a story, there’s no evidence for that, beyond the slow accretion of repeated hearsay.

Carl was born in 1915, making him only 14 when the stock market crashed in 1929. He was from a small town in Iowa and grew up poor; his father worked the railroad and attempted to support eight children.

Young Pohlad did work for a bank, first on his farm, milking cows. By the mid-1930s, as ESPN’s Jim Caple reported, “He went on to deliver collection and foreclosure notices.” If Pohlad played the role of “muscle” for that banker, it's buried deeper than anyone has been able to reach for real proof; that idea has taken root purely through grapevine gossip. But even if it only included delivering notices, it certainly meant having people leave the same kind of farms his own family lived on. That said, there were very few honest dollars to go around. It was a hard time to live in a community (or thrive in a business) dependent upon agriculture.

But Pohlad escaped, thanks to his body. He moved to Los Angeles where he played football at a junior college, while selling repossessed cars and boxing in his spare time. After being spotted by Bing Crosby, we went on to play for Gonzaga. Before he could go any further in any career, however, he was drafted in 1943. He fought in the European theater of World War II, and was eventually decorated with three Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars.

When he got home, Pohlad needed to get his money somewhere, so he did what all the best and brightest Americans do: he married into it, in 1947. His new brother-in-law Russell Stotesbury operated a business in Iowa that essentially taught banks how to manage their money better. Understandably, that was a hot consulting business, with the Great Depression only a few years in the rearview and a postwar boom changing the landscape rapidly.

By 1949, the Pohlads relocated to Edina. Stotesbury passed away in 1955; Pohlad took full control of several banks, including Marquette Bank. Only a year later, Pohlad began participating in meetings across athletic clubs, yacht clubs, country clubs, all with the other bankers of the state. These meetings had a goal: to set standards across all banks to create a uniform way of doing things.

That’s the official, sanitized way to say it. A better way to say it is: the banks were engaging in illegal price fixing. They were able to set interest rates without the pressure of competition, ensuring high savings for the banks and low returns to customers. Farmers were particularly hard-hit by high rates. Checking accounts were burdened by onerous service fees. And because both small and large banks across the state participated, no one had anywhere else to turn to get a better rate.

Luckily, this was a time of aggressive antitrust action, and Robert F. Kennedy’s Department of Justice investigated the action in 1961. By that time, the 20 banks involved had grown to $392 million in assets (around $4.2 billion in 2024 dollars). In 1964, Pohlad and the other banks pleaded “no contest” to the case, resulting in fines of $253,000. Although Pohlad did not speak, another spokesman essentially admitted that banking was a special business, and the only way to actually make a profit and stay in business was to commit fraud. Pohlad himself later said, in a 1984 interview with Managing magazine, that “banks should be deregulated completely.” 

Due in some part to the banks’ collusion, between 1954 and 1964, Minnesota lost over 20,000 farms, most gobbled up by larger corporations receiving more preferential loans. The average farm grew 18% in size over the same years. In Filmore County, the almost 200 family farms in 1958 all but disappeared, purchased by speculators. This is, directly though not solely, a part of the Pohlad family's legacy in the state.

There were many more possible indictments that loomed over the case, particularly on issues of discrimination. However, Congress had barred the Federal Trade Commission from pursuing further action when it came to this kind of discrimination. And if there were other skeletons, the creeping political conservative takeover of the 1970s would ensure they stayed in the closet. By the start of the 1980s, deregulation was in, and antitrust was out. Big Business was good.

Through all of this, Pohlad found a way to continue to grow. You can’t commit illegal collusion with other bank owners if you own all the banks yourself.

Pohald soon became known as the “dean of chain banking” (or, as one article described him, the “Mickey Mantle of Chain Banking”). Rather than combining all the banks into one parent company (ie. Wells Fargo, Citibank), Pohlad simply owned several separate banks, which Minnesota law allowed. While holding banks were regulated by the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, chain banks were not. As a 1977 study demonstrated, chain banking “results in poorer market performance – i.e., higher prices and a lesser quality of bank services.” Michael Pint, the Minnesota banking commissioner from 1978 to 1982, put it plainly: “If the legislators decide there’s a reason to control the multibank holding companies, there’s a reason to control the chains.”

There’s no evidence that Pohlad’s banks continued to participate in interest fixing as he swallowed banks whole. But he profited tremendously from a period of mass deregulation in the financial industry, in which adopting policies on both sides of the line between illegal and merely unseemly became the predominant way of doing business. By 1988, the 40 banks Pohlad owned accounted for around $4 billion in assets.

When Pohlad sold Marquette Bank in 1992, it held over $2.4 billion in assets. Though many others held shares in the bank, somehow, most of the profits went to Pohlad. The minority owners sued for a greater share, and a settlement for $5 million was eventually reached. 

Pohlad’s last assets in banking were sold in 2001. The consolidation was considered so concentrated that the Bush administration required Wells Fargo to sell six branches across Minnesota and South Dakota so people could have access to competing banks.

When Pohald arrived at Marquette Bank, rules prevented banks from merging, thus promoting small businesses and combating consolidation. But as Pohlad worked with other banks, he saw opportunities for growth and increased profitability. Some of those opportunities involved loopholes; others involved fraud. Most involved enrichment for a few at the cost of many.

But that’s where Part One ends and Part Two will begin: What can we learn from Pohlad the businessman, rather than the banker? We’ll turn to how Pohlad has worked with the government to build something for the public. Spoiler Alert: It doesn't end well.

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[Doctor Gast]

It's a shame that Carl Pohlad & family never were interested in baseball. Still, he saved us from Cal Griffith & kept us in MN at least temporarily. His smartest move was to hire Andy Macphail. From a rich baseball family he was able to turn around the Twins from bottom feeders to World Series Champs. After he left, the Twins have floundered ever since. We need another Andy MacPhail.

[old nurse]

Yup, baseball attendance has gone up the last couple of years. Kind of hard not to after shutting down with the pandemic. Baseball attendance is still down from their peak attendance. If the stry starts ff with a slam asked on skewed statistic, why other trusting anything else the person has to say?

[NYCTK]

"There's no evidence that Carl foreclosed on homes during the great depression" 

Goes on to state he delivered foreclosure notices during the great depression. 

I think it is exaggerated, because that's clearly not how he gained his wealth. But he foreclosed on homes during the great depression. And the idea that he was hired because he was a big intimidating young man seems logical. 

But overall, good summary of his evil nature in business. May the man rot. 

[laloesch]

 

29 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

 

I think it is exaggerated, because that's clearly not how he gained his wealth. But he foreclosed on homes during the great depression. 

 

Ummm no he didn't.  I'm no fan of pohlad at all but he delivered the notices from the bank during that time frame. sorry.  He was literally 18-20 years old.  No bank of that size is gonna allow a non-college grad to write foreclosure notices.

[Matthew Trueblood]

10 minutes ago, laloesch said:

 

Ummm no he didn't.  I'm no fan of pohlad at all but he delivered the notices from the bank during that time frame. sorry.  He was literally 18-20 years old.  No bank of that size is gonna allow a non-college grad to write foreclosure notices.

Precisely so. I think this is one of the points where Peter gives us a particularly valuable reprieve from half-truth. It's tempting to sensationalize the one thing into the other, given what he became thereafter, but there's a very real and very important difference between being the person who decides to execute a foreclosure and/or profits from it, and being the person sent to deliver notice of that action. It's just not the same thing, at all.

[NYCTK]

16 minutes ago, laloesch said:

 

Ummm no he didn't.  I'm no fan of pohlad at all but he delivered the notices from the bank during that time frame. sorry.  He was literally 18-20 years old.  No bank of that size is gonna allow a non-college grad to write foreclosure notices.

So now we're just being pedantic. Not particularly useful, especially for a guy that went on to prove he's evil. 

He earned money by assisting in the foreclosure of homes during the great depression. 

[NYCTK]

4 minutes ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

Precisely so. I think this is one of the points where Peter gives us a particularly valuable reprieve from half-truth. It's tempting to sensationalize the one thing into the other, given what he became thereafter, but there's a very real and very important difference between being the person who decides to execute a foreclosure and/or profits from it, and being the person sent to deliver notice of that action. It's just not the same thing, at all.

I agree. But he went on to become the evil banker stereotype. So who really gives a crap that some people conflate "evil man helped kicked people out of homes during great depression" with "evil man kicked people out of homes during great depression". 

[Matthew Trueblood]

4 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

I agree. But he went on to become the evil banker stereotype. So who really gives a crap that some people conflate "evil man helped kicked people out of homes during great depression" with "evil man kicked people out of homes during great depression". 

I do. If we get distracted by false or exaggerated stories, if we dismiss the importance of facts, we make it harder to hold the rich and powerful accountable for their REAL transgressions.

[gunnarthor]

Not sure we really need a five part look at this POS. As others said, may he rot.

[Blyleven2011]

Carl  bought a team and he didn't even have an interest in baseball  , passed it on to his sons and they hated baseball even more ...

Attendance is down in Minnesota because the owners have no interest in the game , don't know how to promote their team , don't care about the fans  ...

Goes to show you , owners have to have an interest in the sport to succeed  , you can run it as a business but you have to also care about the product , pohlads care about money only  ...

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

It's a shame that Carl Pohlad & family never were interested in baseball. Still, he saved us from Cal Griffith & kept us in MN at least temporarily. His smartest move was to hire Andy Macphail. From a rich baseball family he was able to turn around the Twins from bottom feeders to World Series Champs. After he left, the Twins have floundered ever since. We need another Andy MacPhail.

Calvin was more or less forced out and while his fear of bankruptcy may have been a little far fetched he did hold a real desire to provide for all of his relatives. The Twins were losing money he no longer could afford to lose. Calvin was old, in his 70s, and fighting health problems; he was ready to go and MLB wanted him out too. 

Hiring Andy MacPhail was a smart baseball move. There were a number of reasons the Twins rose in the 1980s, winning in 1987 and 1991. All of the reasons were important in my opinion. The strong players Calvin had in place, the hiring of MacPhail, Tom Kelly, and a few timely trades. Another factor, sometimes forgotten was the collusion of owners in restricting the free agent market that fed a couple of key players to the Twins. Jack Morris was a Twin via collusion.

After the success of those years (late 1980s/early 1990s), Carl increasingly lost interest in the team and wanted out. TheDome had a firm lease and Minnesota had a strong judge that kept the team from leaving. MLB is a corporate world with little to no concern for humans besides finding paths to the money. Calvin was the last of his kind, a species now extinct. 

[Hrbeks Divot]

Thank you, Peter, for a look back at the Pohlads. I am definitely interested in reading the rest of your series. While I despise how the Pohlad family has chosen to run the Twins as a baseball team, I also have no personal experience with them as people. They may well deserve much of the criticism they receive on their business dealings and engaged in plenty of shady stuff. I understand the series is discussing how the family came into their money and how that intertwined with the Twins. However, simply speaking as a fan of the ballclub and how they’ve run their team, calling for someone to rot in hell seems a bit much. If people have been personally wronged by their business practices that’s another story altogether. I’m very excited that they are selling the team and hopeful the new owners have a love for baseball that the Pohlads have never shown. 

[NYCTK]

50 minutes ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

I do. If we get distracted by false or exaggerated stories, if we dismiss the importance of facts, we make it harder to hold the rich and powerful accountable for their REAL transgressions.

I just don't see the value in this level of pedantry (and sometimes seeming outrage) around someone that proved himself to be a vile human. 

If he instead was acting as an enforcer for the mob during prohibition, and then went on to become a mob boss himself later in life, no one would be getting outraged if someone conflates his career timeline and says he was a mob boss during prohibition.

[Jeff K]

Good article.  Less than charming owner.  I'll go with despicable.

[Peter Labuza]

2 hours ago, NYCTK said:

I agree. But he went on to become the evil banker stereotype. So who really gives a crap that some people conflate "evil man helped kicked people out of homes during great depression" with "evil man kicked people out of homes during great depression". 

I think what you'll see as the stories continue this week is there are honestly much more egregious stories to tell than a half-truth. 

[NYCTK]

7 minutes ago, Peter Labuza said:

I think what you'll see as the stories continue this week is there are honestly much more egregious stories to tell than a half-truth. 

Believe me, I'm happy to have an entire series dedicated to ****ing on rich *******s.  

[Teflon]

It's interesting to speculate how the Twins would have been different if Calvin Griffith had sold the team to somebody other than the Pohlads. 

In Gary Olson's SABR article on the ownership history of the Minnesota Twins he wrote:

 Griffith had explored several sales options, but decided in the end to sell to Pohlad because it was the first serious offer he got that met his terms. (Earlier in the year Donald Trump had approached Griffith about buying the team, but that exchange went nowhere.) A Minneapolis-based group led by Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner offered $27 million in cash, but Griffith turned them down.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/minnesota-twins-team-ownership-history/

[Schmoeman5]

6 hours ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

Precisely so. I think this is one of the points where Peter gives us a particularly valuable reprieve from half-truth. It's tempting to sensationalize the one thing into the other, given what he became thereafter, but there's a very real and very important difference between being the person who decides to execute a foreclosure and/or profits from it, and being the person sent to deliver notice of that action. It's just not the same thing, at all.

Don't shoot the messenger. 

[Schmoeman5]

6 hours ago, NYCTK said:

So now we're just being pedantic. Not particularly useful, especially for a guy that went on to prove he's evil. 

He earned money by assisting in the foreclosure of homes during the great depression. 

 Henry Ford, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, Kennedys and the list goes on and on. They all have skeletons.  As do all people. I'm not a Pohlad fan. In the same token if the family didn't own the Twins, you'd have never heard of that family. The Twins could have a Jerry Jones or Daniel Snyder type owner. Being a guy who delivers foreclosures didn't gain him his fortune. 

[Peter Labuza]

3 hours ago, Teflon said:

It's interesting to speculate how the Twins would have been different if Calvin Griffith had sold the team to somebody other than the Pohlads. 

In Gary Olson's SABR article on the ownership history of the Minnesota Twins he wrote:

 Griffith had explored several sales options, but decided in the end to sell to Pohlad because it was the first serious offer he got that met his terms. (Earlier in the year Donald Trump had approached Griffith about buying the team, but that exchange went nowhere.) A Minneapolis-based group led by Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner offered $27 million in cash, but Griffith turned them down.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/minnesota-twins-team-ownership-history/

I skipped the Trump stuff because these pieces aren't really focused on the team (he does come up elsewhere). My sense is Trump tried to buy something like a dozen different teams in the 1980s but could never get a deal done, even when his offered were way higher. The Wolfenson group would have been interesting....

[Fatbat]

Great series! Keep the memories coming!!

[Twinsgypsy]

As has been stated he & many other bankers were involved in price fixing & other illegal dealings with no real accountability for their actions. As a result , there a finite number of people who benefitted greatly at the cost a lot people.  So IMO he earned the reputation "Evil Banker" reputation. While I am glad he saved the Twins from being moved he also was willing have the Twins go away when they were looking at contracting teams.  So in many ways his actions were not necessarily altruistic much of the time.   I will be glad to see the Twins hopefully go to better owners than they have now.