Twins Fans Left Waiting (Again) as Sale Rumors Swirl

[Woof Bronzer]

3 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Sure you can. You can get one that DOES move the team. You can always do worse, just like you can always do better. Given the Pohlads track history, better seemed assured early in the process, now I’m not so sure.

If not for a single judge, the Twins would not exist - not here, not in any other city.  I think that is much, much worse then moving a team.  And the Pohlads did it out of spite, not business reasons.  They wanted to punish the people who didn't just give them whatever they wanted.  That's borderline sociopathic.  

[Woof Bronzer]

2 hours ago, NYCTK said:

TBF that was the ****** dad. But the dad was the only one that was any good at business.

 

Jim was definitely involved, in fact there's a letter signed by him - I believe it's actually in the baseball HOF strangely enough - blaming fans for not supporting the team enough as a reason for contraction.  Here's a direct quote:

"when we are posed the question, "why should the Minnesota Twins not be contracted?" we are unable to find a plausible answer."

That's how much the Pohlads care about this franchise.  

[NYCTK]

7 minutes ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Jim was definitely involved, in fact there's a letter signed by him - I believe it's actually in the baseball HOF strangely enough - blaming fans for not supporting the team enough as a reason for contraction.  Here's a direct quote:

"when we are posed the question, "why should the Minnesota Twins not be contracted?" we are unable to find a plausible answer."

That's how much the Pohlads care about this franchise.  

Hang THAT banner. 

[Richmond Dude]

17 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

Good thoughts. If I were a billionaire, I'd make it my business to have the state fall in love with my team. I'd bring in the top coaching staff, the top baseball development minds. I'd make it clear that a title run is coming as soon as humanly possible. I'd make a Target Field experience unforgettable.

It's also possible that I'd go from a billionaire a millionaire within just a few years, too.

There is even an example over in St. Paul.  When the Wild arrived, they worked very hard to build ties to youth and high school hockey because whoever was in charge then knew that was the way to Minnesota's hockey heart.  You can say what you want about the Wild, but they sell out the stadium every game.

[LA Vikes Fan]

9 hours ago, NotAboutWinning said:

Do we know that the escrow for Correa's contract is not part of that debt? His trade freed up $70m. Either way, that should now be available for debt service. But, seeing as how this is the Pohlads, maybe not.

There are MLB rules requiring teams to escrow money to satisfy long-term contracts, particularly those with deferred compensation. I don't know the ins and outs of the rules and know the escrow does not have to be 100% of that deferred compensation Still, it's my understanding that the Twins probably had to place some money into an escrow account as security for the long term guaranteed money in the contract. Technically, that shouldn't be considered debt. Having said that, if you have to devote a portion of cash into escrows to secure longer-term contracts, that cash is then not available to pay operating expenses and could result in increased debt from having to finance operations. 

Frankly, I would be surprised if the Twins are making any profit given their TV situation and relatively speaking low attendance. I think the loss of the Diamond Sports contract was a killer; there is $55 million in guaranteed revenue that went away and was replaced by something that has to be less than $15 million. The franchise is probably taking on more debt from operations this year, although the sell off has to help in that regard along with freeing up at least a portion of the escrowed funds to secure the Correa contract.