The Sky Is Not Falling: The Pohlads Retaining Ownership of Minnesota Twins Has Silver Linings

[Mike Sixel]

Turns out the five stages of grief is complete BS, btw. 

On topic, I appreciate your gumption!

[The Great Hambino]

3 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

#4 Nobody spends $400-$450M without having some influence on how to better the organization to maximize ROI. The money came from smart $$ people - they aren’t just handing Pohlad’s money to “bail them out” w/o a plan to increase revenues & fan support.

Here's the problem: the shortest path to maximizing ROI for a team in the Twins' position isn't increasing revenues and fan support.  It's cutting costs.  In most businesses, you have to spend money to make money.  But where the Twins sit currently, they do not.  If they take measures that decrease their revenue, that decrease will be at least partially offset by increased revenue sharing, which ultimately improves their bottom-line return.  Teams like the As and Pirates are proof that this is a path to profitability.  I know there was a grievance against the A's, but they ran a dead-last payroll for three years before that became a thing.

And none of this affects the real ROI that the limited partners get, which is the appreciation of value that MLB owners get regardless of how dysfunctionally their club is managed.

The best we can hope for is silver lining #3: the Pohlads are able to sell at the number they want after the new CBA is in place.  Until then? Budgetball

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Joe Pohlad was named Twins "Executive Chair" in November 2022.

https://www.mlb.com/twins/team/front-office/joe-pohlad

I don’t think we know when the debt occured, do we?

Or for that matter, the origin of the debt?

 

 

You're right, I should have said he was there when they started dumping the debt on to the Twins. I should have merely said he's been there while they were dumping debt on to the Twins.

However, we have a pretty good idea a vague idea of what the origin of the debt is, considering everyone has speculated it's from their real estate ventures going belly up after COVID and no one from the Pohlad clan is denying it.

 

[Nshore]

It's pretty confusing.  There was an article here that suggested the Pohlads are (almost) as sick of Twins fans as Twins fans are sick of them.  When you have that much money, why persist in a business you loathe and don't need?

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, Nshore said:

It's pretty confusing.  There was an article here that suggested the Pohlads are (almost) as sick of Twins fans as Twins fans are sick of them.  When you have that much money, why persist in a business you loathe and don't need?

Greed. Every billionaire decision is driven by greed. 

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Greed. Every billionaire is driven by greed. 

That's just not true.  Many are driven by chauffeurs.

(Yes I edited your post.)

[USAFChief]

2 minutes ago, ashbury said:

That's just not true.  Many are driven by chauffeurs.

(Yes I edited your post.)

You watch your tone, young man.

[glunn]

14 hours ago, The Great Hambino said:

Here's the problem: the shortest path to maximizing ROI for a team in the Twins' position isn't increasing revenues and fan support.  It's cutting costs.  In most businesses, you have to spend money to make money.  But where the Twins sit currently, they do not.  If they take measures that decrease their revenue, that decrease will be at least partially offset by increased revenue sharing, which ultimately improves their bottom-line return.  Teams like the As and Pirates are proof that this is a path to profitability.  I know there was a grievance against the A's, but they ran a dead-last payroll for three years before that became a thing.

And none of this affects the real ROI that the limited partners get, which is the appreciation of value that MLB owners get regardless of how dysfunctionally their club is managed.

The best we can hope for is silver lining #3: the Pohlads are able to sell at the number they want after the new CBA is in place.  Until then? Budgetball

My understanding is that teams that suffer from reduced attendance get penalized with respect to revenue sharing.  I found this on the Baseball America Website:

"To determine who gets a distribution, the commissioner is to compare the club’s non-media net local growth rate to other payee clubs; the club’s success at reducing the total amount of proceeds it" receives under the revenue sharing plan through revenue growth of non-media Net Local Revenue, the club’s total non-media net local revenue compared to its average non-media net local revenue over a five- and 10-year period; the club’s non-media net local revenue in relation to its market score; the club’s total paid attendance in relation to its market score and the club’s long- and short-term efforts to grow its non-media net local revenue.

That preceding paragraph is a very wordy way of saying that the commissioner is to dispense the money to teams who receive revenue sharing who are working to increase attendance, fan engagement and improve the marketing and promotions."

Source:  https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/details-from-the-new-2022-2026-collective-bargaining-agreement/

I wish that I knew how this actually works and hope that it actually helps us.

If I were the new partners I would suggest that the team now show regret for recent performance and seek redemption. It took guts for one of the Pohlads to admit years ago that there was "total system failure."  The fans need more of that level of candor, as well as reasons for hope.

[darin617]

On 8/15/2025 at 8:19 AM, Jeff K said:

Because Falvey built a team of designated hitters that are poor in baseball fundamentals.  That is on Falvey.

That's not the question. The question was if Falvey went rogue and did all the trades without the Pohlads knowledge. 

[Jim wyllie]

I wont disagree with this article I will just add that the reported $450 million in debt the team has makes no sense as target field was mostly publicly funded and that the debt is more than 3 years of team payroll.   Which tells me something isn't right in the organization and/or the ownership.  Either they don't know what they are doing or someone is cooking the books for some reason, for which I will let you use your imagination.

[sun]

I love the Twins period and will continue to do so. All this while the Pohlads have owned the team for most of my lifetime. I don't care for all of the trash talking fans and their personal conflicts about why the team hasn't won a world series and/or playoff games. The owners have been transparent about the financial problems with the team & the reasons why. I agree with the author that there are silver linings and too many fans have displayed ugly contempt for them. Too bad, go root for another team. The Twins are going to kick some azz someday and then they'll jump back  on the bandwgon about how they've been lifetimeTwins fans. Go fly a kite because I l love the Twins and don't care who owns the team. I like the FO too and I really  believe that they try to do the best job that they can. Everyone is human and bound to make mistakes. For now the team is better off just the way it is. If anyone doesn't like it then go sue God and STFU in the process. Twins fans want to be able to enjoy their team without all of the hate & ignorance that they display. Now they want to badmouth the investors too. They're white knights. Get over it, watch the team play ball & appreciate whatever games they can win. Look at how long the Red Sox were cursed. Go root for the Yankees if you want to hate the Pohlads so much & get lost. Rant over.