# Twins can Move after 2006 season?????



## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

Judge: Twins can flee Dome in '07
State officials say court ruling adds urgency to push for a stadium, which the team and legislators discussed Monday.
Rochelle Olson, Star Tribune
Last update: February 07, 2006 - 1:30 AM

The Minnesota Twins aren't obligated to play in the Metrodome after the 2006 season, a judge ruled Monday in a decision that could make it easier to sell or move the baseball team.
Hennepin County District Judge Charles Porter rejected the arguments of the stadium's operator, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, that an expired contract was still binding on the Twins.

"We're here if we want to be," said Roger Magnuson, the team's lawyer.

The ruling came the same day legislative leaders and team officials emerged from a meeting at the governor's residence with no progress toward a new stadium proposal.

While the commission's lawyers said they have not given up their court fight, legislators said the ruling lent urgency to finding a new home for the team.

"I won't say this is a surprise, but it is kind of a big deal," said House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon. "This only adds to the importance of addressing this now. This issue needs to be on the 2006 [legislative] agenda."

The Twins have argued that the Dome doesn't make enough money for the team and doesn't provide a quality experience for the fans. For the past decade the team has unsuccessfully pursued a baseball-only stadium -- at one point owner Carl Pohlad threatened to sell the team to an out-of-state buyer who could move the Twins.

The Twins took the commission to court seeking nullification of a 1998 pact to play in the Dome that had been in place through October 2003. The team won outright on that front. The team has operated on annual renewals since then, although the commission argued that the Twins behaved as a long-term tenant.

What else the ruling covers

The Twins are playing on a season-by-season basis and can leave the Metrodome before they start advertising, distributing tickets, securing sponsors or otherwise indicating an intent to play an upcoming season in the Dome, Porter wrote.

The lawsuit also contended that the commission was holding hostage certain amenities in an attempt to extract a long-term commitment from the team. The judge dismissed that notion.

Commission director Bill Lester said he would look at the decision and decide whether to appeal. "Our only objective here is to keep that team in Minnesota, not necessarily in the Metrodome, but keeping them in Minnesota for the next generation of fans. We'll use every means we have," Lester said.

Legislative leaders say the possibility of the team's leaving now is real.

Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat said the ruling "should serve to remind people that there's one less reason for the team to stay here. They don't have a lease. They don't have a commitment for a new ballpark. So I think it would be hard to fault them for looking around."

Opat was an architect of a $478 million county-Twins proposal to build a stadium in Minneapolis' Warehouse District with a countywide sales tax. The county needs legislative authorization for the sales tax, but the Legislature hasn't voted on it. The estimated cost of the proposal has since increased $30 million.

How the governor sees it

Brian McClung, a spokesman for Gov. Tim Pawlenty said, "What we've been saying all along is it's clear the Twins are not going to stay in the Metrodome, and this obviously reinforces that."

McClung added, "If the public believes the Twins are an amenity that should be kept, then action is going to have to be taken."

In a decade of debate, Minnesotans have expressed consistent opposition to public subsidies for a Twins stadium.

"I think citizens need to be aware that there are real consequences," Sviggum said. "The Twins might really leave. Contraction is also a real possibility."

The meeting of legislative leaders and team officials earlier Monday produced only an agreement for more meetings.

House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, said that the state would not pay the tab and that a stadium would not be a higher priority than education or health care in the coming session.

Asked whether the Twins might shell out more to accommodate the rising cost of a new stadium, Twins Sports Inc. President Jerry Bell said, "Probably not."

Staff Writer Patricia Lopez contributed to this report. Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Can you say....Las Vegas Twins????


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## Goldy's Pal (Jan 6, 2004)

I said it before and I'll say it again, the Twins will be gone and all the little penny pinchin' tax payers who somehow can't afford about $5.00 a year to help build a new stadium for the small market franchise will sit with a finger up their a$$ wondering which teams bandwagon to jump on. All over the price of 2 gallons of gas just to keep that stubburn ounce of pride to prove a point to a MLB organization and its owner. When they're gone they're gone.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

I think the next legislative session will be make or break.....Pohlad will pull a Robert Irsay if no stadium is built.


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## Goldy's Pal (Jan 6, 2004)

Yep ken, and it will be too late then to do a thing. I walked door to door with a petition to keep the twins when they were contraction bait a few years ago, and got turned down by nobody in the neighborhood. A lot of these sheets were going around and the people were very supportive. I go nuts over this stadium issue. I mean yeah we have a billionaire owner who probably should or could build a ballpark and use other means of revenue $$$$ to kick in without taxpayer involvement but, sports have changed so many ways I could go on and on. Players salaries, is anyone worth that big dollar they get today? A-Rod, Pedro, Jeter? just to name a few. Owners are the boss, plain and simple, there is always a city looking to bring in a franchise and pay the big $$$$ for the stadium. If the owner can't get it here, they'll get there, bottom line. I figure there is enough of my money the Fed. Gov. spends on sh!t I could care less about, so what's a few more dollars a year to keep a team here, maybe sit outside if it's a retractible stadium and catch a ball game with my family and have a cold one. Heck I'll throw in $10.00 a year instead of $5.00 and kick in for some welfare abusing dope addict if it will make a difference.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Goldy....I find it interesting....many people don't support public money even though the TWINS would bring millions of dollars in wages,construction etc. to Hennipen County.

Plus tourism dollars would be huge.If I was the owner and I built a stadium with all my money....I would demand a tax,given to me every year, on every business that profits from me doing that.


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## Goldy's Pal (Jan 6, 2004)

Can you imagine the pins and needles the bar owners around the dome are sitting on right now? Without the Twins they are shafted. When we were up at the X in St. Paul last March for the Final Five, I had an interesting talk with a cab driver and he said that a few businesses had to shut down because of the NHL strike, that says a lot right there. No Wild hockey, no income, period.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

And.....no state money would go to building it......if someone doesn't like that 1/4%.... I mean 1 penny on $4....just don't buy anything is Hennepin County that is taxable and you wouldn't contribute 1 penny towards it.I find it hard to believe that people who live in outstate Minn wouldn't be in favor of this.

Same with Vikings.....just don't buy taxable goods in Anoka County.


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## Goldy's Pal (Jan 6, 2004)

Another thing is that it costs as much if not more to put money in a downtown Minneapolis parking meter when I go to a Twins game as the game ticket itself. :roll: These nearby business parking lots/event parking are just raking it in too. That is the revenue LOST that would pay for your premiere players which WINS games, Pennants, etc.. not exactly rocket science here. You look at how the Twins won 87 and 91 and you hear, the same old "The dome was good enough then." My reply, yeah well if our catcher hadn't batted .750 in the post season who hit .109 in the regular season (Tim Laudner) and if a guy who hits about 5 homeruns in the regular season hadn't hit a HUGE shot in the World Series (Scott Leius) we'd a maybe lost that year too. These low priced guys OVER ACHIEVED in the post season, something that just is not real likely to happen a lot, look no further than our Twins playoff runs recently. Winning costs money and we are not keeping up with the Jones's anymore these days.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

No one is keeping up with the Jones's er ah Yankees.


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## BigDaddy (Mar 4, 2002)

I would hate to see the Twins go, but I would not blame them. The dome is an abomination, not only a terrible place to watch a game, but also a terrible place to play. I played baseball in the dome twice and absolutely hated it.


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## knoppers (Jan 29, 2006)

BigDaddy

I agree, I went to many games at the dome in the early 80's, it was great then, but I have not been to a game there for many years, becuase I do not like the dome. I am a very big twin fan, but dislike the dome so much, I do not go to the games. time for a change, without loosing our team.


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