Minnesota Twins Insider Reveals Why New Ownership Won’t Relocate Team

By Matt Johnson |

Updated: Oct 18, 2024

Minnesota Twins — Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images

When a professional sports franchise is put up for sale, many fans in the region are rightfully concerned that their favorite team could be relocated if a certain ownership group takes over. While that’s very much on the table for the Chicago White Sox, the Twins will be relocating anytime soon no matter who takes over as owner.

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is open to selling his major league team, with an ownership group with ties to Nashville among those expected to pursue the club. At the same time, the Twins ownership group has hired the investment bank Allen & Company to explore a sale of Minnesota’s baseball franchise.

Minnesota Twins attendance 2024 (ESPN): 24,094 per game (23rd in MLB)

Theoretically, the same ownership group that has been spearheading MLB expansion efforts in Nashville could also make a run at the Twins. The team is valued at $1.46 billion by Forbes, potentially making them a more affordable option than a White Sox sale which would go for $2 billion. However, Minnesota fans don’t have to worry about losing their favorite team no matter who buys it.

As detailed by Betsy Helfand of the St.Paul Pioneer Press about a potential sale, the Twins are only halfway through their 30-year lease with Minneapolis for Target Field. Not only is that relevant for any new ownership group’s ability to sell a team, but it’s even had an impact on a potential sale in the past.

Stadium leases have a history of keeping the Minnesota Twins in The Cities

In 1997, Carl Pohlad struck a deal to sell the Twins to a buyer trying to openly relocate the franchise to North Carolina. However, breaking the Metrodome’s stadium lease, among other costs, drove stadium building effort out east so high that voters there ended up rejecting the project. So, the Minnesota Twins lived on.

Also #OTD in #Minnesota Sports History (1997) #MnTwins owner Carl Pohlad signs a letter of intent to sell the Twins to North Carolina nursing home mogul Don Beaver. https://t.co/8CruyZPIKy pic.twitter.com/VtJ4hJEjpo
— Dan WHENESOTA (@WHENESOTA) October 3, 2024

Just a handful of years later, the Twins and Montreal Expos were essentially voted out of the MLB. The Expos were sold and moved to Washington DC, where they became the Nationals.

Taking the Twins out of Minnesota wasn’t so easy, after a judge stopped the sale, citing their lease at the Metrodome. The injunction put commissioner Bud Selig up against possible legal battles that Major League Baseball did not want any part of. So, the Minnesota Twins lived on again.

On November 6, 2001, the owners of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) voted 28–2 to eliminate two teams for the 2002 season.

The contraction plan fell through due to a court injunction compelling the Twins to honor their lease with the Metrodome, as well as challenges by the players’ labor union, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). The Expos were later purchased by Major League Baseball.
Wikipedia

The Twins aren’t going anywhere

In other words, we’ve been through this before. There’s no chance the team’s stadium lease will be overlooked, this time around. The last thing a new ownership group wants, after spending at least $1.4 billion on the franchise, at a time when there is very little TV revenue, is to be dealing with another source of high costs.

The stadium lease for Target Field requires a fixed rent cost of $600,000 (Marquette Law) and there’s an additional $300,000 paid out by the team for use of the ballpark. Not only is there more than a decade left on the lease, but there is also a non-relocation clause through the 2039 season.

At a minimum, any group that took over as Twins owners would need to keep the team in Minneapolis for the next 15 years. No city, no matter how desperate it is for a major-league franchise, would be willing to wait nearly two decades before it has a chance at getting said team. So, if the Twins are sold, the new owners will be calling Target Field home for a long time.

Breathe easy, Minnesota Twins fans. It’s okay to celebrate the Pohlads sale of the franchise. It’s okay to pray they find a buyer, too. Worry about that buyer being spend-happy, not whether or not they’ll pull the plug on your favorite baseball team.

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