T'Wolves Owner Glen Taylor said that Twins Owner Carl
Pohlad told him he will "definitely move the team" if the
St. Paul ballpark referendum "fails or if it succeeds and
the State Legislature votes not to help build a stadium,"
according to Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE.
Taylor: "I tried to get Pohlad to, as part of our letter of
intent purchase agreement, allow us to try to get a stadium
built someplace other than St. Paul if the referendum
failed. But he told me that was a deal-breaker." Taylor
added that Pohlad "insisted that the new ownership take over
in the middle of the year 2000 if the stadium bills pass."
Taylor: "This was something we didn't want to do. We wanted
to take over at the end of the season. But Pohlad wanted to
be in a position to move the team or sell it at the end of
the 2000 season and not have to operate here in 2001" (STAR
TRIBUNE, 10/16). In St. Paul, Charley Walters wrote that
Pohlad has told Taylor and Wild Majority Owner Robert
Naegele that "there is at least one legitimate buyer"
interested in relocating the Twins. Walters wrote that the
group is not from Charlotte (PIONEER PRESS, 10/17).
CIVIC DUTY? Taylor, on why he entered into the deal to
buy the Twins: "Frankly, if someone else was willing to do
it, I'd be a big supporter of theirs, but it got down to
there probably weren't too many other people with experience
that could do this" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 10/17).
