After visiting Enron Field, Twins President Jerry Bell
"couldn't help but think" that the Twins "have seen their
ballpark dreams come to fruition." Bell and team Owner Carl
Pohlad toured the new facility on Monday with "about 80
other" baseball execs and "saw the closeness of the seats to
the playing field and checked out the train that rolls along
the tracks behind the left field fence." Bell, on
similarities to the Twins' ballpark plan: "It was our
stadium. It was very, very similar. ... There is a
retractable roof where the roof goes all the way back, and
you have a much better feeling of being outside. It holds
42,000 [spectators], which is about the right size. And
it's very close to the playing field" (Minneapolis STAR
TRIBUNE, 4/20)....In St. Paul, Charley Walters writes that
"it still appears" the naming rights for the Wild's $130M
arena in St. Paul "will go to Northern States Power in an
integrated deal that, depending on how it's valued, could be
worth nearly" $4M annually (ST. PAUL PIONEER-PRESS, 4/20).
...In FL, Sarah Talalay writes that Boca Raton-based United
Sports Fans of America "kicked off" a "Save the Marlins"
campaign Wednesday, offering to bring together team execs,
politicians and business leaders to "help broker a plan" to
build a new ballpark (Ft. Lauderdale SUN SENTINEL, 4/20).
