At the first full meeting of Minnesotans for Major
League Baseball (MMLB), a Twins-sponsored citizens group,
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig yesterday "urged" the
approximately 100 attending members of the 154 member
committee "to lead a renewed effort" to have a new ballpark
built for the team, "most likely" with public money,
according to Weiner & Olson of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE.
Selig: "We have one thing to get done up here, and that's
get a stadium built." But MMLB co-Chair Karla Blomberg said
that Selig's "exhortations to build 'as soon as possible'
were premature and presumptuous." Blomberg: "That's not
what the committee was formed for." MMLB committee member
Mitchell Pearlstein said, "My understanding of the role of
this (committee) is not to serve as cheerleaders of public
financing of a stadium." But Selig said, "This is not about
threats. I'm trying to lay out the economics. ... Without a
new stadium, there's no chance for a team to succeed here.
You need to get it done." Twins CEO Chris Clouser said that
"he didn't think Selig transformed his study committee into
yet another stadium-or-else task force." Clouser: "These
are 154 people who are going to have their own ideas.
Nobody was told what ideas to have by serving on the
committee" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 7/19). In St. Paul,
Brian Murphy writes that Selig "stopped short" of setting a
deadline or saying that MLB would relocate the Twins "if a
plan fails" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 7/19).
SAME STORY? Also in Minneapolis, Dan Barreiro writes,
"Selig's direct message seemed to shock some members of
[MMLB], though it is not exactly clear why. Everyone knows
the reality, here, yet everyone seems shocked when they hear
it out loud. ... Selig's problem is that he is not
particularly artful or persuasive in stating the case."
Barreiro adds that the "ammunition" for the "anti-stadium
folks" is that MLB "still does not have its economic house
in order, even if there are signs it might be headed in the
right direction" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 7/19).
