On Friday, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities
Commission unanimously approved the Twins' two-year
Metrodome lease extension, according to Jerry Zgoda of the
Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. As part of the agreement, Twins
Owner Carl Pohlad will entertain offers from local
investors, but "only in the next 30 days." Twins President
Jerry Bell: "If local investors are interested, now is the
time to step forward in a serious way. We've had a lot of
tire kickers in the past" (STAR TRIBUNE, 7/25). In MN, Sid
Hartman wrote that Pohlad doesn't want to sell the team.
Pohlad: "I'm looking for investors" (STAR TRIBUNE, 7/25).
LOSSES TO MOUNT? Hartman also wrote that Pohlad "will
lose" $10M on the team this year, and "unless the Twins can
put a much better team on the field for the next two
seasons, the losses will continue at a pace" of $10M a year
for the '99 and 2000 seasons. Hartman: "So, by the end of
the 2000 season, Pohlad will have about $150 million
invested in the team. If the team were for sale, nobody
would pay that price for a team in this small a market"
(STAR TRIBUNE, 7/26). Pohlad "hinted Sunday that he will
slash the club's player payroll next season and let the team
play with even more young prospects than it has this year"
(ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 7/27). Meanwhile, MN Gov. Arne
Carlson will form a panel to decide "what sports facilities
the state needs and how to pay for them." Carlson said that
he wants the panel's report completed "before he leaves
office, in less than six months" (PIONEER PRESS, 7/25).
BATTLE OF THE SCOOP SCRIBES WAGES IN MN: In
Minneapolis, Doug Grow wrote that most "may not notice, but
the nastiest sports competition in the Twin Cities is being
waged on a regular basis between the scoop scribes, Sid
Hartman of the Star Tribune and Charley (Shooter) Walters of
the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Back and forth they battle with
their notes, ellipses and bold-faced names, though neither
likes to acknowledge, in this mighty game of tidbit hardball
that the other exists." Hartman of Walters: "I don't want
to talk about him." Walters of Hartman: "I don't want this
to sound too bad, but I don't want anything to do with this
guy" (Doug Grow, Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 7/26).
