Twins can quit Dome after ‘06

02/07/2006

Judge’s ruling on lease adds pressure for new ballpark

BY ARON KAHN
Pioneer Press

A judge ruled Monday that the Minnesota Twins can walk away from the Metrodome after the 2006 season, a decision that gives the team and its supporters added leverage as they gear up to fight for a new ballpark once again.

The Hennepin County District Court ruling gives franchise owner Carl Pohlad the power to move the Twins or sell to a buyer who would move the team, should Major League Baseball agree.

Baseball realities make the chances of the Twins leaving or dissolving fairly small, given the Twins’ success in Minnesota and the likelihood that no large metropolitan region will be banging on the clubhouse door, though Las Vegas has shown some interest.

But the option to leave gives the club leverage in its long-running battle for a revenue-boosting ballpark. And Gov. Tim
Pawlenty felt the tug.

“The governor has said all along that the Metrodome is not a long-term solution for the Twins,’’ Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung said after the court action. “This ruling reinforces that, and we are hopeful that the 2006 Legislature will vote on a reasonable stadium proposal.’’

Still, the Twins said the chances for a successful ballpark bill in the coming legislative session are slim, even as they awaited a lawmaker survey promised Monday by legislative leaders.

The Twins met with Pawlenty and legislative leaders for 90 minutes before the court ruling — after which the leaders committed to polling rank-and-file legislators on the ballpark matter before the session begins March 1.

Jerry Bell, president of Twins Sports Inc., the Pohlad company that owns the Twins, said, “We’re very dubious that this has any chance of being passed,’’ identifying the politics of the controversial issue, including this fall’s elections, as the problem.

“We’ve got to clear out the politics and vote on this thing up or down,’’ said Bell, frustrated by 10 years of failing to win a feasible stadium project.

Last year, the Twins joined with Hennepin County on a $478 million plan for an open-air stadium that didn’t need state funding. But they did need state approval for a 0.15 percent county sales tax — 3 cents on a $20 purchase — that would pay for three-quarters of the project in downtown Minneapolis’ Warehouse District. And they insisted on an exclusion from a required county referendum on such taxes.

The Legislature didn’t vote on the proposal after getting bogged down in a protracted state budget battle, and the one-year delay added $30 million to the project, the Twins said. A plan for covering the additional cost has not been unveiled, but neither legislative leaders nor the Twins want to cover the excess.

Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat, the county’s point man on the ballpark initiative, said it’s time for Capitol denizens to step up to the plate and pass the proposal.

“If you’re a Twins fan and living in Minnesota, it’s time to realize that the team is not bound to stay here,’’ Opat said. Should lawmakers declare a strong intention to pass a bill, then the county and the team will renew their recently expired ballpark agreement, he said.

But Dr. Laura Lehmann, a stadium-tax opponent from Edina, said voters must be part of the equation.

“If the Twins want a new ballpark, and they want to finance it through a sales tax, they should do it lawfully and not try to circumvent the will of the people by getting a referendum exemption,’’ said Lehmann, a leader of Citizens for a Stadium Tax Referendum.

A vote of citizens would create delays and more expense, even if it were to pass, ballpark backers say. Opponents say supporters are simply afraid a ballot issue will fail.

Monday’s ruling by Hennepin County District Judge Charles Porter says the Twins can continue playing at the 24-year-old Metrodome on a year-to-year basis, preserving their flexibility to leave Minnesota if a ballpark is not built.

The Twins had challenged the resolve of the Metrodome’s landlord to keep the Twins in the state by signing them to a multiyear lease that would end only with the first pitch at a new ballpark, should one be built.

But Porter ruled that the Twins’ lease expired in 2003. Indeed, the team has been playing without a long-term contract since then, but the Metrodome’s landlord tried to pressure team officials into signing a multiyear lease last year by arguing the agreement should be continued based on past practice.

That prompted the Twins’ lawsuit. Other than playing the 2006 season, “we have no existing lease or contractual obligation to stay in the Metrodome,’’ Twins attorney Roger Magnuson said Monday.

Lawyers for the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, the public agency that owns and operates the Metrodome, were studying Porter’s decision for a possible appeal.