The Pohlad family claims it is down with baseball.
The ownership of Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins, the Pohlad family, has decided it is time to sell the business. The Twins ownership has retained an investment bank, Allen and Company to find a buyer. Even though the Pohlad family has made the decision to get out of the baseball business it doesn’t mean that the family will get rid of the team. Two MLB franchises, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Washington Nationals, were put up for sale but the ownerships of both teams changed their minds and took the teams off the market. It is estimated that the Minnesota Twins franchise is worth somewhere between $1.5 and 2 billion. The potential price tag may be depressed because of television money uncertainty
The Pohlad family put out a statement that did not specifically cite why now is the time to get rid of the team. “After months of thoughtful consideration, our family reached a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins. As we enter the next phase of this process, the time is right to make this decision public.” Joe Pohlad, the business executive chair, said his family wants “to find an ownership group who all of us can be proud of and who will take care of the Minnesota Twins.” The Pohlad family has owned the Twins franchise for 40 years. Carl Pohlad bought the franchise from Calvin Griffith for $44 million. Griffith had a deal in place to sell the team to Tampa Bay area investors. Carl Pohlad almost sold the team to Greensboro, North Carolina investors in 1997 after he was unable to get a new stadium in Minneapolis. That deal fell through and eventually a deal was put together between the Pohlad family and Minnesota politicians to build a baseball park in Minneapolis. The Pohlads are done with baseball.
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