It has been over two months since the Pohlad family announced they were looking into selling the Twins, and a prominent potential buyer has now been identified. According to Bloomberg’s Isis Almeida, Miranda Davis, and Randall Williams, a group led by billionaire Justin Ishbia has expressed interest in purchasing the franchise, and Ishbia has been “meeting with local community leaders across the state to learn more about the community and the opportunity to carry on the Twins legacy.”
The Athletic’s Sam Amick, Dan Hayes, and Dennis Lin have more details, specifying that both Justin and Mat Ishbia would be involved in the ownership group, with Justin acting as the lead investor. The brothers already own the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, with Mat acting as governor for those franchises and Justin the alternate governor. Presumably in the same manner that Mat Ishbia is considered the chief “owner” of the Suns and Mercury, Justin Ishbia would take a similar head role in overseeing the Twins, with his brother in a secondary capacity. Justin Ishbia’s sports interests also include a minority ownership stake in Major League Soccer’s Nashville SC franchise.
There is no sense that the Ishbia or any other potential bidders are close to completing a purchase, as Amick/Hayes/Lin write that the sale process will take a minimum of six months. Minnesota president of baseball operations Derek Falvey told reporters at the Winter Meetings that the franchise in the initial information-gathering phase of the process, and that the Twins had yet to move onto identifying or vetting potential buyers.
Carl Pohlad bought the Twins in 1984, with the role of day-to-day ownership oversight going to Carl’s son Jim Pohlad in 2009, and then to Jim’s nephew Joe Pohlad in November 2022. The Pohlad family’s tenure has seen the Twins capture two World Series titles (1987 and 1991) and 11 division titles, but those high points have also been somewhat obscured by consistently limited spending over most of the four decades the Pohlads have been in charge. The Twins were under consideration to be contracted by MLB in 2001, and the opening of Target Field in 2010 only temporarily boosted the club’s payroll.
Most recently, the team’s decision to slash payroll in the wake of a successful 2023 season (and the abrupt end of the Twins’ broadcast deal with Diamond Sports Group) left Minnesota fans upset, and those feelings only hardened when a late-season collapse cost the Twins a playoff berth. MLB itself will be running Twins broadcasts in 2025, though with lower fees than the Diamond deal, and thus less revenue coming back to the organization.
It is far too early to speculate on whether or not the Ishbias or any owner would suddenly push a lot more money into roster construction. The payroll structures of pro baseball and basketball are vastly different, of course, but for some reference, Amick/Hayes/Lee note that Mat Ishbia was almost instantly aggressive after buying the Suns. Within just a few days after that sale was official in February 2023, Ishbia pushed his front office to swing a blockbuster trade for superstar Kevin Durant.
Suns are in the 2nd tax apron and have the highest payroll in nba.
Yes plz!
Is there any way to get him to change his mind and purchase the St. Louis Cardinals?????
No , how about the Pirates?
Come on at least the cardinals spend more than most teams
Ishbias are spending 198mil in luxury tax alone on suns roster this season.
From what I’ve read of the Ishbia brothers, this could be big news for Twins fans. These guys aren’t afraid to spend to get a winner. They feel similar to Cohen. Could really change the landscape of the AL central.
I wouldn’t say they would spend as much as cohen but I could see them get to the first luxury tax apron in small market (is it small?) Minnesota
It’s mid market
I don’t expect them to spend to Cohen’s level, no. I just mean that their approach with their NBA team was similar and it tracks that they might operate their baseball team the same. Spend what it takes to win. You don’t have to spend $300 mil to win, but you do have to spend more then Minnesota has been spending lately.
I don’t care who owns it as long as 1) they stay in minnesota and 2) they invest in the product! This team has way too much base talent to not add to it each offseason and mold it into a legit contender! Seeing them fall off last year was depressing knowing full well they did nothing to prevent it.
Twins need to get on the phone to SFG.
The Rodgers brothers need to be on their team. Only this can save the franchise, and probably the universe as well.
Yes
Forget the Twins, please buy the Angels instead.
I’m afraid the Angels are stuck with Angry Arte for the foreseeable future.
Very true. I bumped into someone who golfs with a friend of the team president John Carpino. Arte’s never selling, and he’s very short term revenue focused.
Instead, make an offer to buy a stake in the Detroit Tigers, your hometown team, and take full control when Marian Illitch passes away and her estate receives stepped-up basis in her interest.
Please please call call Bob Nutting
I dont trust a guy who spells Mat with 1 t.
It’s a michigan thing, anyone else know someone with just one T
Mat Latos.
the guy who owns my local coffee shop. stand up guy. I’d trust him with my life.
San Mateo, known for writing gospels and for various other good deeds.
Mat is a nut but he’s passionate about sports.
He’s responsible for the most memorable video chat in mortgage history when he casually dropped “if you work with them you can’t work with us” in relation to Rocket Mortgage and made every broker pick a side.
It was bizarre to say the least.
The moment they purchase the team I will purchase the tv package
At first, I didn’t see the last word of your sentence, so I thought you were going to celebrate the purchase of the team with a purchase of a tv.
That would’ve been dedication!
Hahahaha
Maybe that could happen too. Will have to investigate if they own any electronics manufacturers
I like the tone of the article. The number of winning seasons doesn’t matter, they don’t spend enougb!
Read as even with a limited budget they still managed to be competitive. The point is that if the Twins had pushed some chips in they wouldn’t own the longest playoff losing streak in sports history
Please check in with Jerry Reinsdorf, always good to do your due diligence and check with all the teams available!
I want to get excited, but doing that is a dangerous thing for any Minnesota sports fan.
Give Castellini some lettuce and buy a historic one proud franchise.
I knew Ishbia sounded familiar… he was on MSU national title 2000 basketball team
Would rather have the Ishbia’s buy the Detroit Tigers since the Illitchs aren’t willing to invest in strengthening the roster for 2025…I know it’s a pipe dream as long as Marian is till alive, but once can dream can’t he!!!
United Wholesale Mortgage Corporation must be doing pretty well.
Worst mortgage environment in a couple decades
Straw hats in Winter time. You don’t go buying major league baseball teams if your company is going under.
You do if your personal wealth is in the billions. That wealth probably isn’t too heavily vested in company stock. But they’d have to be ok with the volatility to begin with
I question anymore what baseball owners are buying. 20 years ago teams were going at 10% of these values before MLB Properties took off and helped created the multi-billion franchise valuations.
I’m just struggling to grasp how an MLB team isn’t just more of an ego thing at this point. It doesn’t seem or feel like the growth market it was for a couple decades.
MOST of Ishbia’s wealth IS tied up in UWMC. Yes, he has diversified but he owns over 90% of the company which is worth $9+ billion. That’s 90+% of his net worth.
San Antonio Twins doesn’t sound right…
Baseball is the only sport where fans of teams have to hope with fingers crossed that their team’s new owner is both insanely rich and a big sports fan willing to spend more than their market demands out of his own pocket because he wants to win that badly.
The rest just have salary caps and all the teams compete (more or less) equally.
Crazy, right?
Well the convicted criminal Steingrabber started the whole trend. And so it goes.
Yankees were dominating development going back to the 40s. Steinbrenner wasn’t the one using the KC A’s as a virtually their AAA team. Yankees have ALWAYS financially muscled baseball. Why i don’t mind so much the Dodgers attack on them in this global marketing game.
There are plenty of uncompetitive teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL
Isn’t having uncompetitive teams just a basic reality of playing games, though? No matter the process…someone has to be the worst in any given period. In baseball the gap might be narrower. We’re talking 20 games over 162 swing in won/loss. NFL? You’ll have a team toward the bottom MAYBE win 2-3 games. That’s likely the equivalent of a 140 loss MLB team….which no one is coming close too.
I’d also say anymore MOST organizations aren’t staying down as long. Even KC made the playoffs. That’s an org that notoriously doesn’t seem to mind generational playoff appearances.
Truly unsuccessful organizations? I don’t think even the A’s have been bad long enough to count. Pittsburgh and the case could be made for the Angels at this point. 2 truly locked down bad organizations.
I mentioned the emerging owners on a comment on the Correa post back on 12/10.
The reporting of what’s happening is about a week in the past tense.
They are assembling local/Twins centric minority owners who actually care about the legacy of the franchise.
If this plays out as designed, Twins fans including myself, will be very, very happy.
No sense on buying the Twins unless you’re prepared to spend. We all see how contracts are heading. They are no dummies. They know that if they’re not prepared to spend you’re buying last place team for eternity. Only good news for twins and baseball.
‘Twins lease for Target field will prevent new owners from relocating, at least for now.
While there’s no guarantee the new owners will be any better than the Pohalds, the worst-case scenario is the team being moved.
Betsy Helfand from the Pioneer Press dove into the team’s lease agreement with the Minnesota Ballpark Authority and pointed out a pretty ironclad protection against possible relocation. The Twins are only halfway through a 30-year lease on Target Field which means a move wouldn’t be able to happen for at least another decade.’
On the surface the Twins seem like a wonderful organization to purchase. Loyal local fan base that’s super into their sports and will show up to a winner. Seems pretty clear why those wins aren’t coming…and that its in the hands of whoever holds the purse strings. If I’m anywhere near a competitive billionaire…Twins are a lip smacker…a lot of the work is just waiting there to be pushed forward.
The Twins were the first team ever to draw 3 million in 1988, because they were the champions in 87. A great team will help and a ten times better stadium would pack it again. Damn I hope this goes
Always wondered why Dave St. Paul wasn’t held accountable on the business end.
I like Target field and they’re locked into that stadium for many many more years. Should they have built a stadium with a roof for those cold rainy springs? Yeah, but it would’ve cost them twice as much to build. Which the locals don’t need to be taxed extra for imo
Also the ballpark would look completely different if they had to make it air tight. I’m glad they didn’t put a roof on it, plenty of places to get out of the rain. But some wild rice soup on the cold days or don’t go
Matt is planning ahead, looking to secure that AL team to replace the Dbacks when they move out of Chase Field.
Could they look into the Nats too? Sick of these cheap Lerners!
Ishiba pushed the Suns front office to trade half of what was then a great team for a fading Kevin Durant and destroyed the franchise. The Phoenix Suns wont get back to the Western Conference finals with Kevin Durant. Ishiba knows how to spend money and maybe thats what the Twins need. Like Cohen did for the Mets. But sometimes thats not the answer. Trying to be another Mark Cuban is not for everyone.
Minnesota Ballpark Authority and the Twins have a lease agreement in place for Target Field until 2040. It doesn’t matter who owns the team, they’ll be in Minnesota at least until then.
And they were also forced to sign an agreement that if they ever DID leave Minnesota after the lease expires that they could not take the Twins name, world series trophies, etc. with them to the new location. This was done to prevent a repeat of what happened when the Minneapolis Lakers left for Los Angeles and the North Stars left for Dallas.
On top of that, present day ownership agreed to a deal at the end of July that extended the tenancy of the Twins in Target Field until the year 2059, with the Twins receiving a 10MM dollar a year tax subsidy to help with ballpark upkeep starting in 2039.
I’ve heard that the Pohlads have been angling to sell the team since June of this year (which based off the non moves they made at the deadline/not adding subtracting from the books), that totally makes sense.
I think this ownership exchange gets done more quickly than is typical.
I’m fully expecting the Davis family to be involved as minority owners, along with a couple other smaller time players with present day partnerships with the Twins.
The Star Tribune has an article from July 29th of this year that highlights all of the nuance.
This is in no way, shape or form a situation where non residents can come in, buy the team, make a couple of outstate calls, and uproot the team.
Of any of the situations I’ve seen, this is one of the most locationally restrictive to enter for any would be owner. That’s a good thing for Twins fans.