The Pohlad family’s attempts to sell the Twins hit a major roadblock last month. Justin and Mat Ishbia, who had seemed to be the frontrunners, withdrew from the process to increase Justin Ishbia’s minority stake in the White Sox.
When the Ishbia brothers were still in the mix, the Pohlad family was reportedly hoping to have a sale completed by Opening Day. LaVelle E. Neal III of the Minnesota Star-Tribune writes that hope of settling on a buyer by Opening Day is no longer on the table. Neal speculates that a mid-late summer timeline for a deal could be more realistic.
Neal writes that he still anticipates the Pohlads will find a buyer. Dan Hayes of The Athletic wrote in the immediate aftermath of the Ishbia withdrawal that the Pohlads could consider taking the franchise off the market if they didn’t find a suitable asking price. To be clear, the Star-Tribune report isn’t refuting that. Rather, Neal writes that the Pohlads are receiving sufficient interest to believe that they’ll eventually find what they deem to be an acceptable bid.
The identities of those bidders aren’t known. The Ishbias were the only publicly reported suitor, though reports have long suggested they weren’t the only interested party. Forbes estimates the franchise’s value around $1.46 billion; Sportico’s projection is approximately $1.7 billion. The Orioles, the most recent franchise sold, went for a $1.725 billion purchase price in January 2024.
5 dollah
Anyone interested in Buying the St. Louis Cardinals????
The DeWitts have lost interest!!!
Sure am! I need a Veeck-ian rogues gallery of partners to get it done, though. I prefer a plumber who won big at the track on inside dope. Maybe a couple guys from Jersey rolling large in the waste management game. Just a little muscle to help get the ink signed in free agency.
Only if we succeed in moving them to the “East side”. Then I’m in. All sorts of vice there. The spirit of Richard Pryor!
Maybe someone can explain this to me. Justin Ishbia bought 40% of the White Sox. Reinsdorf owns 12%, yet is the controlling partner. God help us, why?
avenger65-
Where do you get the information that Ishbia owns 40%. He’s had a mid single digit % since 2021. And he’s been making offers now to the minority shareholders. It seems to be more of a transition in partnership coming with Reinsdorff. At Reinsdorffs advanced age I have to really wonder how many calls he’s actually making.
The roster tear down would make some sense in transition. It leaves less on the books for the new controlling partner.
Partnerships are interesting. My wife holds the second highest % shares in her national firm. The controlling partner has like 36% and she has 23% or so. They effectively run the business. She is the COO.
It might not be as simple as percentages. Some minority partners might not have vested equity. If we’re talking a business worth billions. There could be people SHOWING a 2% stake. But they’re buying in over time.
MLB doesn’t like TOO many owners. That’s the issue they had with Bill Veeck. He’d front these massive consortiums….funny cause once I believe they denied him because he had a partner who owned a race track lol. Now they’re SPONSORED up by FanDuel.
I dont know how the White Sox are set up. But I’m kind of glad Jerry hasn’t just put the Sox on the market for maybe one of these Nashville type groups to buy out.
My thoughts are they should try and move in to the Loop. Build a more intimate Comiskey-esque park and try to slide under the Cubs who have destroyed the charm of Wrigley with their real estate ventures. Basically, try to maneuver to become what Wrigley was in the older days in some sense.
Wrogleyville aka Ricketsville is going to age poorly. Already looks like a gaudy attempt at a Tron village, back in the 80s. Charm left w Yum Yum Donuts, and now the Wild Hare is moving to a newer hipper Fulton market.
Dumpster Divin Theo- Ended for me for sure about the time Harry passed, and the Sosa thing kicked the Frat party into high gear. The scoreboards blocking the buildings were another thing again. I’d go…and it would be like the game was incidental. That’s ok in and of itself. But it was obvious putting a team on the field wasn’t all that important. And that’s all I really cared about. Its ok. Not my thing.
Old man Pohlad paid a whopping $44 million for the club about 40 years ago.
The kids came out ok on that investment
Sounds like you’re saying over 40 years they made less than 10% annually on their investment. Owning the team wasn’t as great of an investment as it sounds.
Considering that interest rates dropped near 0% for part of that period, 10% is nothing to be dismissed. My 401k would have been very happy with that during the last couple of weeks. 🙁
2 things – you are correct that (depending on estimated rate of growth) you generally expect investments to double every 8 years, so the holding period here is 5 cycles, making the expected sale $1.4B.
However, none of us no the annual draws / salary paid, if any, to the owners during that time period, which would affect overall rate of return.
You sound like an idiot! It was an amazing investment
Rumor is the “winner” will pay the purchase price in nickels.
Elon musk is gonna swoop in here…
As a Twins fan, gross. He would dismiss half the players and run a team of a dozen or so out on the field.
With all the money DOGE is saving the taxpayer, could the Fed use that money to buy the Twins?
What’s it like to be a landlord and having someone live rent free in your head?
@cheapseater
Waht…? Who’s living rent free in my head? LOL!
The parrot thinks he’s being witty
Do you really want the current doge jerk running the Twins? I wouldn’t even wish that on the White Sox.
@avenger65
I said the Fed not Doge, but you do make a fair point. Do we really want the Fed running as baseball team into the ground? 🙂
Relax, I’m just having some fun. Did you lose your sense of fun?
To read the reader comments in this section – as well as some editorializing in the articles – one would think that MLB owners have nothing to do but lay on the beach all day with while revenue is coming into their coffers so fast that they need to rent time on a quantum computer to keep track of all of it….and of course it’s not like they have to do any work or have any potential liabilities.
3-4 years ago the Angles were up for sale for well over a year. Think of it: the California Orange County franchise with one of the most wealthy demographics in America. Yet the owner took the team off the market because – according to the MLB Commissioner – Arte so loved to be an MLB owner. Talk about spin.
What was so interesting about the Angels was that they’re a large market team. Because of the miniscule revenue-sharing agreements in MLB, only large market teams are truly attractive to potential buyers. They can buy the better players, and eat bad contracts which is difficult for mid-market teams and impossible for small market teams.
The latest delusional narrative is that the Rays better work out something with the local government to agree on a new park, or said Commissioner will force a sale….with the condition that the franchise must stay in Florida. Sure. Look, there was a hurricane. If there was insurance it only covered so much of the losses in the area. The team doesn’t bring in enough revenue to fix the Trop to play in for a few years while a new park is being built, and the local governments don’t have the money to rebuild devastated areas cause by the hurricane. The last hope – the federal government – has a deficit so large that just to pay interest on the loan each year is more than the defense budget, so they’re not going to print yet more money to solve the situation.
Which brings us to the Twins. Who knows…..perhaps the owners were reading the American sports media or listening to the players union tell them how much they can sell their franchise for. So they put up the For Sale sign and waited for the prospects outbidding one another to purchase such a lucrative investment.
Reality struck.
Poor billionaires. Stop crying for them, each MLB team pools 48% of their revenue and makes well over $200 million a year from that and MLB profits before a ticket or cable subscription is ever sold. Plus most of target field was paid for by taxpayers and they want to continue the tax even after the bonds are paid off to fund future renovations. Certain owners refuse to spend not because they don’t have the revenue but because they love to keep the profits.
Pan Cyan Trip;
Right. You’re too financially knowledgeable for me.
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Whoops…..I forgot…….
And a few years ago the Nationals were up for sale. They didn’t get their price, and that franchise was taken off the market.
The Nationals play in DC. The surrounding counties that make up their market have the highest individual income in America according to IRS statistics. The area produces nothing that’s productive. And up until the last few months, next to no government workers were laid-off or fired. So tell me Warren Buffett-wannabe, why wouldn’t investors buy the Nationals franchise….or the Angels…..and why is the Twins sale being held up?
I’ll be happy to take a team off of the hands of any owner who claims they are losing money. Fans are so lucky these owners are engaged in social charity for the benefit of the community
There is at least one buyer for the Nats, but the Lerners set their asking price too high at a point when they did not control the team’s TV rights. So the fact that the Nats haven’t been sold yet does not support your narrative.
Also, the region including DC and its surroundings are extremely productive, your petty insult otherwise notwithstanding.
@ PCT
ButRevenue does not equal profit. Ask Kmart or Sears.
Samuel—ALL readers’ comments are editorializing. The are all giving their opinions. And, FYI, the owners LIE on the beach.
The lament of the large market fan: these teams refuse to spend. Most teams don’t have their payroll paid by their local TV deal. Most fans also don’t seem to get that player salaries are just a part of what it costs to run a major league baseball team. Small and even mid markets invest more in player development and scouting both here and abroad because that is their only lifeline these days and they don’t have the capacity to just buy to cover their mistakes and holes on their team at salaries inflated by the large markets.
As far as the Twins, Nationals, Angels and now Rays instances above, we are seeing a cautionary tale about the future of major league baseball: the lack of interest in buying a team in small and mid markets. In these cases, defined by the lack of local TV income to help cover expenses. Mark Cuban said it a few years ago, that it is not worth owning a MLB team outside a few markets. Some people just don’t get it, and the Commissioner in MLB HQ in NYC has the biggest set of blinders on and spins like a top. Actually, maybe Tony Clark has a bigger set of blinders on.
I wonder how much Reinsdorf is making from TV revenue after him and the owner of the Blackhawks dumped NBC Sports Chicago to start their own station, which no one other than Dish owners could get until recently. Now their games (and the Bulls, another Reinsdorf disaster) can be bought for $29.95 a month. I’m not spending anything to watch the Hawks or the Sox, the two worst teams in their respective leagues.
Can Arte sell next? Please?
Can the twins be sold to Target and become the dodgers but worse where they do what Guggenheim does with the investments
I hope they keep the Twins together if they sell. The Minnesota Broken Home sounds weird.
At some point, the Nashville diamond mine is going to be tapped. MLB wants it for expansion. Every owner can test whether the Nashville bidders will wait and pay a $2b expansion fee or buy an existing franchise for less. MLB won’t want MN to try to move, but is getting close to the point of needing to subsidize owners that want to sell.
Under this current system, anyone paying a $2B expansion fee for a future of mediocrity is foolish.
Nashville Rays make a lot of sense ! They’ll need a name change though. If not it’ll be like fresh water fishing in LA or jamming to jazz music in Utah
I think the Washington Senator’s offspring have moved enough times.
Putting a team in Nashville would eat into the market share of the Braves and Reds. I hope it happens soon.
Reds market ends 2 county’s out from Cincy lol. Braves, yessss !
The Reds market extends East into West Virginia, West into Indiana and South into Kentucky and Tennessee. That is a pretty decent sized market for a team considered to be one of the smaller markets. Chattanooga has been one of their affiliates for years and for a long time Wheeling was an affiliate. They’re just minor league cities but being in states without a major league team it drew a lot of fans to the big league club as well.
Nobody has a market like the Braves though. They had the whole Southeast on lockdown until expansion hit Florida and they still control a huge area for their market even with the two Florida teams. It’s kind of wild to think how close teams in the Midwest and East are in proximity of each other compared to how far Atlanta is from the rest of the National League (aside from the Marlins)
The Pohlad’s can’t do anything right, can they?
Embarrassing family
New owners doesn’t mean new lucrative markets and tv deals. They’re still working with the same resources as the old owners. The orioles didn’t aggressively up the payroll with new ownership, and we all probably agree this is the time for them to do so and win. New boss, same as the old boss
The Twins have 15 years left on an ironclad Target Field lease.
They can’t go anywhere. It’s one of the reasons they’re going to have limited interest. No new stadium to build to increase valuations, no ability to move the team, etc.
I don’t think there’s really any better markets out there worth switching too. TC is a nice sized market. The whole state lives there or near enough
Privatize the profits, socialize the losses. It’s the corporate way of doing business over the past 40 years. Vulture capitalism and grifting at it’s finest!
New owner will move the team to Tampa Bay so that they can get a new stadium and Stu Sternberg will move the Rays to the Twin Cities right before the league decides to contract the Rays leaving Target Field empty.