Editorial: Contraction delay may save Twins
Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 7, 2002
Tribune staff editorial
The Minnesota Twins have been given at least a one-year reprieve from contraction, the scheme that would have wiped the team out of existence if Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and the team owners had their way.
Thursday, February 07, 2002
The Minnesota Twins have been given at least a one-year reprieve from contraction, the scheme that would have wiped the team out of existence if Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and the team owners had their way. Now, it’s really coming down to the zero hour – if the state doesn’t find some way to act on a new stadium, the team may not live to see 2003.
The Supreme Court ruling that finally dealt a death blow to the contraction plan for 2002 was another in a long string of setbacks for the owners, who seem to get more defensive of each other and more entrenched with every defeat. This year, they’ve goofed again; instead of spending the winter negotiating a new contract with the players’ union, they wasted three months on a contraction plan that got them nowhere.
Selig and company are not strangers to public defeat; after all, this is the same crew who weathered the embarrassing strike of 1994, the cancellation of the World Series, the string of negotiation losses with the players union, and the debacle of replacement players they threatened to use during the ’94 strike. None of these humiliating defeats hurt their resolve to try again.
That’s why Minnesota should expect these owners to return to their contraction plans next year. And that’s why, if the state is serious about keeping its baseball team, something must get done this legislative session to fix the stadium situation that is at the root of the team’s inability to compete.
Public opposition to tax dollars for stadiums does not appear to have changed much, but now the stakes are higher. With several plans on the table that would fund a ballpark with targeted taxes, naming rights and private money, it’s time for the state to show the foresight needed to find a stadium deal that keeps the team here without burdening the general taxpayer.