{"id":190951,"date":"2025-07-20T21:11:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T21:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/190951\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T21:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T21:11:18","slug":"potential-minnesota-twins-buyers-spooked-by-massive-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/190951\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential Minnesota Twins Buyers Spooked by Massive Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MLB-Tampa-Bay-Rays-at-Minnesota-Twins-26586809-scaled-e1753037716370.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"Minnesota Twins\" decoding=\"sync\" loading=\"eager\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>There has been positive steam regarding a sale of the Minnesota Twins in recent days. Last week during the All-Star Break festivities commissioner Rob Manfred <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-twins\/rob-manfred-confident-twins-sale-imminent\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said he believes<\/a> a transaction is imminent.<\/p>\n<p>A few days later, after calling around, Star Tribune columnist <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LaVelleNeal\" rel=\"nofollow\">LaVelle E. Neal<\/a> suggested that the Pohlad family may have found their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-twins\/team-sale-latest-secret-majority-investor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">anchor investor<\/a>. The Tampa Bay Rays are close to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/news\/rays-1-7b-sale-could-reportedly-be-done-by-september-will-new-ownership-keep-team-in-the-tampa-bay-area\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crossing the finish line<\/a> on a $1.7 billion transaction. That is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-twins\/ownership-bids-deadline-extended\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">same amount<\/a> Minnesota is said to be targeting.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MLB-ALDS-Houston-Astros-at-Minnesota-Twins-21625265-scaled-e1753037637714-788x444.jpg\" alt=\"Minnesota Twins\" class=\"wp-image-65203\"  \/>Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>It would be great for fans if current ownership moved on sooner rather than later. That doesn\u2019t mean it will be straightforward, especially with all the debt the Pohlad family rolled into their baseball team.<\/p>\n<p>Pohlad\u2019s debt causing issues for MN Twins sale<\/p>\n<p>Despite Forbes providing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-twins\/forbes-valuation-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">valuation of $1.5 billion<\/a> for Minnesota, the Rays selling for more is a positive. That could help the Pohlad\u2019s reach their $1.7 billion asking price. They\u2019ll lose some of those funds on the bottom line thanks to the debt they are currently carrying. That\u2019s also something that USA Today columnist <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BNightengale\" rel=\"nofollow\">Bob Nightengale<\/a> said is a detractor for interested parties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile MLB is still confident that the Minnesota Twins will be sold in the near future, potential buyers are balking at the approximate $450 million in debt on the Twins\u2019 books, to go along with their $1.7 billion price tag.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/mlb\/columnist\/bob-nightengale\/2025\/07\/20\/mlb-trade-deadline-rumors-second-half\/85289236007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Nightengale \u2013 USA Today<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Pohlad\u2019s have a number they are looking to generate. Each member of the family is looking to get their share. Although Carl Pohlad <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/maurybrown\/2024\/10\/10\/as-minnesota-twins-go-up-for-sale-pohlad-family-set-for-incredible-profit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">paid just $44 million<\/a> for the team in 1984, his family members want to squeeze every last cent out of the transaction.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the problem complicating a sale is the Pohlad\u2019s have other business ventures. They have ownership stakes in commercial real estate and other businesses that haven\u2019t always gone as smoothly as they would have hoped. Last winter they <a href=\"https:\/\/tcbmag.com\/pohlads-sell-carousel-motor-group-to-oregon-company\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sold off their car dealerships<\/a>, and the debt they have folded into the baseball team is likely allocated from those ventures more than it is related to baseball operations.<\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-twins\/team-sale-latest-secret-majority-investor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Secret High Roller Emerges to Anchor New MN Twins Ownership Group<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s more than likely a new ownership group will find a way to be more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-twins\/minnesota-twins-news\/another-payroll-reduction-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fiscally responsible<\/a> than the Pohlad\u2019s. After all Joe Pohlad, the current executive chair, is not a successful business person in any way. The transition of leadership is now largely at a generation benefitting from the family\u2019s previous success rather than anything they have done on their own.<\/p>\n<p>What Minnesota eventually sells for remains to be seen. How the debt is accounted for, and the impact it has on the bottom line is something any seriously interested buyer will be conscious of. This saga needs to end, and at this point I\u2019m good with virtually any new party being awarded as the winner.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned in this article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/tag\/team-sale\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Team Sale<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"categories\">More About:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/category\/minnesota-twins\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Twins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images There has been positive steam regarding a sale of the Minnesota Twins in recent&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,822,60,3190,4,3192,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-190951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-twins","11":"tag-minnesotatwins","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-team-sale","14":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114887621886362901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}