Transcripts

MARTIN KASTE: The governor sent a letter to acting baseball commissioner Bud Selig, asking for more time, a year or more, in his words, to find a way to keep the Twins in Minnesota. Carlson suggests the legislature is already halfway to a solution since the state Senate passed a Twins-related bill last November.

But Carlson's letter is also a tacit acknowledgment that nothing is likely to happen on the Twins stadium this year, especially after the latest stadium bill died on Wednesday. Many legislators expressed relief that the pressure to act finally seems to be lifting. Representative Mike Osskopp is a Republican from Lake City, who opposed the governor on the stadium issue, but he welcomes the governor's call for more time.

MIKE OSSKOPP: I think what the governor is hoping to do is give us another year, and hopefully we can get the management situation straightened out. I think everybody agrees before we talk about building a stadium, we have to find out who's going to own this team. How is it going to be owned? Are we going to have some community ownership?

MARTIN KASTE: Community ownership, a plan to give fans the opportunity to buy control of the team and keep it from moving, seems to be the only Twins-related bill that still shows any sign of life this session. The bill makes no mention of a stadium. The defenders of community ownership say making the team public property has to come before any discussion of stadium financing.

And for the first time, Governor Carlson seems to be admitting that community ownership alone might be the answer. His letter asks for more time, not to build a new stadium, but in his words, to work out a long term solution to keep baseball in our state. The author of the community ownership bill, Minneapolis DFLer Phyllis Kahn, says the governor seems to have a new attitude about the whole situation.

PHYLLIS KAHN: The governor is saying, I'm interested in working on it. I'm interested in helping you. There are people who would like to keep professional baseball here, I mean, is I think something that Major League Baseball ought to consider when they're making those decisions.

MARTIN KASTE: Still, community ownership has hardly caught fire at the State Capitol, and legislators seem eager to put any Twins-related discussion off until next year. The governor's letter is an attempt to buy them that time, but there are no guarantees. In North Carolina, the Twins' prospective new owners say the governor's letter doesn't have any effect on the deal they have with Twins owner Carl Pohlad. And they say they're still hoping to finish negotiations in time for the next baseball team owners meeting in March. At the Capitol, I'm Martin Kaste, Minnesota Public Radio.