Minneapolis Paper
In 1983, Donald Trump made a $50 million offer to buy the Minnesota Twins, one deal the businessman-turned-president failed to seal.
Now, Trump’s signature policy bill could end up punishing the next owner of the MLB team as well as another for-sale pro franchise in town.
A tax benefit sports team owners have used to reduce their overall taxes will cut in half under the “Big Beautiful Bill” the House of Representatives recently passed. The move would raise nearly $1 billion in revenue through the next decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, and would only affect those who buy teams after the law goes into effect.
For the next owners of the Twins and the NBA/WNBA Timberwolves/Lynx organization, it’s a race to the finish line to keep the lucrative tax break intact.
The Pohlads have owned the Twins for four decades after buying the squad for $44 million in 1984. The Minnesota family put the team up for sale last year, originally hoping to sell by Opening Day this spring. Insiders said last week
the sale is “closer to the end than to the beginning,” as buyers kick the tires on Target Field and meet with the Pohlads.
Meanwhile, the Timberwolves and Lynx recently emerged from a much lengthier sale debacle, with former MLB star Alex Rodriguez and entrepreneur Marc Lore winning an arbitration ruling allowing the sale to continue. Minnesota billionaire Glen Taylor, who also owns the Minnesota Star Tribune, bought the team in 1994 for $94 million. He agreed to sell the franchise to Rodriguez and Lore in 2021 for $1.5 billion but later called it off because of an alleged breach of contract.
The transaction has yet to close, and the NBA Board of Governors still has to vote to approve the sale.