Minnesota
Twins sale highlights stability after near contraction. So why did the North Stars fail?
How the North Stars failed
FOX 9 interviewed fans, media members and former team employees about the North Stars’ financial struggles as part of an upcoming documentary about the franchise leaving Minnesota.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – The Minnesota Twins could now sell for $1.5 billion less than 25 years after they were nearly contracted out of baseball altogether. The North Stars also nearly folded in the 1980s. But after changes in ownership, the team failed to find stability in Minnesota before relocating to Texas. Why did one franchise thrive while the other died?
Backstory
The Minnesota North Stars relocated to Dallas, Texas, in 1993 after a dispute over stadium financing.
The move stunned fans who still resent former owner Norm Green.
Green was initially credited with saving the franchise when he took control in 1990.
Like the Twins, the franchise had nearly folded.
Similar struggles
The North Stars survived thanks to a merger with the Cleveland Barons in 1978.
“That was a circus because, OK, the North Stars were crap, Cleveland was crap so you just put more crap together,” said FOX 9 Sports Director Jim Rich.
“You got a bag of nothing and another bag of nothing, and you put them together, and now you have two bags of nothing,” said Tom Reid who played for the Stars prior to the merger.
READ MORE: Minnesota Wild to wear North Stars colors 15 times this season. Will the logo ever return?
FOX 9 interviewed fans, media members and former team employees as part of an upcoming documentary about the North Stars leaving Minnesota.
“That was a pretty shaky set-up,” said Bill Lester, the former Executive Director of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Commission.
Similar success
The Twins and North Stars both appeared to rally.
After near contraction, the Twins advanced to the American League Championship Series in 2002 and won the next three division titles.
The North Stars went to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981, just three years after the merger.
The Twins’ string of success ultimately led to stability, culminating with the opening of Target Field in 2010.
The North Stars took another nosedive.
Owners need deep pockets
In the 1980s, owners George and Gordon Gund were on the verge of moving the franchise to San Jose after failing to secure funding for renovations to the Met Center.
Lou Nanne, a former North Stars player and executive, negotiated a deal that essentially split the franchise in two. It allowed the Gunds to take over an expansion team in the Bay Area and left the North Stars for Minnesota.
“Worked out a deal with them where we could keep half a team and the Gunds could go to San Jose, and we could move on from there and, hopefully, thinking we could make things work,” Nanne said in an interview for the upcoming documentary on FOX 9.
After two more ownership changes, Norm Green took control of the franchise in 1990 and the team again found success after nearly disappearing.
The North Stars advanced to the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals and Green was hailed as a savior.
But John Blackshaw, former General Counsel for the North Stars, said Green didn’t have deep enough pockets to truly stabilize the franchise.
“He was very overleveraged,” Blackshaw said.
Green bought the North Stars after building a portfolio in Canada centered around shopping malls.
“I think he was getting pressure on his real estate investments in Canada,” Nanne added.
Everything is bigger in Texas
Green moved the franchise to Texas just three years after buying it.
But that too failed to stabilize the team’s financial footing.
Less than two years after relocating the franchise, Green sold the Dallas Stars in 1995 for $84 million to Tom Hicks, who also owned the Texas Rangers.
The deal allowed Green to wipe out more than $70 million in debt, according to press reports at the time.
The Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999. Green was later inducted into the Dallas Stars Hall of Fame.
In Minnesota, his name still invokes derisive chants.
Blaming the owners
The Pohlad family, which has owned the Minnesota Twins since 1984, also became the target of angry chants by the end of last season.
Fans demanded the family sell the team after cutting payroll and failing to make trades before the team fell apart and out of playoff contention.
READ MORE: Minnesota Wild want to renovate Xcel Center. Has debate over public funding changed?
The family announced its plan to sell the team days after the season ended.
“We truly respect and cherish what the Twins mean to Minneapolis, St. Paul, the great state of Minnesota, and this entire region,” Joe Pohlad said in a statement.
“NO STARS: When Minnesota Lost Pro Hockey” premiers Nov 14 on FOX 9 and FOX LOCAL.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – Sunday was the deadline for Minnesota to complete the revalidation of thousands of Medicaid providers in “high-risk” programs as the state fights with the federal government over about $2 billion in funding.
What is Minnesota Revalidate?
The backstory:
Earlier this year, state leaders announced an effort to revalidate more than 5,500 providers in Minnesota’s Health Care Programs. The revalidation was part of an effort to combat fraud and to satisfy demands from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has withheld up to $2 billion in Medicaid funds from Minnesota.
The deadline to finish the revalidation was on Sunday, May 31.
What we know:
As of last month, state officials said only 550 providers have had applications approved, site inspections completed and been re-enrolled.
At that point, 1,510 applications were incomplete, and 160 providers had been disenrolled. State officials said mostly because they had failed to respond to state inquiries.
There were an additional 990 who had been submitting claims but failed to respond to state notices.
Medicaid funding lawsuit
Local perspective:
In January, Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would withhold $2 billion in Medicaid funding for Minnesota.
The decision followed an audit by the centers of Minnesota’s Medicaid programs. The funding suspension also followed a new batch of federal Medicaid fraud charges that came down in December. During a news conference, as prosecutors announced new charges and guilty pleas related to fraud, federal prosecutors estimated that fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid programs could total as high as $9 billion since 2018.
The other side:
Since that press conference, the $9 billion figure has been heavily disputed by state leaders who say there is currently no evidence that fraud in Minnesota is that rampant. Gov. Walz and other state leaders say that while fraud is an issue, President Trump has weaponized it to commit political retribution against the state.
What’s next:
FOX 9 has reached out to state officials to see how many providers are facing disenrollment as the deadline hits on Sunday.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit over the pulled Medicaid funds. This month, a judge granted a mutual motion for a stay in the case – a 120 pause – to give the federal government and Minnesota time to resolve the funding issue. An update is due to the court by early September.
A 29-year-old man drowned at a lake in northern Minnesota on Saturday, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office said the man drowned at the swimming area at Little Emily Lake Park. The man was at the park with family and friends at the time.
First responders arrived at the scene to try and rescue him, but he was pronounced dead, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family and friends during this incredibly difficult time,” the sheriff’s office said.
Little Emily Lake is about 40 miles north of Brainerd.
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