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Baseball franchise values skyrocketing after new stadium deals

BY MIKE BERARDINO
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - It's been quite a last few weeks for the Class of 2001. The Contraction Class, that is.

First, the former Montreal Expos, now operating as the Washington Nationals, fetched a hefty $450 million from billionaire developer Ted Lerner. That's nearly four times the $120 million former owner Jeffrey Loria received when he swapped the Expos for the Marlins in February 2002.

Friday, the Minnesota Twins held a pregame celebration at the Metrodome as Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a $522 million bill authorizing a new baseball-only outdoor stadium.

No doubt that means tightwad owner Carl Pohlad will see his investment skyrocket in a similar manner to the Nationals. New stadiums have that sort of effect on franchise value.

In the Nats' case, Forbes jumped their estimated value 42 percent to $440 million after Mayor Anthony Williams finally pushed a new stadium through all those local hurdles. If the Twins get a similar bump, look for their value to be somewhere in the $300 million range next spring.

Considering the Twins ranked 29th in this April's survey at $216 million, that's a fairly nice side benefit to the stroke of a governor's pen. The Twins' good news most likely leaves the Marlins and Devil Rays at the bottom of the Forbes list.

Suddenly, baseball's contraction combo, valued by Forbes at $235 million total four years ago, could be worth close to $750 million. Is baseball a great sport or what?

"You look at the demographics ... the Twin Cities are a great major league market," Commisioner Bud Selig told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "They're not a good one, they're a great one. And to have left there would have been a tragedy."

This, of course, is a far different tune than the one Selig was whistling 4 1/2 years ago on that November afternoon in Chicago. Back then baseball supposedly needed to whack the Expos and Twins because they were such a drag on the other 28 franchises.

Thanks to a favorable agreement with the players' union in August 2002, one which brought drastically increased revenue sharing and a luxury tax, Selig promised to table contraction until this year. There's a July 1 deadline for informing the union of contraction plans for 2007, but the whole concept seems to have gone the way of Charlie Finley's orange baseballs.

What does a new downtown stadium mean for the Twins? Well, considering it won't open until 2010, not so much in the short term.

Twins President Dave St. Peter told reporters last week the club probably won't be able to increase its payroll until 2009 at the earliest. Considering the Twins rank third in the AL Central at $64 million, that wasn't the kind of news Minnesota baseball fans necessarily wanted to hear.

Not with beloved center fielder Torii Hunter due to hit the free-agent market this winter.

"Make no mistake, the Metrodome is still the Metrodome," St. Peter said. "We're there through at least 2009, and there are going to be limitations on us. We're going to try to look at this more as a three- to four-year plan here."

And while the markets and ownerships are different, Marlins fans would be advised to take note of St. Peter's comments as well. Even if a new stadium in Hialeah magically gets pushed through this summer, the Marlins' payroll isn't likely to return to last year's $66 million anytime soon.

Oh, well. At least they won't get contracted.