Re-lease me

What really killed contraction for 2002

Trying to duck responsibility for Major League Baseball's embarrassing attempt at contraction for the 2002 season, commissioner Bud Selig blames "events outside of our direct control" for the failure of his plan.

The events Selig refers to are court decisions in Minnesota that require the Twins to play the upcoming season in the Metrodome. Each of these rulings was a stinging defeat for the lords of baseball and the result put the owners and their contraction gambit in checkmate. So it's convenient for Selig to blame a bunch of lawyers and judges in Minnesota.

While the litigation may have been out of Selig's hands, the event that prompted it and became the basis for the court decisions was totally -- and embarrassingly -- within the control of the commissioner and the owners. It was their error that doomed their idea. Here's how it really happened:

At the end of the 2001 season, the Twins were a young and exciting second-place team that had drawn more than 22,000 fans per game (a total of 1.8 million for the year). They were doing better in the Metrodome -- a venue deemed unacceptable by Selig -- than the White Sox and the Tigers were doing in newer stadiums.

Contraction had lurked in the background throughout the 2001 season. In fact, it had been openly discussed as a probable strategy since the previous winter. Despite a terrific season, the Twins were an obvious target. Their market was small, their stadium was problematic, and their prospects for remaining competitive were dim. Whenever the term "contraction" was used, the word "Twins" was not far behind.

Selig has said that he spent a great deal of time pondering last year before realizing it was an idea whose time had come. He wanted to announce it during the 2001 season, but then came the events of Sept. 11.

As Selig agonized and strategized over contraction, the term of the Twins' lease at the Metrodome was nearing expiration. At the end of the 2001 season, the team would be free. Their lease could be extended only if the club agreed to exercise an option to play the 2002 season in the dome.

Baseball, looking to eliminate two teams, put Minnesota second on its cut list, right behind Montreal. So what did the Twins do? They renewed their lease on Sept. 26, agreeing to play the 2002 season in the Metrodome. Five weeks later, Selig announced that two teams would be eliminated prior to the season Minnesota had just agreed to play. Was anyone paying attention? If the Twins had not exercised the option on their lease, they and baseball would have been well on their way to being a 28-team enterprise. The owners would still have faced a battle with the union, but they would have avoided the humiliating losses in the Minnesota court.

It's even worse than it appears. When Selig announced contraction, the theory was that baseball could pay off the Metordome lease and then eliminate the Twins with a payment to owner Carl Pohlad. If baseball took care of the rent, according to Selig's theory, everything would be OK. One problem: The Twins pay no rent. They use the dome free of charge.

The terms of the lease are obvious to anyone who glances through it. In addition to the no-rent clause, the key legal phrases are "benefit of the bargain" and "specific performance." Somehow anticipating that an attempt would be made to take their baseball team, Minnesota officials wrote with remarkable clarity a lease providing that the benefit of the bargain for them was not the collection of rent but the playing of 81 games in the Metrodome. This provision was the basis for the court decisions that delayed contraction for a year and may ultimately save the Twins for Minnesota. Remember, this is a state that lost both the Lakers and the North Stars.

The lease also gave Metrodome officials the right to go to court to obtain an order of specific performance -- a judge's mandate that requires the franchise to play 81 games in the dome. It is a highly unusual provision, but it left baseball and the Twins in an impossible legal position. The result? The judges in Minnesota had the authority to force them to do the one thing they did not want to do -- play the 2002 season in the Metrodome.

If the Hall of Fame ever builds a wing in Cooperstown devoted to management blunders (it would no doubt be huge), one of the first exhibits shown should be "Contraction Fiasco 2002." It would start with a diorama of Twins president Jerry Bell signing the papers that renewed the team's Metrodome lease for 2002. The key provisions -- no rent, benefit of the bargain, specific performance -- would be displayed as blown-up posters. The display would also include videos of Selig's contraction announcement and of the commissioner's explanation that contraction failed because of "events outside of our direct control."

Sports Illustrated legal analyst Lester Munson regularly holds court on sports law and business matters on CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

 

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