No, fans couldn’t buy the Twins, even if they were for sale

Twins fans won’t be able to own a controlling stake in the team — like cheeseheads have in the Green Bay Packers — anytime soon.

The ball club is not for sale. But if the Twins ever were to go on the market, local leaders thought they had a right of first refusal to create a collaborative and buy the team.

Turns out, Major League Baseball’s 2017 rule change prohibiting publicly traded entities from owning a controlling interest in a team nullifies that plan.

State and local lawmakers included the option of a local group buying the Twins in the 2006 legislation that created the partnership with the team to build Target Field. A 0.15% sales tax in Hennepin County — OK’d by the Legislature — funded the $355 million public share of the $555 million ballpark.

The legislation stipulated that if a local collaborative bought the team, it would include a managing owner with at least a 25% stake and 50% or more of the shares would be sold to the general public.

The legislation also states that any local purchasing plan would be subject to MLB rules. The league’s 2017 prohibition on publicly traded ownership directly conflicts with the law.

No one from the Twins front office or the Minnesota Ballpark Authority, which runs the stadium, had any idea of the conflict until a few months ago when the league was reviewing the terms of a possible lease extension.

The ballpark authority board approved a resolution July 11 acknowledging that the right of first refusal was in conflict with league ownership rules.

The Twins’ lease isn’t up for 15 years, but the team agreed to extend it until at least 2059 in exchange for about $10 million annually from taxpayers to help keep the stadium in top shape.

Hennepin County leaders included that money in a proposal to the Legislature to keep the 0.15% sales tax, which raises about $54 million a year, in place after the stadium debt is paid off. About $40 million of the annual future proceeds would be used for health care infrastructure improvements at HCMC.

There was bipartisan support for the proposal, but state lawmakers couldn’t reach an agreement this year. County officials are considering whether to make a new request to convert the sales tax in 2025.

They have to act fast. The bonds that funded the construction of Target Field are almost paid off and once the debt is repaid the tax will expire.