There are “heavy hitters” in Sioux Falls who are “chomping at the bit” and “would move Heaven and Earth” to bring the Minnesota Twins Triple-A club this growing city, including billionaire T. Denny Sanford.
That is what “Twins folks” are telling 20-year Twins beat reporter LaVelle E. Neal III, he confirmed in a Friday interview with FOX Sports 98.1’s “Sports Talk with Craig & John.”
In back-back weeks, respected, credible, plugged-in Minneapolis Star Tribune sportswriters have mentioned the possibility of Sioux Falls eventually landing the AAA club. Last week, 52-year Twin Cities scribe Patrick Reusse tweeted, “Don’t be surprised if the Twins’ Class AAA team ends up in Sioux Falls, which is planning new ballpark.”
Friday, Neal wrote “Sioux Falls, S.D., is hungry for baseball, but would need time to build a suitable stadium” before appearing on KWSN.
Reusse wouldn’t elaborate much beyond two tweets and did not respond to FOX Sports 98.1 KWSN’s request to join “Sports Talk with Craig & John.” Although, Reusse did retweet this article about his remarks and how an idea about Twins AAA baseball in Sioux Falls could turn into a reality.
Neal slipped his passage in an entire Star Tribune article about the possibility and hurdles of St. Paul taking over the Twins AAA operation. A backyard minor league operation would make for the fastest and cheapest way to call players up and down to the big league, and Minnesota’s capital city already has sparkling, 5-year-old, 7,500-seat downtown CHS Field built for $65 million that attracts overflow crowds — the largest in the American Association, the independent league which the Sioux Falls Canaries play.
By the way, Class AAA stadiums are required to seat at least 10,000, but there have been exceptions, O’Neal writes, and the Saints probably would be able to get a waiver.
A new stadium would likely cost at least $70 million and the price to bring a Triple-A franchise to a city is $20 million.
Perhaps Reusse and Neal know something we don’t know about both St. Paul and Sioux Falls possibilites.
While we do know we can expect the bulldozing of Sioux Falls Stadium within the next five years, there is no official plan for a Triple-A sized baseball stadium to be built in the growing city, nor of a way to fund it.
Sanford, the PREMIER Bank Card magnate and philanthropist, is worth over $2 billion (the same net worth as Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt) and has contributed heavily to sports projects in the region, including $6 million for the Gophers’ TCF Bank football stadium in Minneapolis.
Sanford Health, a regional health care system named after Sanford, confirmed last week to FOX Sports 98.1 KWSN it still has a baseball “park” penciled into its master plan for the Sanford Sports Complex off I-29 and Benson Road, which also houses the Sanford Pentagon and other sports and entertainment venues.
Sanford Health is also a corporate sponsor of the Minnesota Twins, with commercials airing during Twins broadcasts and the logo appearing both in Target Field and behind home plate on those broadcasts (among a rotation of other sponsors).
What would happen to the Saints or Canaries if the Twins moved their AAA operation from Rochester, New York? Another good question Neal addressed in his article and we addressed in the linked story below:
Take a listen to some of Neal’s answers, including which of the two Triple-A leagues a St. Paul or Sioux Falls team would play.
