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Deal spares Twins through 2003
Jun. 6- The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission has approved a settlement with the Minnesota Twins and Major League Baseball that ensures the team will play the 2003 season. The settlement completes a seven-month legal battle between the commission and Major League Baseball which started when the league announced that it wanted to eliminate two teams. Read

Does it matter?
May 3 - Is there really a connection between a new baseball stadium and a winning team? Not in Milwaukee, apparently. Last year, the Brewers drew big crowds at their new $400 million stadium, but attendance is down 28 percent this year. MPR Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer talks with Don Walker, who covers the business of sports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Listen

Lease settlement saves Twins... for now
June 6 — The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission has approved a settlement with the Minnesota Twins and Major League Baseball that ensures the team will play the 2003 season.
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Legislature passes stadium bill
May 19 — In the last hours of the 2002 session, legislators pass a bill to authorize bonds for a new stadium for the Twins.
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Stadium bill unravels
Apr. 5 — The stadium bill that has advanced as farther than any previous attempt to build a new stadium for the Minnesota Twins, is losing its luster.
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House committee hands Twins, Ventura a stadium win
Mar. 20 — The Minnesota Twins are celebrating a House committee's approval of new ballpark legislation.
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Ballpark bills still alive
Mar. 8 — A plan to fund a new Twins ballpark, and possible a Vikings stadium, is on its way to the full Senate for consideration.
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Things begin to look up for Twins
Feb. 7 — Alabama businessman Donald Watkins was in Minneapolis to assess potential ballpark sites.
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Baseball gives up contraction fight
Feb. 5 — Faced with a string of legal losses, baseball commissioner Bud Selig finally decided Tuesday that the sport won't try to eliminate teams this year and postponed it until 2003.
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Court refuses to hear Twins case
Feb. 4 — The Minnesota Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal of an injunction that forces the Minnesota Twins to fulfill their Metrodome lease, all but ending the chance Major League Baseball can carry out contraction this season.
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Too good to be true?
Jan. 31 — Doubts surface about Donald Watkins' ability to buy the Twins, or build a stadium.
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Task force ends work with two-stadium recommendation
Jan. 29 — A tripartisan stadium task force has given final approval to a report that calls for two new professional sports stadiums.
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Court order makes contraction unlikely, for now
Jan. 22 — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has upheld an injunction requiring the Twins to play the 2002 season in the Metrodome.
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Panel recommends two stadiums
Jan. 16 — A tripartisan stadium task force is poised to recommend that the governor and the Legislature approve financing proposals this year for two new stadiums. The task force voted to prepare a draft report containing the recommendation and expanded the possible revenue sources to fund the plan. But some members argued the proposal remains too vague and offers policy-makers little guidance.
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Watkins: A knack for confrontation
Jan 12 - Donald Watkins, the man who wants to buy the Minnesota Twins, has a reputation as a man with a knack for confrontation. He's helped run a Richard Daley-style political machine in Birmingham, Alabama and made a fortune in his position as a special counsel for the mayor there. Now he's trying to buy the Twins and solve the stadium problem, but he says he won't use the taxpayer's money Read

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