ST. PAUL, Minn., June 9 -- One day before Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad is scheduled to ask fellow baseball owners to allow him to explore a sale or move of the team, Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson has announced he will call the state Legislature into special session to re- examine a new stadium for team. The failure of the Legislature to approve a financing mechanism for a proposed retractable-dome stadium for the Twins this spring prompted Pohlad to announce last month that he would explore a sale or move of the team.
Team officials are set to attend meetings in Philadelphia this week to seek the blessing of Major League Baseball to do just that. Carlson backed a plan that would have slapped a dime-per-pack increase in the state's cigarette tax to help for the stadium, with the state taking 49 percent ownership of the club in return. Others wanted to use casino gambling proceeds from new state-owned gaming ventures. Both ideas, however, ran into vociferous opposition and died in the 1997 regular session. Polls showed that most Minnesotans were opposed to giving public money to Pohlad. But Carlson said Monday that the issue of a Twins stadium was too important to let languish until next January. Pohlad has said he must decide by October what to do with the team. At a press conference Monday, Carlson said he wants to convene the special session in September, and indicated he still favored the cigarette tax-state ownership plan. A special legislative stadium commission is also working on a proposal, which it hopes to have ready by August. ---
Copyright 1997 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ---
