Twins suitor Watkins to meet with Minneapolis officials today

[Baseball Guru]

Associated Press

Published Feb 6, 2002
Twins suitor Donald Watkins will meet with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak today to talk about the city's preferred site for a new stadium.

Watkins signed a confidentiality agreement with the Twins as he moves forward with his attempt to purchase the team. The Alabama businessman said he wants to keep the Twins in Minnesota and build a new stadium without public funds.

Watkins would be major league's first black owner.

Watkins, Rybak and City Council President Paul Ostrow are to speak with the media this afternoon from the preferred stadium site. The Rapid Park lot is located just south of Fifth St. N. and Third Ave. N., in downtown Minneapolis.

[>TC<]

I don't know that there is a lot of confidence around here concerning Watkins ability to buy this team. People are starting to think that maybe he's just a phony operator who is getting peoples hopes up. It's all well and good that he wants to keep his wealth a private issue but no one has been able to confirm, even people who he regularly deals with, how his wealth could go from $300 mil in 1995 to $1.5 billion in 2002. He isn't listed in Forbes in the list of the 400 wealthiest individuals because they haven't been able to confirm his net worth. He has come from out of the blue but as an article I recently read states, he would be the wealthiest black in the United States if he really has that $1.5 billion. Right now the Wealthiest has $1.3 bil. Odd that someone with this kind of money would be off the radar screen.

One other bad sign is Carl Pohlad himself. Don't ever kid yourself, Carl may be old but he is sharp as a tack when it comes to money, and expecially when he might make some. When asked about the meeting last week with Watkins, he said his meeting with Donald "what's his name" went okay. If Watkins had that kind of money in front of Carl, don't think he wouldn't remember his name.

I hope I'm wrong but ....

TC

[Nanner]

You know, when I was home in Richfield for Christmas, Mom and I were sitting watching the news, and I think Watkins had made one of his first visits to the Twin Cities, and Mom was looking at him and said, "Well, I don't know... we don't really trust him. Who knows anything about him? We don't know if he's got all that money."

It's great to think that this actually could happen, and I hope it does, but.... that's some interesting stuff you have there, TC...

Wasn't there someone who came along a few years ago, (before Red McCombs) saying he was going to buy the Vikings and he turned out not to be what he said he was? :confused: Am I remembering correctly?:confused:

[>TC<]

Yeah, it was the novelist Tom Clancy. Came in here and said he was buying the team for cash. They even had the press conference and everything, then the deal fell through.

Rush