A vote to dissolve the Minnesota Twins franchise could come as early as Tuesday when Major League Baseball owners meet in Chicago. Owners are reportedly considering folding the Twins along with the Montreal Expos. But some in the Twin Cities are promising a fight. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission says the team has a binding agreement to play at the Metrodome next season. And Gov. Jesse Ventura, a critic of public subsidies for sports teams, says he's support gambling revenues to pay for a new stadium.

	"There is no buyout, there is no escape clause," said Bill Lester, executive director of the commission. "We will fight (a breaking of the lease) to the extent of our authority." (MPR Photo/Michael Khoo)

In a unanimous vote, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission passed a resolution asking Major League Baseball to cease any further consideration of contraction - another term for eliminating one or more teams from the league.

The resolution also calls on the commission to examine legal avenues for preventing the Twin's dissolution.

Executive Director Bill Lester says in late September, the Twins extended their lease at the Metrodome another year, and he says the document is a binding agreement with no buy-out clause. He says the commission, which owns and operates the Metrodome, will use all its leverage to enforce the lease. Moreover, he says, contraction will do nothing to level the playing field between well-funded major-market teams and their poorer, small-market cousins.

"It's also, I believe, inimicable to the best interests of baseball since it does not address the lack of competitive balance that exists. If you want to compare, they should contract the New York Yankees. And then we'll get closer to a competitive balance," Lester said.

Twins officials and team owner Carl Pohlad were unavaible for comment, but Lester says he doesn't think a contraction vote is a foregone conclusion, despite newspaper accounts that claim enough team owners are ready to support the move.

	Kathryn R. Roberts, chairwoman of the commission, discounted the notion that the Twins could negotiate the last year of the lease. "There's no way to pay off the citizens for next year's season," she said. (MPR Photo/Michael Khoo)

If the vote is postponed, it could buy Minnesota policy-makers crucial time to reconsider the stadium question. Gov. Ventura has long opposed the use of public funds to subsidize a new ballpark. He says he'd only consider it if a new revenue source could be tapped.

Speaking on KSTP Radio, he suggested legalizing sports betting and running a booking office at the Mall of America. "Just tax it pretty substantially. I mean, we're going to want to get our hooks into it pretty good because stadiums are expensive. But that way you're getting sports gamblers, which I've heard it's already a $2 billion industry here in this state. You're bringing it above board, and you're getting them to put into the system," Ventura said.

Such a move would likely meet stiff resistance at the Legislature. Earlier this year, a bill to legalize sports betting attracted little support. But Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission Chair Kathryn Roberts says there are other potential solutions.

Separate ballpark bills made steady headway in the House and Senate during the last session, but were lost in end-of-session budget battles. Roberts says she thinks the threat of contraction only complicates efforts.

"It's crushing. And I think it's why we're saying, really, it has to stop. You need to take the discussion off the table and let Minnesota come to a fair solution," she said.

The commission has been holding statewide town forums over the last year to gauge public attitudes to a stadium. Members have endorsed a new open-air ballpark for the Twins, providing at least half of the financing comes from private sources. They say they'll investigate options to present to the Legislature next year.

But recent polls show Twin Cities residents aren't much more eager to contribute public funds to a ballpark initiative since Minneapolis and St. Paul residents rejected the idea in separate referendums.