Billionaire abandons pursuit of Twins, instead will increase share in other team

Billionaire Justin Ishbia is no longer interested in purchasing the Twins from the Pohlad family, reports Jon Greenberg of The Athletic .

Ishbia instead intends to purchase a greater minority share of the White Sox, Greenberg writes.

Kurt Badenhousen and Eben Novy-Williams at Sportico reported last month that the Ishbias had purchased a small share of the White Sox back in 2021.

In the short term, the biggest significance is that its a major setback in the Twins sale process.

The Pohlad family announced in October that they were looking to sell the Minnesota franchise, which theyve owned for four decades.

The Athletics Dan Hayes reported in early January that the Pohlads had received robust interest and were hoping to have the sale finalized by Opening Day.

There were reportedly multiple interested parties, but the Ishbias seemed the early front-runners.

Mat and Justin Ishbia co-own the Phoenix franchises in the NBA and WNBA.

While Mat Ishbia is the majority owner of the basketball teams, Justin Ishbia would have been the control person had they purchased the Twins.

Its unclear how far down the road the Pohlads got in negotiations, but theyll now need to turn their attention elsewhere.

Over the longer haul, this is also a potentially seismic development for the White Sox.

Greenberg writes that some people familiar with the situation believe this will be a stepping stone to Justin Ishbia eventually assuming majority control of the franchise from Jerry Reinsdorf.

White Sox VP of communications Scott Reifert pushed back against that notion.

White Sox limited partners have received an offer from a third party to purchase their shares in the team, providing liquidity for the limited partners on their long-term investment in the club, he told Greenberg.

This offer to limited partners has no impact on the leadership or operations of the Chicago White Sox and does not provide a path to control.

Reinsdorf, who turns 89 next week, has owned the White Sox since 1981.

He has owned the NBAs Bulls since the mid-'80s.

For more than a decade, Reinsdorf has maintained that his family should sell the White Sox after his death.

He reportedly had conversations with a Dave Stewart-led group about a sale last October.

Its not clear whether those talks made progress, though Stewart joined the As in a special assistant role last month.

That process also involved some speculation about relocation.

The Soxs lease at Rate Field runs through 2029.

Reinsdorf lobbied for a reported $1 billion in public funding for a new stadium in Chicagos South Loop last year.

As of last October , the White Sox were continuing to pursue the South Loop project.

This article first appeared on MLB Trade Rumors and was syndicated with permission..

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