When you look at how professional sports has managed to navigate through 2020, the reality is that 2021 may be just as screwed up as 2020. The other thing is that if the pro sports scene tends to tread towards a more normal pattern and schedule as 2021 goes on, there still will be ripple effects to remind us that we will not quite be through the woods yet.
Being a fan of Minnesota sports teams, there was always those "normal" worries about my teams as they are classified as small market teams in the world of professional sports. Despite Minnesota being declared a small market, it still draws an interest from all major professional sport leagues, including Major League Soccer being the most recent to come join the market. The Minnesota United FC, also known as the Loons, is the most recent major pro sport team to base their operations out of St. Paul. Let's take a look at some of the other major pro sports franchises and see what the future holds, in my opinion.
The Minnesota Twins - Despite being a fan and supporter of all our Minnesota professional sports teams, baseball is my favorite. I love watching baseball outdoors in the summer. It is peaceful for me. The other thing I like about baseball is that there are more games in their season, which doesn't place as high of stakes on each game, like NFL games do. The Minnesota Twins have had the reputation for decades of putting teams together on the cheap. As a Minnesota Twins fan, we always knew there were certain star players that the Twins wouldn't be able to afford. Carl Pohlad was the owner for many years and was worth billions of dollars, but wouldn't ever really commit to opening the wallet. Major League Baseball is unbalanced when it comes to salaries and payrolls. Major League Baseball has a players association and has worked itself into a situation where there is no salary cap. For the players, this is obviously great for them. So with no salary cap, teams that are willing to spend, can spend what they want. If their payroll goes over a certain amount, then the team has to pay a luxury tax. Some teams are more than willing to pay that luxury tax without much thought because of their various revenues. As Carl Pohlad became older, he handed over the ownership to the next generation in the family, and they have been more willing to spend a bit more to be competitive again. Now, there seems to still be some players that are out of the Minnesota Twins league when it comes to paying the big contract, but they are getting closer. The Minnesota Twins also are one of the best teams to develop their minor league farm system and develop their young talent into star players. It just gets frustrating when oftentimes those players end up leaving for a bigger market that is willing to pay top dollar when the player is just hitting their prime. As far as the 2020 season goes, the Twins had another successful season as they won the division. The talent is there, but they still need to address their starting pitching rotation. The challenge will be, however, that there is strong belief that the teams will be spending less on player salaries next season as revenues were down. The 2020 season featured a 60 game regular season instead of the traditional 162 game season. In the early summer, it was looking more and more like the players association and Major League Baseball were going to be unable to come to an agreement to even have a season, so we were lucky to get a 60 game season. Less televised games and no fans in the stands for the entire season will also contribute to a different offseason and probably less free agents being signed to fat contracts.
The Minnesota Vikings - The NFL was probably the professional sports league that was in the best shape as far as timing goes when it comes to COVID-19. The Super Bowl had just wrapped up in early February and it wasn't until March 11th when the world changed because of the deadly disease. So, the NFL and the Minnesota Vikings had time to figure things out. The held the NFL Draft a in May instead of April and they did it virtually. Of course, one of the concerns with the NFL is that it is more of contact sport than baseball and those created some pretty big worries. In fact, all NFL players had the option to "opt out" of the 2020 season if they felt playing football was too risky and a safety concern with the pandemic. The Vikings had signed Offensive Lineman Michael Pierce to bulk up their offensive line, and he was a player that chose to opt out. The NFL chose to eliminate the preseason for 2020 to reduce the player risk of contracting COVID and players weren't in favor of playing preseason games either as it was threatening their professional lives by possibly contracting the virus during non-regular season games. After all, it is the statistics of the regular season games that dictates the amount offered in their future contracts. The problem for the Minnesota Vikings is that they were cash strapped prior to COVID-19 because there is a salary cap in the NFL. With Kirk Cousins being offered guaranteed money with his big contract, the Vikings are handcuffed if Kirk Cousins doesn't meet expectations, and right now Kirk Cousins is not meeting expectations with being tied for first in the league with the most interceptions thrown so far this season. So now the problem for the Vikings keeps getting worse. The Vikings lost a certain number of big names on defense due to affordability issues. A significant number of guys they were able to afford and keep around, suffered injuries and missed time. The Vikings depended on the NFL draft to fill the void at the cornerback position, and that is fine as they drafted some promising players. The problem is, usually at that position it takes players a season or longer to understand the speed of the NFL game and opposing quarterbacks are able to usually see that pretty easily in game film. Now, Danielle Hunter plays defensive end for the Vikings and suffered a season ending neck injury during training camp. As the Vikings saw the promise in Danielle Hunter a few years ago, they chose to secure him in a long term contract early on. Danielle Hunter is currently making 14.5 million dollars this season and he isn't playing a single snap of football this year. This past week, he stated he was unhappy with his salary and is expecting the Minnesota Vikings to give him a new deal, or he will demand a trade. The timing of this statement is interesting as he still has like three years left on his contract. Kind of a gutsy choice if you ask me. As the country is facing a 12 or 13 percent unemployment rate, I think I would be more than happy with over 14 million dollars per season. He probably will still be able to buy the name brand canned goods at the grocery store. Again, the NFL is looking at lowering the salary cap for the 2021 season as revenues have been down as most seats have sat empty so far this season.
The Minnesota Timberwolves - The Timberwolves fans are still hanging onto the memories of the 2004 season when Kevin Garnett, Sam, Cassell, and Latrell Sprewell led the team to the Western Conference Finals, which is the round before the NBA Finals for the NBA Championship. It is 2020 and the Timberwolves are still trying to figure out the right combination to be truly competitive again and to once again, feel that magic of being a dominant team. There is no reason that Minnesota Timberwolves fans should be hanging onto a 2004 non-championship run in the playoffs. That is just simply unacceptable and it further supports that reputation that the Minnesota NBA market is fly over country and players don't want to play here. It gets colder than hell in Minnesota in the winter, and that also sometimes plays a factor when a player is considering playing in Minnesota. The Timberwolves finally were able to trade away the max NBA contract of Andrew Wiggins, which helps the Timberwolves with their salary cap. Yes, the NBA has a salary cap as well. They also recently won the NBA Draft Lottery and will get the first overall pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. There is no concrete guaranteed number one draft pick player sitting there for the Timberwolves to select, and they have stated that they are interested in trading that number one pick for an impact player to support their "win now" mentality. Glen Taylor has owned the Minnesota Timberwolves for the past couple of decades, and while it easy to make negative quick judgements about Glen Taylor because of the lack of success by the Timberwolves, Glen also is owner of the Minnesota Lynx WNBA team, and they have won multiple championships in the past decade. There has not been any word as far as the salary cap being lowered for next season due to COVID-19, but the latest is that the NBA is looking at starting the 20-21 season the week before Christmas and have a 72 game regular season, which is 10 games less than the traditional 82 game season. Again, there is a concern as basketball is more of a contact sport than compared to baseball. The 2020 NBA Finals just wrapped up about two weeks ago. So, some players haven't played in an NBA games since March 11th, and other teams played as recently as two weeks ago. We just need to hope that one of these years will be the magic that the Timberwolves are looking for. Glen Taylor has also decided to sell the Minnesota Timberwolves with a written agreement in the sale that the new ownership can't move the team from Minneapolis. It would be fun to see the Timberwolves be great again in a time when it is needed.
The Minnesota Wild - I remember back on July 4th, 2012 when the Minnesota Wild made a splash in the sports world by signing both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. They were the two most desirable free agents in that offseason, and they both agreed to take less money and have the same contracts to go to the same team and win. After those free agent signings, many sports writers were predicting the Wild to go to the NHL Finals that season. It didn't work out. So, the Wild were also becoming cash strapped, as they also have a salary cap, and their revenues were usually less than those other sports leagues. Hockey is a great sport, and I love playoff hockey especially, but it is more of a regional sport than a nationwide love of the sport. The Wild have already traded a couple of players in this offeseason, and more moves look likely as the Wild appear to be heading towards a rebuilding mode. A mode that fans hate to see because it can last a long time. The fact of the matter is that the salary cap will probably be reduced because of COVID-19, just like the rest of the sports leagues. The Wild need to find a way to unload those big Zach Parise and Ryan Suter contracts. Being hancuffed to those contracts is what is causing the Wild Fans to feel some hopelessness. They are drafted and molding so really good young talent, but a locker room still needs veteran players.
That is my take on our pro sports teams.
Be Kind To Everyone
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