-Location: Outside current MWL footprint which would make travel a nightmare for a St. Paul team as well as the teams that have to travel there. All but one Eastern Division locations are outside the 500 mile distance at which players must be given an off day after traveling that distance. That said, Bowling Green KY is similarly outside the MWL footprint and the schedulers have found a way to make it work.

- Since all existing MWL locations are guaranteed the right to stay in the league and get affiliates, provided they remain financially viable and can meet facility standards, the only way St. Paul would get a MWL team would be if an existing franchise moved there or sold to someone who would move there. The teams with lowest attendance (Beloit and Burlington) might be logical sellers except that they are community owned and even with low attendance have been able to make ends meet. The Peoria franchise is the only one I’ve heard that might be a possibility for a sale at some point and even that doesn’t seem all that likely.

- I think the idea of a MWL team and the independent Saints sharing a stadium is highly unlikely. The comparative costs of running a Class A team and and Independent team (and thus the comparative ticket/concession prices) are very different. I don’t see how both would be successful long term (or even short term, really).

-Unless the Twins actually own all or at least a part of a St. Paul Class A team, they would be risking the possibility that, in the future, the team’s owners would decide not to affiliate with the Twins. The result is the possibility that the Twins would share the Twin Cities market with a minor league affiliate of another MLB team some day.

I still see it as unlikely St. Paul gets a MWL franchise, but it’s not impossible. With the St. Paul mayor mentioning it in a manner that indicates it has at least been discussed, the Twins will have to convince the owners of any other MWL city that they have no such plans. In other words, Coleman made the Twins lives a bit more complicated by opening his mouth on the radio.