If he were to agree to have the Saints affiliate with the Twins, he would lose control of the product on the field (the Twins would decide who his players, manager and coaches will be) and, unlike other affiliated teams, if he ended up at odds with the Twins over the quality of the product on the field, the territorial rights issue would likely preclude him from electing not to renew his PDC with the Twins in favor of another MLB team. He’d have no leverage at all, really. On the other hand maybe attendance would be better, tho even that is no sure thing if the talent isn’t competitive in any given season. Add to that your point about having to add games in the poorly attended spring months and you can see why he might not be at all interested in an affiliation.

But if others hinting of the possibility maybe perhaps some day in the future being a Twins affiliate helped get a little extra support for the new stadium, sure, saying “maybe” doesn’t hurt, right? After all, MLB and MiLB will need to work out a new master working agreement by 2020, I believe, so who knows what the rules may be 8 years from now?

Related to this, I interviewed Mike Veeck earlier this year and specifically asked him about the possibility of becoming involved with a class A affiliate of the Twins in St. Paul and he said he had little interest, primarily based on the difficulties of drawing fans in April and May. My guess is the Saints would need to see real spring attendance boosts in the new ballpark before participating in an affiliation scheme. Veeck also seems to like operating the Goldklang group’s Charleston affiliate well out of the eye of its patron New York Yankees. I think the idea of doing business under the Twins noses and being accountable to them may be too tight a leash for Veeck.