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Carl Pohlad, 1915-2009

Posted at 4:08 PM on January 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (15 Comments)
Filed under: Icons, Sports

Carl Pohlad, the owner of the Minnesota Twins, has died, Twins officials said today.

Pohlad became a lightning rod for controversy while trying -- and eventually succeeding -- to get taxpayers to pay for a new baseball stadium. He died a year before Target Field opens.

While Pohlad is best-known for his ownership of the Twins, he built his wealth through a diverse set of investments including Marquette Bank (which he sold to Wells Fargo for $1 billion). As president, he bought up 30 other banks before selling it to FirstBank (now USBank). He also owns or has owned a Pepsi bottling operation, United Properties, and Mesaba Airlines. He also owned Twin City Rapid Transit, the streetcar and bus service of St. Paul, which was acquired by Metro Transit in 1970.

According to Forbes Magazine, Pohlad was the ~~78th~~ 102nd richest man in America, and the 245th richest man in the world. His net worth was estimated at $3.6 billion. He ranked as the third-wealthiest Minnesotan, trailing Whitney MacMillan and Cargill MacMillan Jr.

"I had no experience dealing with reporters, especially sports reporters," he told MPR's Mark Zdechlik in 2001 on the subject of criticism of Pohlad during his bid to get public financing for a new stadium. "I don't want to see the Twin Cities without a baseball team and I've proven I want to keep them here." Find the old interview here.

But the public never warmed to a Pohlad image of baseball savior. He served on the committee that voted to eliminate -- "contract" it was called at the time -- the Twins during the height of public debate over public financing of the Twins stadium at the Capitol. Eventually, lawmakers voted to tax Hennepin County residents for the stadium.

Pohlad contributed a fraction of the cost, calling it "fair and substantial". One of his last public appearances was the groundbreaking for the new stadium in 2007. Pohlad was also the richest owner in baseball.

Businessman Irwin Jacobs, a close friend of Pohlad's, said "when Carl was hurting, he didn't want anyone else to know his pain. When someone else was hurting, he wanted to know your pain." He said Pohlad "lost a literal fortune keeping the Twins here. I told him, 'Carl, get out of it, if people don't appreciate it, move on.' and he didn't and if it was me, I'd have done it. I wouldn't have put up with it." ( Listen to entire interview)

Pohlad came from a poor upbringing. He was one of eight children during the Depression years in Valley Junction, Iowa. He served in World War II in the U.S. infantry, before returning to Iowa and starting a career in banking.

"Carl never lost sight of the fact of his roots and where he came from, "Jacobs said. "How many people are losing their fortunes today because they'd forgotten where they'd come from. He always evaluated risk."

Pohlad was the finance director for Hubert Humphrey's last Senate campaign, but his politics was hard to pin down. In the latest election cycle, for example, Pohlad contributed to Barack Obama's presidential campaign and Norm Coleman's re-election campaign for Senate. He also financial supported DFLers Amy Klobuchar, Patty Wetterling, and Jim Oberestar and also Republicans Gil Gutknecht, Rod Grams, and George Bush.

His wife, Eloise, died in 2003. The couple had three children. They released a statement on their father's death this afternoon:

Carl was the leader of our family as well as the founder and leader of our family businesses. We've loved and respected him and are enormously proud of his accomplishments. And we will all miss him deeply.

We greatly appreciate the support and prayers of our friends, colleagues and the community. We especially appreciate the support of our employees throughout the Pohlad family of companies at this difficult time. We want to assure everyone that we will continue Dad's work and his legacy - just as he would have wanted and as he has prepared us to do.

On his last visit with Pohlad last week, Jacobs said Pohlad told him he was going to do "one more deal after the first of the year." He said there was no deal; he just loved the excitement of the possibility, Jacobs said. "I hope this community appreciates what Carl has done . They're such good people and they give so much. I just hope they treat the boys in the way they should be treated. This community should cherish the history of Carl Pohlad here," Jacobs said.

Comments (15)

Let's all contact our representatives to ask them to fund his funeral. Apparently the poor guy was particularly hard up.

Posted by Al | January 5, 2009 5:05 PM

That kind of wealth coupled with that kind of hands out for taxpayer dollars makes me nauseous. There is no way anyone can convince me that having pro sports in a town pays off in any way or offsets the costs. That the 20 year old Metrodome needs to be "torn down" to keep a team (winning or not) is such a waste of resources. When are teams going to "go green" - and I'm not talking about their salaries!

Posted by Carolynn | January 5, 2009 5:58 PM

Some people might not appreciate Pohlad but he did keep the Twins here, he did pay more than many other owners for his ball park and he was a very smart man. He sold his bank and then restarted it with the same name and did it big again. One of the reasons his companies grew so well is that he did not pull out all the money for a salary for himself, but reinvested in the Enterprise.

Take a look at his foundation page and you will see he gave a lot to the community without saying how much he gave.

http://www.pohladfamilygiving.org/default.aspx

Let salute him for has ability to build strong valuable organizations and not worry about how much money he made. Look where he started.

Posted by bigalmn | January 5, 2009 6:10 PM

It's a good thing he gave so much back since so much of it was ours to begin with.

Posted by Al | January 5, 2009 6:27 PM

Wasn't he responsible for completely decimating our public transportation system in the 50's? He got rid of all the trolleys and buried all the tracks (well the gov. had a hand as the tracks weren't being used anymore). There was some sort of a deal with GM, bring in their pollution laden buses.

Posted by Chuck | January 5, 2009 11:28 PM

Why did he make money?
We put money in his bank
We drank his Pepsi
We got our hair cut in his salons
We rented buildings from him

Sounds like to me he earned his money

Posted by bigalmn | January 6, 2009 12:28 AM

Yeah, he made a lot of his money through his businesses. Good for him. Of course there was also the money he 'earned' by going to the legislature and the governor and taking it from the taxpayer to pay for his stadium under threat of moving the team.

Posted by Al | January 6, 2009 4:46 AM

Nothing like a rich guy talking about how "great" another rich guy was. What a joke. Any regular people think Carl Pohlad was great?

Posted by Jason | January 6, 2009 7:37 AM

"Sounds like to me he earned his money"

Until it came time for a new ballpark, at which point he was quite willing to suck off the government teat. Sure, you can call it a shrewd business move. But as a Hennepin County taxpayer, I'm wondering if he left me anything in his will.

Posted by bsimon | January 6, 2009 9:17 AM

It's nice that Pohlad established a nonprofit foundation, but I think that's the least we should expect of anyone who has made the kind of money off of the community that he did.

I also think he should have been pilloried for not ante-ing up on the cost of the new Twins stadium. Leaving it up to our gutless legislature to enable the taxing of Hennepin County residents to finance most of the cost was truly shameful.

Posted by Bob | January 6, 2009 11:26 AM

What makes you think I am a rich guy. I am not any richer than anyone else. I just have respect for someone who earned his money. Yes, it is too bad he did not pay for the entire stadium, I don't like how it was financed either. I don't like the extra tax. It is a choice that was made to keep the team in Minnesota.

If we don't like the people who voted for it then it is our job to vote them out of office.

Posted by bigalmn | January 6, 2009 11:51 AM

Big Al, I was talking about Irwin Jacobs, who was quoted in the post.

Posted by Jason | January 6, 2009 11:59 AM

"If we don't like the people who voted for it then it is our job to vote them out of office."

Beautiful idea. Problem is, the people who voted for the tax don't live in the tax district - Hennepin county. I live in Hennepin county & thus don't get to register my disgust with the legislators that slammed the tax down my throat. Some would call this the tyranny of the majority.

Posted by bsimon | January 6, 2009 1:09 PM

Good heavens. All this time, I've been assuming that Big Al was a Bi Gal.

Posted by Chris | January 6, 2009 1:16 PM

bsimon - you do have the option to vote out the commissioners who voted for the stadium. Even if the legislature authorized the commissioners still needed to approve it.

I don't get that chance at all because I don't live in Hennepin County, but unfortunately I still end up having to buy a lot of stuff there and pay the tax.

Posted by bigalmn | January 6, 2009 1:36 PM

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