On November 6, 2001, the owners of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) voted 28–2 to eliminate two teams for the 2002 season. The two teams expected to be eliminated, the Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos, cast the dissenting votes. According to Commissioner Bud Selig, the decision was made due to economic reasons, as "the teams to be contracted [had] a long record of failing to generate enough revenues to operate a viable major league franchise." Also factoring into the contraction plan was the two teams' inability to fund the construction of new ballparks to replace the outdated Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and Olympic Stadium.
The contraction plan fell through due to a court injunction compelling the Twins to honor their lease with the Metrodome, as well as challenges by the players' labor union, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). The Expos were later purchased by Major League Baseball. The Twins would eventually secure funding for a new stadium that opened in 2010, while the Expos relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2005 and were re-branded the Washington Nationals, later being purchased by Ted Lerner and moving to a new stadium of their own.
If the plan had gone through, it would have been the first contraction by a major North American professional sports league since the National Hockey League merged the Cleveland Barons into the Minnesota North Stars in 1978, and the first contraction by Major League Baseball since 1899.
Background
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins began playing at the Metrodome in the 1982 season after playing for 21 seasons at Metropolitan Stadium. During their tenure at the Metrodome, the Twins won the World Series in and . Nevertheless, the multipurpose stadium, which the Twins shared with the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League, had poor sightlines when the field was set for baseball, and the Twins received no revenue from signage, luxury suites, or parking. Additionally, the white, air-supported roof not only caused many fielders to have trouble tracking fly balls, but it also deflated due to heavy snow on numerous occasions.
By the start of the 1990s, the Metrodome was already considered obsolete. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the Twins were often rumored to be moving to such places as Sacramento, California; Orlando, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; and others in search of a more financially competitive market. In 1997, the team came close to an agreement to move to North Carolina, but the deal was not completed.
There was also some speculation that Selig targeted the Twins because of his family's ownership of the Milwaukee Brewers, the next closest team to the Twin Cities, and which was set to potentially gain the Twins' market should the team be dissolved.
Montreal Expos
Olympic Stadium was originally constructed as a multipurpose venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics, which Montreal hosted. The Montreal Expos began playing full-time at the stadium in the 1977 season, one year after the stadium's opening and the team's ninth year of play. Although the new stadium was an upgrade from Jarry Park Stadium, Olympic Stadium was still fraught with problems. A retractable roof that was scheduled to be finished when the Expos moved in was not finished until 1987, and began to leak within only a few years. In 1991, support beams collapsed and a 55-ton slab of concrete crashed onto a walkway outside the stadium, forcing the Expos to play their final 13 home games that year on the road.
The stadium's poor conditions contributed to low attendance in Montreal. Throughout the 1990s, the Expos ranked near the bottom in the NL for attendance, including ranking last in each of their final seven seasons in Montreal. Owner Jeffrey Loria was unable to reach an agreement for television and English-speaking radio coverage to increase the team's broadcasting revenue, and his proposal for a new downtown ballpark was rebuffed by the Quebec government.