Minnesota has had some strange experiences with owners and potential owners of its professional sports franchises over the years.
The names Tom Clancy, Donald Watkins and Socrates "Socco" Babacas come to mind. To varying degrees, those three and others have had little or no business bidding for professional sports teams. And although he had the financial means to own the Vikings, Red "Purple Pride" McCombs really didn't seem very interested in investing in the franchise or the community.
With our checkered past, it was refreshing to see Craig Leipold emerge last week as the new majority owner of the Minnesota Wild. All indications are that Leipold has the resources, passion and credentials you want to see in the owner of an important community asset.
The native of Racine, Wis., also hit all the right notes in his first meeting with the news media:
• On stability: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And this ain't broke."
• On the Twin Cities: "I will be part of the community. Please don't consider me an outsider."
• On winning: "... I'm committed to winning the Stanley Cup."
Leipold has operated several businesses outside of sports, and he built a solid reputation in the National Hockey League as owner of the Nashville Predators. He's also married to the heir to the S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. fortune, Helen Johnson-Leipold, whose net worth has been estimated at $2.2 billion by Forbes. (Given those Windex connections, the boards at Xcel should be spotless.)
