Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 42

SELLING THE WONGS PAGE C12 STAR TRIBUNE SUNDAY, JUNE 28 1998 The key players A look at the top five bidders for the Vikings Glen Taylor handshake guy J. Bruce Llewellyn The late entry By Jerry Zgoda Star Tribune Staff Writer Carl Pohlad A question mark By Jim Souhan Star Tribune Staff Writer A sports franchise struggling to make a buck is for sale. One of the team's less-palatable options is to move by selling to an out-of-state owner or simply relocating. In swoops a Minnesota-bred billionaire to keep the team from moving. He buys the franchise, installs a new general manager, and the team soars in victories, value and esteem.

That succession of events fits which of these scenarios? Glen Taylor's purchase of the Tim-berwolves a few years ago. What Taylor would be expected to do if he successfully bids for ownership of the Vikings next week. Carl Pohlad 's purchase of the Twins in 1986. The answer, of course, is all of the above. Pohlad once fit the same profile as the ultra-popular Taylor, whose purchase and common-sense operation of the Wolves which included hiring management novice Kevin McHale has made the Wolves one of the fastest-improving teams in pro sports.

When the Twins were threatening to move in 1986, Pohlad bought the team, installed the then-inexperienced Andy MacPhail as general manager, and presided over two intelligently managed World Series winners. Pohlad never has reached the heights of popularity that Taylor has. He's not as glib, accessible, quotable or well-connected politically. The Twins' five consecutive losing seasons and the team's disastrous public-relations campaign to gain support for a publicly funded stadium have made Pohlad a symbol for everything that is wrong with pro sports. Yet Pohlad, according to associates, has considered bidding on the Vikings, and held an all-day meeting with his financial advisors on Friday.

Pohlad could not be reached for comment on his intentions, but associates say Pohlad would hope to accomplish one of three things by buying the Vikings: Improve his public image by presiding over a winning team or by protecting the franchise from out-of-state bidders. Make the Twins and Vikings more profitable by taking over control of the Metrodome from the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission. Increase his leverage the next time he campaigns for a publicly financed stadium by holding power over the state's two longest-tenured pro teams. Then again, no one knows if Pohlad will bid. He held discussions with Taylor about combining to buy the Vikings, but Taylor has decided to make a run at the team himself.

Pohlad never has publicly said he would bid, and he has received advice from proponents and opponents of the move. Those close to him say he often changes his mind. Roger Headrick The anti-hero By Terry Fiedler Star Tribune Staff Writer In the first round of negotiations to buy the Vikings, Roger Headrick came to be regarded as the conniving U-boat commander to author Tom Clancy's heroic all-American captain. The public and the team's co-owners seemed to agree that Headrick, the Vikings' CEO, was trying to seize control of the team on a technicality while working to rob starry-eyed Minneso-tans of a chance for a celebrity owner. Clancy is out of the picture now, but Headrick continues to face resistance from almost every quarter.

So why continue this quest? Very simply, the Vikings have been very, very good to Roger Headrick. They've raised Headrick's profile, provided him with his first opportunity to be the CEO of a business of any real size and contributed mightily to his net worth (his 10 percent share of the team could be worth $20 million in a sale, which probably represents the largest part of his wealth). Unlike the other Vikings suitors, Headrick has spent most of his career working for big companies rather than as an entrepreneur. In 1960, after graduating from Columbia University, the New Jersey native began a series of financial jobs for big oil companies that took him to places such as Tokyo. In 1982, he left his position as deputy controller of Exxon Corp.

for a the job of chief financial officer of Minneapolis-based Pills-bury Co. Pillsbury was independent, then, but that would change in 1989. Pills-bury was taken over by a hostile British suitor, Grand Metropolitan PLC, since renamed Diageo. According to a spokesman for the British company after the takeover, Headrick's responsibilities at Pillsbury were "altered or eliminated, and pursuant to his contract, he decided to take severance pay." Headrick took that severance and went into business with another displaced executive, Bill Farley, who had left First Bank System. They looked for investment opportunities in financial services and traditional manufacturing companies.

The partnership, Headrick Farley, sought other investors to help them acquire companies for $25 million to $150 million. Headrick Farley proved to be a largely uneventful partnership that was dissolved after about a year. Outside of that partnership, Headrick was involved in a small, St. Paul-based bio-tech company called Prota-Tek International. He became CEO in 1989, a year in which the company did just over $1 million in sales.

But Headrick's dream job awaited. His Wayzata neighbor Mike Lynn, a co-owner in the Vikings, recruited Headrick to become CEO, and Headrick took the job in 199 1. He quickly made his mark. Headrick took credit for engineering the buyout of the 50-plus percent stake in the team held by Irwin Jacobs and Carl Pohlad, for about $50 million. The next year, he hired a new coach Dennis Green.

Red McCombs Hands-on owner By Jim Souhan Star Tribune Staff Writer Businessman Red McCombs said he would be a "hands-on" owner if he became the new owner of the Vikings. "I'm an in-the-Iocker-room kind of guy," said the former owner of the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs. "If I had a coach who told me I wasn't welcome in the locker room, well, I'd listen. But then that man might not stay as coach very long." McCombs says this with a light-hearted chuckle. But he's not kidding.

"I've always been invited to be in the middle of things with the teams I've owned," he said. "I wouldn't be interested otherwise." McCombs talked openly about the way he would run the Vikings. He would hire someone to manage the marketing operation, and someone to make football decisions. "Both of them would answer to me," he said. "You could say I'd have two general managers.

In any program I've been involved with, I get my staff together and my players together and indicate that I'm the steward, but the team really belongs to the fans." McCombs, an automobile and broadcasting magnate, never has won a championship, but has revitalized NBA teams with his shrewd marketing strategies. When he hired Larry Brown away from Kansas to coach the Spurs, he made Brown the highest-paid coach in the NBA. "His agent told me, 'This can't be right, you've hung up on me over $5,000 on a McCombs said. "But I knew I needed Larry for credibility, to sell tickets and suites. And in our first year, when we were only winning 20-some games, our sales went through the roof." McCombs promised to keep the Vikings in Minnesota, but said he won't move from San Antonio.

He would rely on his managers and fly in for games and important meetings. McCombs is friends with Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and Jerry Colangelo, owner of the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks. Both have made their marks with flamboyant, free-spending, tradi- tion-bucking styles. McCombs respects them and considers them to be innovative owners. When McCombs was 25, he bought a Class minor league baseball team in Corpus Christi, Texas.

One of his first moves was sending contracts to his valued players. "We had an infielder who lived in Pennsylvania who had made $300 a month the year before and had a good year," McCombs said. "So I sent him a contract for $325. 1 got the contract back and it had been folded and cut into paper dolls. He had written across it, 'I've never met you, Mr.

McCombs, but it is obvious by this contract that you are a comedian, so I hope you enjoy this little "Turned out he had been getting $200 a month under the table. "Welcome to the real world. "The other thing I took from that experience was the time I was vehemently opposed to a league rule that didn't suit me. At one point, one of the older owners pulled me aside and told me that without the league, my franchise was pretty worthless. "I never forgot that." By Jerry Zgoda Star Tribune Staff Writer The billion-dollar fortune, the political career, his ownership of the Timberwolves and possibly the Vikings all have been born from, if you listen to friends of Glen Taylor, the mind of a dreamer.

That and old parts from a car, a heating element from a stove and a television tube. With those pieces of refuse, Taylor three decades ago rebuilt a stamping press and invented a method to save a penny a piece on the printing of wedding napkins. That collection of pennies eight years later would allow Taylor, a Minnesota farm boy, to buy the Mankato printing business that had hired him three days after his high school graduation, only because the owner was going on vacation. From that first business, Taylor has built the Taylor a company with more than 70 operating divisions in 17 states, three Canadian provinces and six countries. It employs 3,300 people in its North Mankato offices alone.

It is the nation's largest printer of wedding invitations and the country's 12th-largest printing company. Now, at 57, Taylor is Minnesota's youngest and, according to some measures, richest billionaire. He lives in Mankato, tends his own lawn and flower garden, and never has moved to a big town because he's already there. "When I was growing up, this was the Big Town," said Taylor, the second of seven children who grew up on a 160-acre farm near Comfrey, 60 miles west of Mankato. He served eight years in the Minnesota Senate, including a stint as minority leader from 1984 to 1986.

In 1990, he walked away from a run at governor when his marriage to his high-school sweetheart, Glenda, dissolved into divorce. Instead, he threw himself into building his businesses. He bought the Timberwolves a side business of sorts in 1994 for $88.5 million after a few days of research, a three-hour meeting with owners Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner, and a handshake. "I've moved in and operated businesses on a handshake," Taylor said. "I'm a handshake guy." Members of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission say Taylor, a father of five, is the fellow they would like to see buy the Vikings, for reasons that include his wealth, his political savvy and his small-town sensibilities.

They also consider him the only likely local buyer committed to keeping the team in Minnesota. "I'm interested for the same reasons we were interested in the Timberwolves," Taylor said. "To have a good team and to keep the team in Minnesota. But it has to make some business sense." Taylor is a mathematician by education he studied mathematics and physics at Mankato State but says he also depends on "gut instinct." That instinct has convinced him to build the Taylor Corp. empire primarily with Mankato State graduates.

Those instincts also convinced him to sign Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett to a $126 million contract last October, days before giving Mankato State an $8 million gift. The instinct also might lead him to buy the Vikings. "Some things just feel right inside," Taylor said. "You have to trust that." Glen Taylor Age: 57 Hometown: Grew in Comfrey, resides in Mankato. Business background: Worked his way up from scrubbing floors and working a hand stamping press at Carlson Wedding Service and turned the wedding-invitation printing company into Taylor a printing and marketing empire with annual revenue estimated at $900 million.

Net worth: Estimates vary, from $1 billion to as much as $2 billion. Why he will buy the Vikings: To keep the team in Minnesota and to make money by consolidating operations between the Vikings and Timberwolves. That could include someday operating both the Target Center and Metrodome. Why he won't buy the Vikings: He won't get into a bidding war. If the current owners care only about getting the most money, McCombs or another out-of-town buyer could, and probably will, offer more.

I iff -tr J. Bruce Llewellyn's path to wealth, the White House and a quest to become the NFL's first black ma jority owner began 29 years ago, when he mortgaged his house and put up his car and his clothes as collateral for a $3 million loan to buy a chain of 10 grocery stores in the south Bronx. It also began with a warning from the lender, who told Llewellyn if his business venture didn't work out, "it's going to hurt you a lot more than me." From those resounding words of confidence, Llewellyn whose scheduled meeting with Vikings owners was postponed after he was hospitalized last week for medical tests has built a business portfolio that includes ownership of the nation's third-largest black-owned business, the Philadelphia Coca-Cola bottling company, and a public life that has included a place in Jimmy Carter's administration and a current spot on a presidential advisory committee for trade policy. It also includes some famous relatives and friends. Retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell is a first cousin.

Llewellyn was one of Powell's advisors who told him not to run for president in 1996. Llewellyn's business partner in buying the Philadelphia botding company was a fellow named Julius Erving, who has credited Llewellyn with elevating him from the "ma-and-pa world" of business to the multimillion-dollar level. Llewellyn also constructed an investor group that included O.J. Simpson in the 1985 purchase of a Buffalo, N.Y., television station, an ABC affiliate that Llewellyn no longer owns. Among Llewellyn's many other friends is entertainer Bill Cosby, who is working to become a minority owner for Cleveland's NFL expansion franchise.

As a child growing up in Harlem, he sold newspapers, magazines, ice cream and read Fortune magazine. He served in the Army, earned an undergraduate degree from City University of New York, an M.BA from Columbia, a public-administration degree from New York University and a law degree from New York Law School. He began his career working in the Manhattan district attorney's office, became a deputy commissioner of housing and, at age 41, broke off on his own, taking out that loan to buy the grocery stores. When he sold the chain in 1983, it had 29 stores and $100 million in revenues. He did so by renovating and reopening stores that had been shut in black neighborhoods.

Llewellyn considered buying the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, among other sports franchises, but told Newsday in 1996, "I've basically said the hell with it because each year it gets crazier and player strikes and everything. "The prices are going out of sight. Individuals cannot buy sports teams anymore, unless you're Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The old days of individual owners paying $10 million and then turning around and selling for $100 million are over." J. Bruce Llewellyn Age: 70 Hometown: Grew up in New York City; lives in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

Business background: A lawyer with diverse interests, Llewellyn has owned a chain of grocery stores, various media companies and a Coca-Cola bottling company, and worked in the public sector, including serving in the Carter administration. He currently holds a spot on a presidential advisory committee for trade policy. Net worth: Unknown. Why he will buy the Vikings: Believes that the opportunity to become the first black majority owner in NFL history and the only current black majority owner in major pro sports is the right thing to do, and this is the right time. Why he won't buy the Vikings: Won't be willing to pay $180 million to $200 million to buy 100 percent of stock in team.

His original proposal, delivered by former Vikings GM Mike Lynn to the team's owners, called for buying as much as 72 percent of the team with some of the other nine owners keeping the rest, an idea that the owners say would allow Headrick to match the offer. fc fi lh Ipr. 4 if i' Carl Pohlad Age: 82 Hometown: Born in West Des Moines, Iowa; resides in Edina. Business background: Local banking magnate who became a public figure when he purchased the Twins in 1986. The Twins won two World Series in his first five full seasons as owner, and his hiring of general manager Andy MacPhail was credited as a key move in the team's success.

Net worth: About $1.3 billion. Why he will buy the Vikings: Because he wants to put himself into a more favorable light, following his disastrous attempts to gain public support for a publicly financed Twins stadium. Because he has plenty of money. Why he won't buy the vikings: No one's sure if he'll even bid, and even if he does, current Vikings owners probably will look more favorably upon Taylor. Roger L.

Headrick Age: 62 Hometown: Born in West Orange, N.J.; resides in Wayzata. Business background: Financial analyst, Standard Oil N.J., Esso Eastern 1960-65; treasurer, Esso Sekiyu KK, 1965-68; assistant treasurer, assistant manager-financial planning, Esso Eastern 1968-70; vice president Esso Philippines 1970-73; treasurer, manager-financial planning, Esso Eastern 1973-78; deputy controller, Exxon 1978-82; executive vice president and chief financial officer, Pillsbury 1982-89; president, chief executive officer, Minnesota Vikings, 1991 to present. Net worth: Difficult to determine, but not in the league with Taylor's or McCombs'. It's likely that Headrick's 10 percent stake in the team represents most of his net worth. That stake might fetch $20 million.

Why he will buy the Vikings: Good relationships with league officials. An insider's knowledge of the team's finances and the bidding process. Why he won't buy the Vikings: Most of the Vikings co-owners are miffed with him because of his attempt to assert a right of first refusal last time around. Headrick also has got the same problem Tom Clancy had he doesn't have the money to do the deal without borrowing heavily. Red McCombs Age: 70 Hometown: Born in Spur, Texas; resides in San Antonio.

Business background: Famous auto dealer who began his career in his early 20s by selling Edsels, and selling used cars to people with questionable credit. Major investor in Clear Channel Communications, and a former oil and cattle magnate. Net worth: About $1 billion. Why he will buy the Vikings: He could come in with the biggest bid, and be the most willing to own all of the stock himself. He has promised to keep the Vikings in Minnesota, even though he has tried to attract teams to San Antonio.

Why he won't buy the Vikings: Although he's reputable and considered unfailingly honest, he still not as safe an option as Taylor, who has no motivation to move the team from Minnesota. McCombs also doesn't have Taylor's local pull or political connections, which eventually could help the Vikings with their stadium situation. tA, A.VA S. MttAt vif.