Grantland.com did a long and very detailed article about “the website MLB couldn’t buy” and that website in reference is to one of only 3 domain names NOT owned by Major League Baseball (MLB), Twins.com.
The story states:
The Millers told me that they staked their claim to Twins.com so early that they got it for free. It was the era of Internet land grabs, when all one had to do to rope off a URL was be the first one with the impulse. (They admiringly mention a friend of theirs, Jeff, who “scored,” and still owns, Jeff.com.) “Everybody has known us as ‘the twins’ for as long as we’ve been around, and it’s an easy way to identify or find us,” Durland said. “As soon as you type in ‘twins’ on the Internet, you’re going to see us pop up.” I imagined clients asking for their phone number, only to be told to “just type in ‘twins.’”
It is a very interesting story and one that I felt all of you would be interested and wanted to be sure you had seen it.
Offers have been as high as $750K according to the article.
RightOfTheDot.com‘s Co-Founder/President Monte Cahn is quoted in the story as well.
The 3 remaining domain names relating to teams in the MLB that are NOT owned by Major League Baseball Advanced Media LP (MLBAM):
- Twins.com
- Rays.com
- Giants.com
Would the twins ever sell Twins.com?
Durland and Darvin, born and raised in San Jose, are Twins fans. Not because they are Twins, or because they bought Twins.com. Either of those explanations would make too much sense. They’re Twins fans because their father is from Minnesota, where much of their family still lives.
“Years ago we’d actually reached out to the Twins, saying, ‘Hey, we have this [website], and we’re not really using it, maybe we could work out a deal,’” Durland says. “And they just never really followed through on it. But certainly, if the right offer came around, we’d sell.”
Are the Minnesota Twins looking to buy?
An MLB spokesperson confirms that there has been “direct outreach [to the twins] from in-house,” but that the talks have never resulted in the right price. The Millers seem to prefer that the outreach originate with their team, not the league. “We’ve just never been approached by anybody directly associated with the Minnesota Twins,” Durland says. “It’s always been through some other party trying to probably broker a deal, or commission a deal.” Judging by my own initial efforts to contact the Millers, the indirect approach doesn’t work. If MLB is serious about acquiring Twins.com, Twins president Dave St. Peter might have to fly to California and knock on Durland and Darvin’s door.
St. Peter, who tweeted in 2011 that he was “not optimistic” about reaching a resolution with the Millers based on the reports he’d received from MLBAM, told me that the Twins haven’t reached out to the Millers directly because teams rely on MLBAM to lead the acquisition effort. “At this point, would I like to have Twins.com?” St. Peter asks. “Yeah, I think it would be great to have that. But obviously we’ve invested a tremendous amount of time and energy into TwinsBaseball.com. And I think generally our fan base is well aware of what the URL is.” St. Peter, who knew the Millers were twins but wasn’t aware they were Twins fans, doubts that the “baseball” tacked on to “Twins” has cost the team any brand awareness or ticket/merchandise sales. And given the hassle and expense associated with changing a team’s long-held URL, he’s “not sure that it [would be] in the business interest of the Twins.”
It is a pretty amazing task that MLBAM has obtained the 27 that they have, as many of the terms like Rockies, Athletics and more are generic terms that relate to something in general.
I think if they wanted to, they could acquire Twins.com.
Giants is about out of the question for as long as the NFL team is around and Rays.com in general may be something over time, but they are pretty reserved to hold on to it for history sake.
