Days after the son of Twins owner Carl Pohlad said the team is poised to lose up to $20 million this season and no viable local ownership group has stepped forward to make an offer for the team, St. Paul officials said the team is unwilling to commit to a stadium in the Capitol City without a referendum passing.

That puts St. Paul ballpark supporters in a political bind, and makes it unlikely that the city will put a ballpark referendum on the ballot by the end of September as required by the stadium bill, meaning the contentious issue will likely be back in the hands of lawmakers in 2003, the Saint Paul Pioneer Press reported.

St. Paul City Council members have until July 23 to set a referendum on the city's September primary ballot to fulfill the requirements of legislators to trigger the state financing system to build the ballpark.

Without a city passing a referendum, the bill's financing plan doesn't kick in and the ballpark financing plan approved amid much fanfare earlier this year will evaporate.

The newspaper said that St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly will speak about the issue later this week, but he has said in the past that the city won't ask its citizens to OK a city financial pledge to build the ballpark without a firm commitment from the team to build in St. Paul.

And city business leaders have also said they won't begin fundraising for a get-out-the-vote campaign -- predicted to require $1 million -- without that commitment from the team, the Pioneer Press said.

St. Paul appeared to be the Twins lone hope for triggering the state financing plan to get a new ballpark build because legislators required that the team partner with a city and Minneapolis officials said they couldn't afford to fully finance the city's share on their own, citing existing financial commitments to the convention center, among other projects.

The apparent stalling of stadium plans in St. Paul comes days after the Star Tribune reported that Jim Pohlad said the Twins stand to lose between $15 million and $20 million this season.

He also reiterated to reporter La Velle E. Neil III that the Twins are for sale, but said there is "little, if any, interest, and that is disappointing. In other markets, people have stepped forward. Nobody here."

The state financing plan calls for the team to contribute $150 million up front into an arbitrage fund to help finance a state revenue bond sale.

That plan was OK'd by lawmakers, but also came as the broker handling the sale of the Twins for Pohlad said that it would be a new owner, and not his client, who would provide that team contribution.