2001 Major League Baseball contraction plan

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (top) and Olympic Stadium, considered outdated by MLB in 2001

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."^[1] 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into the contraction plan was the two teams' inability to fund the construction of new ballparks to replace the outdated Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and Olympic Stadium.^[2]

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 eventually secured funding for a new stadium that opened in 2010, while the Expos relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2005 and were renamed 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.^[1]