HIGH POINT, North Carolina (AP) -- Don Beaver says he hopes to have a contract to buy the Minnesota Twins ready for major league baseball owners to review when they meet later this month.

Beaver, a Hickory, North Carolina, businessman, is head of North Carolina Baseball, the group attempting to bring a team to the Triad area of Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem.

Beaver said Thursday before a meeting with his ownership group in High Point that he was pleased with the progress of the negotiations with current Twins owner Carl Pohlad. He wants to have the contract available for the other owners when they meet March 17 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
 
"It hasn't happened yet -- there's still a lot to be done," Beaver said.

Beaver said he was encouraged by the response to ticket sales this week for the March 31 exhibition game in Winston-Salem between the Twins and the Montreal Expos. Hundreds of people lined up Monday at the offices of the Winston-Salem Warthogs minor-league team to buy tickets the first day they went on sale.

The game will take place about five weeks before voters in Guilford and Forsyth counties go to the polls for a referendum on new taxes to pay for most of a proposed stadium for a club.