After months of negotiations, the Twins announced Tuesday they have agreed to a two-year extension with Hubbard-owned 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. The station flipped from a talk-station format of KSTP to an all-sports brand in February.

CBS-owned WCCO -- the Twins' radio home for the franchise's first 46 years in Minnesota -- attempted to woo the team, also. Clear Channel was in the mix with one of its FM affiliates, but Sports Talk station KFAN was not included in the bidding.

"This was a big priority to extend this agreement," said Dan Seeman, vice president of operations for 1500 ESPN. "When we switched over to [the new format] the Twins were a big part of that equation. ... We didn't make that change for a year, so we were prepared to move forward either way. But that being said it certainly will give us a lot more to build upon here with a great anchor like the Twins."

In a move that surprised many, the Twins moved their radio rights from WCCO to KSTP for the 2007 season under a four-year deal that paid the team about $1 million per season. Seeman and St. Peter refused to divulge any financial details of this latest agreement.

Seeman did say the "general outline" of this contract is essentially the same. The Twins will produce the games and continue to sell the advertising that is aired during the games. 1500 ESPN Twin Cities will broadcast 25 spring training games in 2011 and 2012.

"We had multiple discussions with a variety of potential partners and were humbled by the level of interest," Twins President Dave St. Peter said. "It came down to the fact that the Pohlad family and Twins organization enjoy working with the Hubbard family and are happy to continue this relationship."

With 1500 now an all-sports station, keeping the Twins was of the utmost importance. The station has combined national programming from ESPN Radio with a local lineup that includes Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse, Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray, Phil Mackey and Joe Anderson. ESPN 1500 is in direct competition with sports-talker KFAN and the Twins help to attract listeners.

"The Twins bring tremendous sampling to the radio station and you can define it just looking at the ratings," Seeman said. "How many new and different people are coming to the station to listen to these games. So the whole goal of having any play-by-play sport is can you convert them? ... This is a pretty important part of our equation. Had we not gotten the Twins back we would have had to do some things to market ourselves differently, but the Twins have proven to be a great way to get people to try the radio station and build our brand."

St. Peter, meanwhile, said he was pleased that 1500 decided to go the all-sports route: "The move to the ESPN all-sports format has uniquely positioned 1500 ESPN for bigger and better things in this market."

The Twins rank in the top 10 in Major League Baseball in total listeners this season, averaging 133,000 per game on ESPN 1500. That is up 39 percent from 2009. St. Peter also points out that the Twins radio network has increased from a flagship and 57 affiliates in the last year with WCCO to the flagship and 84 affiliates this season.

As for the extension being for only two seasons, both St. Peter and Seeman were comfortable with that number.

"We felt as though the term was appropriate," St. Peter said. "We've enjoyed our partnership and both sides were comfortable with the two-year agreement with the understanding that we'd work toward a longer term relationship."

There had been speculation the Twins might try to take their games to a station owned by the Pohlad family and St. Peter confirmed the team had explored multiple options. "At the end of the day we landed with what we thought was the best partnership for us," he said.