Twins Seek to Bolster Attendance Through Bargain Ticket Deals

[Melissa Berman]

Twins fans attending games at Target Field this season will have a lot more money to dedicate towards beers, burgers, or the Split the Pot Raffle due to some bargain ticket deals the team is running- all with the goal of getting fans into the stands.

This year, the Twins announced a number of ticket deals in order to give fans further incentive to come out to games. Some of these deals have become a yearly staple, but other new offers show that the team is looking to bolster its sales right off the bat of this new season. 

The Twins started out the post-lockout period by running a limited-time no-fees ticket deal for single-game tickets. Around this same time, the Twins brought back the Twins Pass, a $54/month subscription pass that gets fans ballpark access, otherwise known as standing room only tickets, to every home game during the season excluding the Home Opener and games in September.

After the Twins beat the Seattle Mariners on April 10 to collect their first win of the season, the team announced a new sale called the Superstars Superdeal, which gives fans the ability to buy tickets to any Monday-Thursday game for cheap- $4 for upper-level tickets and $25 for lower-level seats. This sale runs through April 13. And once again this year, the Twins are running their perennial student discount, which allows college students to purchase $5 standing room tickets to any Monday-Thursday game. There is certainly no shortage of deals to be had for both loyal Target-Field goers and those who might need an extra monetary push to get out to a game. 

The decision to bring back and expand ticket incentives for fans appears to be a wise one. So far this season, turnout at the games has been decidedly abysmal, though the cooler-than-average weather is certainly not helping. At the Home Opener, the Twins announced an attendance of 35,462, which was the smallest crowd to attend an opener - other than the COVID-impacted 2020 and 2021 seasons- in Target Field's history. It was just behind 2017's attendance of 35,837. No other opener has drawn less than 38,000 fans since Target Field opened in 2010. At the Twins’ April 11 game on a pleasant, 54-degree evening, attendance was announced at 12,932, presumably, a large portion of whom were season ticket holders.   

So far this season, the Twins have had the third least attendance of the MLB teams who have played games at home, though once again, the Minnesota weather has been less-than-pleasant and the Twins opened at home rather than somewhere warmer on the road. (Of interesting note, the Tampa Bay Rays so far have the worst attendance in the MLB despite being the near-consensus #1 team in the power rankings. Hey, I myself love "The Trop").

Still, despite the at-times iffy weather, one might have hoped for a better fan showing on Opening Weekend, the fans' first weekend to see Carlos Correa in a Twins uniform, or in the Twins series against the Dodgers. The Dodgers are one of the top teams in baseball, and the Twins have not hosted them since 2017. Both are aspects which should create intrigue. Many of the fans who were at Target Field were not even Twins fans; it was readily apparent to those attending Tuesday and Wednesday's games that a large portion of the fans in the stands were wearing Dodger blue (and delighting in booing Correa). While it wasn't 50:50 Twins to Dodgers fans, it was not too far off that ratio.  

Since Target Field opened in 2010, attendance has almost continuously dropped. Part of this can likely be attributed to the novelty allure of the sparkling, new Target Field wearing off after a season or two. The team's performance has been somewhat up and down during this time period too..

It is worth noting that attendance is falling league-wide as well. The Twins did experience an attendance uptick in 2019, the “Bomba Squad” year where the Twins set the MLB home run record and also won the AL Central Division, thus showing that attendance is predictably due at least in part due to performance. But if performance on the field cannot carry ticket sales on its own, the marketing department might consider continuing being creative and generous with new promotions. 

My take
The Twins should continue doing everything they can to get fans into seats, especially if the Twins struggle this season. True, attendance for April Twins games is generally lower while it is cooler and kids are in school, and hopefully, more fans will come out of hibernation as the weather becomes more pleasant, but after last season's lack of success, fans might not be as eager to show out to the park. The Twins should continue running more $4 ticket deals or even consider giving away some free tickets. A fan with a free ticket would still likely spend some money on concessions or bring more profit to the team than an empty seat. Anecdotally, I have a friend who bought tickets to 20 games using the Superstars Superdeal. He says these are tickets he otherwise probably would not have bought, and I am sure he is not the only one. The team should consider expanding these promotions to weekend games, and/or just giving college discount students or Twins pass holders an actual seat for the game. It is the least the team can do for fans who are choosing to show up. 

Having mostly-empty ballparks is demoralizing for both fans and players, and I am sure does not look good for potential free agents either. Even though these ticket deals arguably decrease the value of having season tickets or flex plan packages, filling seats should be a top priority. Though it is too early to tell how the team will fare this year, the Twins should keep the ticket steals coming.

Did any of these ticket deals incentivize you to buy more tickets? Leave a COMMENT below.

 

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[Unwinder]

I would absolutely be rolling in $4 tickets right now if I didn't have a baby preventing me from staying out late. Would love to get some deals on weekend, daytime tickets as well.

Still, I really applaud the Twins for getting some star power on the team over the offseason (whether that translates to wins or not) and THEN introducing all of these great deals. There's little more they could do to grow the sport without MLB making some changes.

[Rosterman]

$4 to get in the door is a bargain. You got a lot of seats to choose from in the upper decks if the place is only a third full, or totally empty above. 

 

Target Field is a comfortable roaming stadium with lots of standing rest stops while you savor food fare. So just having a cheap entry and knowing you can sit somewhere is a bargain.

[PDX Twin]

Target Field is too far from Portland for it to matter to me personally, but I'm curious: Does a general-admission/SRO seat entitle you to sit in an unoccupied seat, or is it literally standing only unless you are in a restaurant?

[Unwinder]

9 minutes ago, PDX Twin said:

Target Field is too far from Portland for it to matter to me personally, but I'm curious: Does a general-admission/SRO seat entitle you to sit in an unoccupied seat, or is it literally standing only unless you are in a restaurant?

Unofficially you can pretty much sit anywhere except the really good seats behind home plate. Sometimes the real owners of the seats will show up and ask you to move, but aside from that you're pretty much in the clear,

[Vanimal46]

Now that I’m back in Minnesota I’m looking forward to attending a game again at Target Field. But much like my preference for playing golf, the temp has to be above 60, sunny, and ideally no wind if it’s below 70 degrees. 

[mikelink45]

MLB - this is pathetic.  The game no longer sells itself.  And I know because I will not attend a game that is going to take 3 1/2 or more hours and have no action.  Go out for a hotdog when the HR is hit and you miss the only action of the game so you watch a replay on the jumbo tron - how does this differ from staying home and watching on tv with a dozen replays?  

The game is killing itself.  I hope the statheads are happy.  You were right, but in the long run, who cares?  Joey Gallo hitting cleanup - his average is actually up this year - he is hitting .200.  Wonderful  He hit 150 last year and the Yankees have him batting fourth!  Imagine Mantle, Maris, Berra...seeing this.  I am so sad.  

How about your money back if the team stinks?  Lose and you get 20% back, lose by more than 3 and it is 50%.  Lose my 5 or more and the game is free. 

Or better yet - everytime a new RP comes in you get another 10%.

[wsnydes]

I can't find the link, but the name of the game these days is to get people in the gate and let them spend the money on concessions and merch.  The gate isn't the primary source of income anymore, the concessions and merch are.  At least at the ballpark anyway.  So, they can take the hit on tickets and easily make it up on $16 beers.  The trick is to get you in the door.

[Whitey333]

I totally agree with the comment the game is killing itself.  Statheads rejoice!!  You and the metric brand have made MLB virtually unwatchable.  It's turned into a giant, boring video game.  Attendance and broadcast ratings are down all over.  It's been on a steep decline since the metric era.  As far as watching it on tv you can't even get the games for most of us for the past year and a half.  Bring back the real MLB before it's too late.  Get rid of shifts, the ghost runner, no time clocks, stop announcing launch angles, spin rates etc and telling us how the computer is playing the game and then trying to tell us why our team finished 16 games under .500. Please for the grand days of real baseball.  

[Major League Ready]

14 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

I totally agree with the comment the game is killing itself.  Statheads rejoice!!  You and the metric brand have made MLB virtually unwatchable.  It's turned into a giant, boring video game.  Attendance and broadcast ratings are down all over.  It's been on a steep decline since the metric era.  As far as watching it on tv you can't even get the games for most of us for the past year and a half.  Bring back the real MLB before it's too late.  Get rid of shifts, the ghost runner, no time clocks, stop announcing launch angles, spin rates etc and telling us how the computer is playing the game and then trying to tell us why our team finished 16 games under .500. Please for the grand days of real baseball.  

You can't blame the three-outcome game for the team being 16 games under 500.  There is also plenty of blame to go around for the state of the game.  Players are going to work on the skills that make them money and teams are going to emphasize whatever wins games.  Home runs equates to big money for players, and they are not going to develop a 2 strike approach as long as hitting home runs equates to big money.  Look at Kepler for example.  He can't bunt when he has 75 ft between the SS and 3B.  

People don't seem to mind the state of the game nearly as much when their team is winning.

[kenbuddha]

I imagine after Babe Ruth hit more HRs in a single season than many teams did and other teams started adding power hitters many people lamented the fact that no one was putting the ball in play any more. Power hitters are ruining the game! The statheads of the day just ruined it for everyone who loved station to station rounders. Ye statheads shall rejoiceth!

[gunnarthor]

I think if the Twins had a more competitive team, more people would show up. I agree with the general premise that the game has become less fun to watch but I don't know what to do about it. I don't really mind all the homeruns and walks but high strike outs and low OBP teams are not fun to watch.

[Karbo]

Try making Rocco keep the best players on the field and in the lineup at home and save the rest days for when the team is on the road. Yesterdays game didn't get to see Buxton play center or Correa play short. That's why I quit going to games. Seems like every time I shell out big $ to go to a game they are "resting" players I am paying to watch. Its more than the price of the ticket. Parking, gas to get there, any type of concession and you're out $100 before you can blink. Then you get to watch a couple of bench players fill in for the guys you paid to come and see?

[BobAzar]

more of this going on than I expected:

 

 

 

[Melissa Berman]

16 hours ago, Unwinder said:

Unofficially you can pretty much sit anywhere except the really good seats behind home plate. Sometimes the real owners of the seats will show up and ask you to move, but aside from that you're pretty much in the clear,

Agree, you're *supposed* to just stand around, but in all the games I've gone to at TF with college night and the Twins pass.. I've just grabbed a seat every time. 

[Melissa Berman]

14 hours ago, wsnydes said:

I can't find the link, but the name of the game these days is to get people in the gate and let them spend the money on concessions and merch.  The gate isn't the primary source of income anymore, the concessions and merch are.  At least at the ballpark anyway.  So, they can take the hit on tickets and easily make it up on $16 beers.  The trick is to get you in the door.

Exactly. An empty seat is going to generate $0 in revenue, but even if they give out a free ticket (which they won't but you get my point) that would generate some money in concessions 

[Melissa Berman]

16 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Now that I’m back in Minnesota I’m looking forward to attending a game again at Target Field. But much like my preference for playing golf, the temp has to be above 60, sunny, and ideally no wind if it’s below 70 degrees. 

SOON, hopefully! Hang on! ? There will be plenty of nice-weather games to be had. I'm waiting to go golfing until it gets warmer 

[Melissa Berman]

17 hours ago, Unwinder said:

I would absolutely be rolling in $4 tickets right now if I didn't have a baby preventing me from staying out late. Would love to get some deals on weekend, daytime tickets as well.

Still, I really applaud the Twins for getting some star power on the team over the offseason (whether that translates to wins or not) and THEN introducing all of these great deals. There's little more they could do to grow the sport without MLB making some changes.

That was a really good deal they ran- hopefully they bring it back and expand some other deals to include weekend games too. The weekend games I was at this past weekend were extremely empty, so it's not like those automatically fill up in the early season just because it's a Saturday (weekend summer games are better-attended)

[Otto von Ballpark]

Looks like each $4 ticket bought online had a $2 fee added, plus another $4 fee added to each order. Not sure about the per-ticket fee on the $25 ones (it appears the normal per-ticket fee is $4.25+ -- guess it was hard to charge that for a $4 ticket ).

So a single ticket would have cost $10 after fees, and a single order of 4 tickets would have cost $28.

Not sure if this particular promotion was also available at the Target Field box office, but that would have been a way (albeit inconvenient for most) to avoid the fees.

 

[Otto von Ballpark]

For those looking for no-fee second-hand tickets, I had a good experience with Tick Pick:

https://www.tickpick.com/mlb/minnesota-twins-tickets/

[MABB1959]

I would add the inability to watch on TV has hurt.  How do you get to know a team when you can't catch a game on TV.  Second is inconsistent line-ups.  I would be nice to have mostly the same players play each game.  Get over the stats and who bats better against which pitchers.

[Melissa Berman]

50 minutes ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

For those looking for no-fee second-hand tickets, I had a good experience with Tick Pick:

https://www.tickpick.com/mlb/minnesota-twins-tickets/

Tickpick is the best. That's where I get all my secondhand tickets. They used to not even have sales tax, so the price you saw was the price you get. Now there's tax, but still no fees, which is great  

Edited April 14, 2022 by Melissa Berman

[Twinsrule1991]

It's not only the ticket prices, it's the amount they charge for all the other items at the ballpark (not to mention the absurd fees). I am completely over paying $15 for a shitty Bud Light to watch a team that will struggle to win 81 games this year. Not gonna rip others for doing it, but it just ain't for me.

[Melissa Berman]

57 minutes ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

Looks like each $4 ticket bought online had a $2 fee added, plus another $4 fee added to each order. Not sure about the per-ticket fee on the $25 ones (it appears the normal per-ticket fee is $4.25+ -- guess it was hard to charge that for a $4 ticket ).

So a single ticket would have cost $10 after fees, and a single order of 4 tickets would have cost $28.

Not sure if this particular promotion was also available at the Target Field box office, but that would have been a way (albeit inconvenient for most) to avoid the fees.

 

My buddies bought in person at the box office when we were at Dodgers game on Tuesday for the sole purpose of avoiding fees. There's a in-stadium box office down the first baseline. I should've mentioned that

Edited April 14, 2022 by Melissa Berman

[Blyleven2011]

19 hours ago, Unwinder said:

There's little more they could do to grow the sport without MLB making some changes.

I disagree with this take ,,,

The twins could do alot more to create  interest in their team in drawing fans ..

Educate the tots to a Harmon killebrew day , a rod carew day , Tony Oliva day , Puckett day , Blyleven day , a kaat day  .... our hof honorees 

The kids would get the to know the legends on the history of twins players  and the dads and grandfather's  would love it too ...

 

[Unwinder]

25 minutes ago, Melissa Berman said:

Agree, you're *supposed* to just stand around, but in all the games I've gone to at TF with college night and the Twins pass.. I've just grabbed a seat every time. 

I also read a tip somewhere that if you're squeamish about the awkward situation of being caught when someone comes for their reserved seats, you can always go on stubhub (or resale site of choice) and look up seats that are still unsold after the game has started.

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

Looks like each $4 ticket bought online had a $2 fee added, plus another $4 fee added to each order. Not sure about the per-ticket fee on the $25 ones (it appears the normal per-ticket fee is $4.25+ -- guess it was hard to charge that for a $4 ticket ).

So a single ticket would have cost $10 after fees, and a single order of 4 tickets would have cost $28.

And we know a large percentage of those ticketing fees are going back to the Twins so it's a bait-and-switch on the pricing - just like concert tickets and airline tickets. When the fees are 150% of the ticket price people are going to stop their purchase halfway through.

The lack of TV viewing options is also going to kill their ticket sales in the long run. Put out the product on TV and people will want to attend in person. The TV broadcast gives a chance to promote ticket sales at least 50 times a game. I don't have a TV viewing option so this article is the first I've heard of any of these promotions, for example. If people can't watch the games on television they find other ways to fill their time and they won't come in person.

[Original_JB]

I get up at 5am, so I haven't jumped on any of the bargain seats; I used to be a 40 game STH, but they started hosing anyone without a full ST in game amenities, quality of seats and such when they moved to Target Field. I kept my seats initially, but closest I could get was the beginning of the outfield grass (I'd been 15 rows off the field between the mound and 1st at the dome). Home opener no longer included in package, option to keep seats for playoffs gone; then ability to buy full playoff strips gone. After being a season ticket for all those years and willing to buy the best tickets, I could get seats at the top of the top level on the 3rd base side for 1 playoff game. They lost me. And they just keep after adding restaurants and bars.  And now this. If I was a STH paying a minumum of $50/seat to be on the 1st level, I'd be livid.  But the Twins don't care. I'm not their targeted audience anymore, I'm an actual baseball fan. I'll have a beer or two (that I brought from home) before the game and maybe one at the game, but for the most part I want good seats to sit and WATCH THE GAME. Hate all the music and crap. No OTA broadcasts.... At least they moved back to 'CCO, I struggled to pull in KSTP way out in rural Golden Valley.

[MMMordabito]

Maybe the ownership shouldn't get into public arguments with the players over money that results in uncertainty and a delayed season.

Maybe the ownership should make it easy and affordable to watch the games without circumventing blackout policies.

Maybe the ownership should consider offering more than disgusting Bud Light at less than $13 a beer.

Maybe the ownership should consider working better with Metro Transit to make sure green and blue LRT cars are available at reasonable intervals after night games.

You can give me free tickets, and I still won't go this year.

 

[ashbury]

Four dollars to watch either of those Dodger games?  Sign me up!  Wait, *I* have to pay *them*?