Fans Pack the Park for Twins-Brewers Series

[Melissa Berman]

The two-game Twins-Brewers series brought torrential rain and winds, dazzling daytime sunshine, walk-off home runs, and the best fan attendance of the season. Never mind that many of these fans happened to be wearing Brewers blue. 

Before Tuesday’s three rain delays hit Target Field, the Twins announced an attendance of 37,183 fans. Wednesday’s series finale drew 38,802 fans, the team’s first sellout of the year. Wednesday’s game was also the largest crowd at Target Field since September 21, 2019, when the Bomba Squad Twins played the Kansas City Royals in front of 37,750 fans. 

While some Twins games this season have drawn decent crowds, especially on Prince Night and the Yankees series in June, the sheer number of fans at the Twins-Brewers games was a bit of a foreign but welcome sight. The Twins have somewhat struggled to draw fans to the ballpark this season despite the solid on-the-field performance, bargain ticket deals, and their perch atop the AL Central standings. Through 44 home games, the Twins were ranked 20th out of 30 teams in attendance, with an average of 21,134 fans per game. 

Attendance was no issue this week. For the first time this season or even in recent memory, the lower level concourse was wall-to-wall fans, there was hardly any street or surface lot parking to be found around the stadium, concession stands were running out of Dollar Dogs, and fans occupied nearly every stadium seat. 

Though Twins fans certainly showed up for this series, give credit where it is due: Brewers fans travel remarkably well. At times, Target Field sounded like Miller Park, with “Let’s go Brew Crew!” chants thundering through the stadium and echoing off Target Field’s roof (Twins fans largely answered these chants back with boos). The stadium exploded with cheers with each Brewers hit.

The large "Brew Crew" presence was especially felt late in the game on Tuesday, the triple rain delay night, when the hardy, mostly-Brewers crowd packed into the lower level for the remaining few innings of the game.

The Twins also have their youngest fans to thank for the series blockbuster attendance: the upper deck during Wednesday's day game was almost completely youth summer camps wearing matching t-shirts. Their collective "Let's go Twins!" chants were both impressively loud and adorable. 

So why is the Brewers-Twins series the biggest of the year?

For many Brewers fans, Target Field is a closer drive than Milwaukee, especially for those who live in western Wisconsin. A quick jaunt down i94 brings these fans to Twins Territory to see their favorite team play in "enemy territory." The Twins and Brewers typically only play each other twice in a season, with each team visiting the other once, so it is a somewhat uncommon, special occurrence.

It also cannot be overstated how much Minnesota and Wisconsin love to compete in everything. No, it does not matter that the Twins are in the American League and the Brewers in the National League; the interstate rivalry is alive and well. With the Twins and Brewers walking away with a 1-1 series split, both fanbases left with something to feel good about.  

Other notes

• Wednesday's Twins game was MLB's Game of the Week, and KickliySports, the local artist who paints at every Twins game, was front and center. The YouTube TV crew interviewed Kickliy and showed live clips of him painting. After this weekend's Twins-White Sox series, next up for Kickliy is the 3M Open golf tournament in Blaine, where he has been given an all-access pass to paint.

• The weather at Tuesday's game was beyond belief. It seemed that no one in attendance had any idea it was even going to rain that evening, much less produce an apocalyptic-looking shelf cloud, high winds, and blowing rain. Fans were instructed to take shelter on the concourse, but with the strong winds blowing the rain from behind, the concourse and roof offered little respite. The concourse floor even began flooding. Apparently, there is a viral TikTok video of a Target Field Dippin' Dots cart that the wind sends flying. During the rain delay, fans crowded into stairwells, bathrooms, and anywhere else they could to wait out the elements. The experience was chaotic and unexpected, but memorable.

• A piece of advice for my fellow gal Twins fans: Try to not bring a purse for games you anticipate will draw huge crowds, or if you do bring one, arrive early to account for the extra time you will spend in line. Target Field has two types of security lines: a line for those with bags an "express" line for those without. For Tuesday's game, I showed up with a purse slightly before game time and did not get into the stadium until the second inning. The predominately-female purse security line stretched all the way down the light rail track, meanwhile, the express lines had no wait. I asked a Target Field employee if they could start checking purses at the empty express lines and he declined, but they eventually started doing that after I'd waited for about 20 minutes. Wednesday I learned from my mistakes and left my purse at home, and I breezed through the security line in less than a minute. It's been a while since I've been to a packed Target Field; even Opening Day this season did not at all compare to the attendance of these two games, so going forward, I'll try to leave my purse at home for massive games like this one, weekend games, and playoff games. Weekday games draw smaller crowds, so the lines will be less of an issue. Some of these small inconveniences (like tougher parking, lines for the concessions, and a crowded concourse) come along with having a great team that draws big crowds, but if that's the price I have to pay for a successful team, I'll take it.

Were you at the Twins-Brewers series? What was your experience like from being at the stadium? Let us know in the comments below. 

 

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[operation mindcrime]

Good article!!!!! \m/ 

[Unwinder]

I took the day off yesterday and biked down to Target field - Glad I didn't drive, I was able to chain up my bike to the parking space marker right across the street from gate 34. I bought my ticket at the box office, good thing it wasn't sold out yet.

It was really fun to have a crowd with a lot of opposition fans present. Lots of applause for almost every play. With so many Brewers fans closer to Minneapolis than Milwaukee, the Twins could sell a lot more tickets if the divisions were realigned to put Minnesota and Milwaukee in the same division.

[Dave Overlund]

Being at the game Wednesday was fun. Getting to the ballpark was a different story. I know day games can be tough for parking due to workers using the ramps, etc but we got to Minneapolis at 10:55 and didn't get to our seats until the third inning. 

[Melissa Berman]

1 hour ago, operation mindcrime said:

Good article!!!!! \m/ 

Thanks for the kind words ? It was a fun series to be at. The crowds reminded me of 2019

[Melissa Berman]

57 minutes ago, Unwinder said:

I took the day off yesterday and biked down to Target field - Glad I didn't drive, I was able to chain up my bike to the parking space marker right across the street from gate 34. I bought my ticket at the box office, good thing it wasn't sold out yet.

It was really fun to have a crowd with a lot of opposition fans present. Lots of applause for almost every play. With so many Brewers fans closer to Minneapolis than Milwaukee, the Twins could sell a lot more tickets if the divisions were realigned to put Minnesota and Milwaukee in the same division.

Biking to the game was VERY wise. For Tuesday's game, I checked all my usual parking haunts, and everything was full. It was pretty chaotic/ stressful. Yesterday Wednesday I learned from my mistakes, parked about 3/4 mi away on the street right off the bat, and that worked fine. I was in the upper deck behind home plate (shade, thankfully) and the section continued to fill up over the course of the game with people holding their newly-bought paper box office tickets. I'm sure eventually there were no more seats to sell, though I wonder if they could keep selling standing room tickets. 

[Dave The Dastardly]

If MLB's goal was to make even more money they'd return to scheduling the Twins/Brewers for a couple home and away series like they used to play. But then we know MLB isn't into making money, their only goal is to provide entertainment for the unwashed masses.

I shower every day. In case anyone was wondering.

[Melissa Berman]

44 minutes ago, Dave Overlund said:

Being at the game Wednesday was fun. Getting to the ballpark was a different story. I know day games can be tough for parking due to workers using the ramps, etc but we got to Minneapolis at 10:55 and didn't get to our seats until the third inning. 

Parking was super stressful for this series. In past years (pre-covid) I would avoid day games because of the exact reason you mention (downtown workers). I've been to a couple other day games this season and parking was super easy for those. The sheer amount of Brewers fans here for this series was just unbelievable. 

[Tibs]

I was at the game on Tuesday. It was not fun getting to the parking ramp. There were quite a few people there well over an hour before first pitch. It would be nice if they could figure something out with traffic and getting to the parking ramps around the field.

It was a fun atmosphere. It's nice to see that many people in the seats. I'd prefer if it wasn't the other team's fans filling the stadium though.

[stringer bell]

My wife and I drove from SE Minnesota to the Fort Snelling Park and Ride. We arrived shortly after 11. We found seats on the train and arrived at Target Field shortly before noon. We got to our seats for the third batter. 
 

There were plenty of people in Brewers gear on the light rail. Concession lines were long and slow, Despite the announced attendance, we thought the park was about 3/4 full. 
 

I think the light rail is a great deal for singles or couples. 

[Unwinder]

11 hours ago, stringer bell said:

There were plenty of people in Brewers gear on the light rail. Concession lines were long and slow, Despite the announced attendance, we thought the park was about 3/4 full. 

Yeah, there were plenty of empty seats for sure.  I assume the announced "attendance" is based on ticket sales? I know they routinely sell more group tickets than actually get used, plus there are always plain old no-shows. I was down in section 112 and there were only six seats occupied in my row.