The Twins' "payroll flexibility might have dried up after the spending spree of a year ago, especially amid steadily declining attendance at Target Field," according to Phil Miller of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. With a '15 payroll projected to top $80M "without any additions," Twins GM Terry Ryan’s "options appear to be limited." But Ryan said, "Payroll will not be an issue. Our payroll is sufficient to (field) a winning team." Team President Dave St. Peter last week said that the club "will stick" to its "longtime policy of devoting roughly half of the team's gross revenues to player payroll." St. Peter: "We haven’t finalized a 2015 budget. (But) I can assure you, we don't see it going down significantly." Miller notes it is likely that the Twins' income has decreased given that Target Field attendance has "fallen by at least" 9.2% in each of the past three seasons. Attendance has "plummeted" by 30.2% since the ballpark opened in '10, and "figures to keep declining next season." The Twins also "haven’t raised ticket prices for three years." St. Peter said, "It's more than tickets -- there are a lot of different pieces to that revenue pie, and we are exploring areas where we might push our revenues. I don't think payroll faces any significant decline" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 10/14).
