Twins season ticket sales at Target Field have far surpassed what the team used to sell at the MetrodomeGETTY IMAGES
The Twins have now played 10 seasons at Target Field and the ballpark has "delivered in just about every" way possible for the team, according to Rochelle Olson of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. The Twins host the Yankees tonight in ALDS Game 3 at Target Field, where the Twins "reap all revenue from advertising and sponsorship." When they played at the Metrodome, "most of that revenue went to the Vikings." The increased revenue from Target Field has "allowed the Twins to build residential player development academies" in Fort Myers and the Dominican Republic. Since Target Field opened, the Twins have invested $34M in "capital improvements, including redesigning a gate, adding restaurants and seating in center field, installing drink rails and moving the mammoth catcher's mitt sculpture on the plaza off its pedestal for better photo ops." The Minnesota Ballpark Authority, the ballpark's public landlord, has invested $7M for LED field lights, a "wider concourse and operable windows for Bat & Barrel, the once private restaurant in right field that's now open to all fans." Twins President Dave St. Peter said it was revenue from the ballpark that "allowed the team to finally build" itself into a playoff contender. So far, the Twins' worst year at Target Field saw a season-ticket base of 12,000, which St. Peter said was the "upper echelon" of season-ticket sales at the Metrodome (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 10/7).
BOMBA SZN: In Minneapolis, John Reinan noted the Twins are set to give a Homer Hanky rally towel to "every fan at every Target Field game through the end" of the ALCS, should they advance. Previously, the team had announced a Hanky giveaway only for tonight's game. WinCraft President & CEO John Killen said that "more than 200,000 Hankies already have been produced." The Hankies are "made at three of the company's four Winona plants, and workers are putting in overtime to keep up with demand." Killen was set to "personally drive a 26-foot truck loaded with Homer Hankies to Minneapolis on Saturday morning." A "steady stream of fans left the Twins store at Target Field on Friday afternoon carrying bags of 10 Hankies, the maximum purchase allowed" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 10/6).
