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Strong season, stadium buzz driving Twins season ticket sales
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - January 26, 2007 by John Vomhof Jr.Staff Writer

The Minnesota Twins are on pace to sell more season tickets than in any year since 1993 as sales track well ahead of recent years.

The team already has sold nearly 2,100 new season-ticket plans so far this year -- up from the 1,500 it sold all of last year -- as businesses and fans lock in priority seating for the new ballpark, slated to open in 2010.

Most of the new sales have come from local businesses, but the team will start shifting its attention to the general public at this weekend's TwinsFest event. The busy sales season between now and opening day in April should push the Twins past 10,000 season tickets for the first time since 1993.

"The planets are aligned for us to have just an unbelievable offseason in terms of sales because we have a young, fun baseball team and the new ballpark," Smith said. "Either of those things alone would be great sales tools for us, but when you combine the two, this is an exciting time."

The Twins opened 2006 with 8,000 season-ticket holders, following a disappointing 2005 season. Walk-up sales surged when the team started playing better a couple months into the season. Average attendance -- which lingered around 23,000 at the end of May -- climbed to more than 28,210 for the season.

A season-ticket base of 10,000 for 2007 would put the team in position to draw more than 30,000 fans a night for the first time since 1993.

It's not uncommon for teams to see substantial season-ticket gains after a new stadium is announced, said Jahn Hakes, an assistant professor of economics and management at Albion College who has published extensive research on the impact of new stadiums on attendance.

"If the new stadium is supposed to have improved sight lines or it has a lot of premium seating, getting forward in the queue would be beneficial. So some people might be willing to buy season tickets several years ahead of time to make sure they get the first shot," Hakes said.

The annual TwinsFest, which is designed to build excitement for the upcoming season, marks the start of single-game sales and a significant marketing tool to promote season tickets to individual fans.

The Twins have sold almost twice as many advance tickets for TwinsFest this year as last year. Attendance could reach 35,000, surpassing last year's attendance of about 26,000 and breaking a record set in 1992, said Patrick Klinger, vice president of marketing for the Twins.

jvomhof@bizjournals.com | (612) 288-2101