With Labor Day past us, people will start listing the things they’ll remember about the summer. While some may point out a specific trend or the alternating weather, from smoky to blazing hot, there’s no doubt that the feud of the summer has been between Minnesota Twins fans and the Pohlads.

Twins fans want to stick it to the Pohlads. The Pohlads seemingly want to balance their checkbook. Stars are feuding with management, and there’s enough drama to fill a 30-man Royal Rumble match in the middle of Target Field.

People are upset. But the biggest question is, when will it get better?

That’s complicated as a long 2025 season comes to a close. The Twins have created a vicious cycle, and until something breaks it, there may not be an end to the apathy that has set in around Minnesota.

Fans started speaking out against the Pohlads a long time ago. They aggressively slashed payroll following the 2023 season after their first postseason win in over two decades. A turbulent television situation and a historic collapse were two more punches to the gut, and fans responded with an average attendance of 23,357 over their final six-game homestand.

Season ticket sales boost that number. So what will fans do to retaliate? Cancel their season tickets. While there’s no public information on how many people pulled the plug on their tickets, the numbers are showing up at the gate, where attendance has dipped from 1.9 million last season to 1.5 million this season.

Fewer regulars at the game means less money, and that has consequences that we’ll get to in a bit. However, the newfound way Twins fans can voice their opinions is through the team’s direct-to-consumer option.

The Twins charged $99.99 for the full year and $19.99 per month to watch games through their service. But outside of a 13-game winning streak, the team hasn’t been worth the price of admission. With the team getting closer to the No. 1 pick as opposed to the top spot in the AL Central, there’s a chance fans checked out either when the team started to fade just after the All-Star break or the 11-player fire sale that took place at the trade deadline.

The fire sale is where things get uglier. Fans stop putting their money toward the product. The revenue becomes even smaller than before. Ownership rightsizes the business, and they let players go.

We’ve already seen fan favorites like Jhoan Duran and Carlos Correa get shown the door. Even Louie Varland couldn’t escape the fire sale when they traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays at the final hour. But it feels like more is coming as the Twins go into a full rebuild, and that’s where things get complicated.

The Boston Red Sox reportedly inquired about Joe Ryan in the minutes leading up to the deadline, but couldn’t get a deal done. There will be no such issues next winter where the two sides could strike a deal and send another popular player somewhere else.

Pablo López could have been an intriguing trade target for teams if he wasn’t recovering from a teres major strain. Still, his late-season performance could be an audition for big-market teams looking for a reasonably priced arm for $21.75 million next season.

They may move on from arbitration-eligible players like Ryan Jeffers, Trevor Larnach, and Royce Lewis, leaving Twins fans to decide to spend their money on a nice getaway to a lakeside resort or anywhere outside of the gates of Target Field.

That is, unless something changes.

From the Twins’ side, that appears unlikely. The Pohlads pulled the team off the market, opting for the robust opportunity to bring in investors to nullify their debt. (Besides, it’s not like that money is going to be coming from the fans at this point.)

They could fire manager Rocco Baldelli, but the Twins already picked up his option for the next season, and it’s unlikely the Pohlads would sign off on a firing that would please the fans who have already turned on them.

Ownership could also fire President of Business and Baseball Operations Derek Falvey, or remove the business part of his title. But the appeal of paying a second executive or a costly buyout is unlikely to convince ownership to make a move.

The same brain trust, led by the same ownership, isn’t going to capture the imagination of the fan base. That leaves them unmotivated to put anything into the product. It’s a cycle that will continue until the team is sold or a big move is made to restore trust that they know what they’re doing.

In some ways, both sides just need a break from all of this. But it’s unlikely to change, which has the Twins in a vicious cycle.