Image courtesy of © Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
Year after year, the last couple of home series are marked by the Twins as “Fan Appreciation” games. This September, though, it’s hard for fans to feel valued, given the state of the franchise.
The main contributor to the bottomed-out fan morale is obviously the on-field product, but it goes far beyond that. The damage has been done for a large contingent of fans, who want to be excited about the current iteration of the team. Worse, I’m worried that the effects of their decision to strip down their investment in the ballpark experience will cause irreversible harm to the next generation of Twins fans.
So what’s the answer? The easy response (that will surely flood the comment section of this article) is that ownership should invest in better players this offseason, or find a time machine DeLorean, gun it to 88, and go back in time to 2023, where they can reverse their decision to cut payroll when the club was at its high point. Then maybe the image of tomorrow’s Twins fans won’t fade away, like the photo of the siblings in Back to the Future.
Sadly, both options appear about as likely to occur at this point.
So, putting away the very valid notion that investment needs to be made on the field for a minute, I have an idea for how the Twins can build attention and excitement in their product—but it might sting for a little bit. The Twins need to allow kids into their games for free with a paying adult, at least for the next few years.
That would surely affect the bottom line, when it comes to ticket sales, but it would start to repair the deep wounds that have been made to the goodwill between the club and the fanbase. They need to make going to a Twins game accessible to everyone. That isn’t the case right now. Nor will it become so simply by way of the Pohlads emptying their closets filled with cheap hats and BOGO coupons for Caribou Coffee.
I became a fan of the Twins in the mid- to late 1990s—hardly a high point, when it came to the on-field product. But I was lucky enough to have parents who could afford to take me to a few games a year, stick an affordable Hormel hot dog in my yap and teach me about our beloved pastime and all that the beauty that the ballpark can hold, even with an ugly stadium and a team with an ugly record. Those memories fostered a love for Twins baseball in me, far more than a leftover giveaway jersey ever could.
Not everyone could afford to do that for their kids, and they certainly can’t in today’s climate. I just checked the get-in price for next Friday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians, and the cheapest option runs $18 per seat. That doesn’t include parking, or the exorbitant prices of concessions. Taking into account these figures for, let’s say, a family of four, the overall tab of the experience quickly prices out many families.
Imagine being able to offer that same experience to a family for nearly half the price. That gets more butts in the seats, more eyes on the product, more money in through concessions and merchandise sales, and most importantly, more treasured memories of Twins baseball in the hearts of the next generation of fans.
And guess what? Those kids who would get in for free would grow up to be adult fans, eager to spend their money on their beloved ballclub, all because the team had the guts to get them invested early on—even if it meant temporarily losing out on the bottom line.
Current promotions like 612 Saturdays (where they offer $6 beer, $2 food and $1 snacks before first pitch) are a good start, but maybe the Twins need to show their fans that they value them in that fashion for more than two hours a week.
So here’s my plea to the franchise that won me over even when the on-field team wasn’t winning. Stop making it harder for kids to fall in love with your product, and they’ll reward you in the long run. Keep your leftover giveaway items, and make a covenant with the next generation of Twins fans that promises you’ll invest in them now, and they’ll invest in you for years to come.
Years from now, there isn’t going to be some DeLorean that you can hop in and travel back in time to win back a generation of Twins fans that you’re currently daring to tune out of your product.
What do you think? Would this idea help build goodwill between the club and the fans? What other ideas do you have that could help re-engage the young fanbase? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below, and as always, stay sweet.