Through the first nine home games this season, the Twins’ average attendance is 17,995, which “ranks 25th out of 30 teams,” but “more worrisome” for team officials is that it represents a 9% drop in attendance compared to the first nine home games last year, “equating to 1,600 fewer fans per game,” according to Aaron Gleeman of THE ATHLETIC. The early part of this season has not been “appreciably colder or windier,” and fans have been “willing to buy more tickets in worse weather when motivated in past years.” This drop in attendance “can be traced directly to fans’ frustration with the team’s performance, disappointment with the direction of the franchise and contempt for ownership,” which has been exploring a sale of the club since October. In his final State of the Twins address at the annual media day luncheon in January, outgoing President Dave St. Peter on the club’s internal 2025 attendance projections said, “This year our target is 2 million-plus tickets.” The Twins have not reached 2 million tickets sold since 2019 and it is “already apparent” the club is not “selling anywhere close to 2 million tickets.” They will “likely have trouble reaching the full-season low” for Target Field attendance, which is 1.8 million from 2022, although how they play “is a key variable.” Their season ticket base has “shrunk considerably,” to “fewer than 10,000″ (THE ATHLETIC, 4/17).
BY THE NUMBERS: In St. Paul, Betsy Helfand noted the Twins announced crowds of 10,240, 12,507 and 19,721 in three games against the Mets this week. April in Minnesota is “never the best month for attendance,” and those figures “should rise as the weather warms up.” But that number “lags behind” where the Twins were a season ago. The club has not drawn two million fans in a season since 2019, the year they won 101 games. To reach that mark, the team would “need to average around 24,692 fans across 81 games” (St. Paul PIONEER PRESS, 4/17).
ONLY PLACE BUT UP: In Minneapolis, Chip Scoggins wrote a “layer of negativity has settled over the organization” since the freefall at the end of last season and the “vibe has been terrible.” The sale of the team has not been completed and “might not be for some time,” a “continuous source of consternation for fans.” Twins 3B Royce Lewis began the season “in a familiar place,” the injured list along with P Pablo López, and is not “close to returning.” SS Carlos Correa also “has a sore wrist” and along with all those issues, “anemic hitting fueled” the club’s 4-11 start. Scoggins wrote there are fans who “will boycott until the Pohlad family relinquishes control of the team.” Others just “want to see competent baseball.” The Twins, though, “showed signs of being jolted” in back-to-back wins over the Mets. The next step is “to continue doing it” (MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE, 4/16).
