Target Field's Attendance Problem Goes Beyond the Organization's Inflated Numbers

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of © Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

The Twins have spent much of the season trying to convince fans to come back to Target Field. The problem is that the numbers and 

Through 41 home games, Minnesota has announced ticket sales of 825,361, a 0.11% decline from the 826.296 tickets reported at the same point a year ago. That works out to an average of 23 fans per game, ranking 15th among the 30 major league clubs. On the surface, that small of a drop may not seem dramatic. The context makes it more concerning.

Last season was already the lowest-attended full season in Target Field history. Excluding the pandemic-disrupted years of 2020 and 2021, the Twins' 1.769 million fans in 2025 represented their smallest crowd total since 2001, when the club still played in the Metrodome. Falling below that pace raises questions about both fan engagement and the organization's relationship with its customer base.

A Predictable Decline

The warning signs were obvious long before Opening Day. Fans entered the season frustrated after last summer's deadline selloff saw Minnesota move a significant portion of its major league roster. The winter brought little relief. Ownership cut payroll dramatically, leaving the Twins with a $105.7 million Opening Day payroll, their lowest figure in more than a decade.

For a fan base already skeptical about ownership's commitment to winning, there was little reason to rush out and buy tickets. The schedule didn't help either. Minnesota played 17 home games in April, two more than it did during the same stretch last season. Cold weather has never been a friend of attendance figures in Minnesota, and several early-season crowds reflected that reality. Still, weather only explains part of the story.

Promotions Can Help, But Only So Much

The Twins have tried a variety of methods to generate interest. Friday and Saturday games now feature pregame $2 beers, one of several promotions designed to lower the barrier for fans considering a trip to the ballpark. The organization has also leaned heavily into ticket giveaways and special-event nights.

Those efforts may help announced attendance figures, but they don't necessarily translate into meaningful revenue or sustained fan interest. That's part of why the 0.11% decline could actually understate the issue. A ticket given away counts the same as a ticket sold when attendance is announced publicly, even though the financial impact is obviously different.

The Twins can improve optics by filling seats on paper. Rebuilding trust with paying customers is a much harder challenge.

The Bigger Picture Around Baseball

What's happening in Minneapolis stands out even more when viewed against the rest of the league. Major League Baseball is experiencing another attendance increase this season, with average crowds rising by more than 640 fans per game across the sport. Summer weather and pennant-race excitement could push that number even higher as the season progresses.

Some clubs have seen massive jumps. The Blue Jays have enjoyed the largest increase after their World Series appearance, adding more than 10,000 fans per game. Tampa Bay's return to its home ballpark has also produced a significant attendance boost (+6,747).

The Twins, meanwhile, are moving in the opposite direction. Their average crowd has dropped by roughly 23 fans per game compared to last season. Half the league has experienced larger declines, but many of those teams started from much stronger attendance positions.

Even within the AL Central, the Twins aren't standing out in a positive way. The White Sox, despite entering the season with low expectations, have posted one of baseball's largest attendance increases (+6,115). However, the rest of the AL Central ranks below the Twins in decreased average attendance, but that might have to do with how low Minnesota was in 2025. 

Empty Seats Have Become Common

Perhaps the most telling statistic is how rarely Target Field has hosted a truly large crowd. Minnesota has surpassed 30,000 announced fans only five times this season:

• April 3: The Home Opener.
• April 17: When the club offered complimentary tickets to fans affected by the Home Opener power outage.
• May 16: A Saturday matchup against Milwaukee.
• June 22-23: Dodgers series

Outside of those dates, large crowds have been difficult to find. The contrast was particularly striking in mid-May. Two days after announcing a crowd of 33,115 against the Brewers, the Twins reported a season-low attendance of just 11,488 for a game against Houston. That's a swing of more than 21,000 people in the span of a single series.

Can a Minnesota Summer Save The Numbers?

There is still time for attendance to improve. The weather is getting warmer, and the Twins have several attractive home dates remaining, and a postgame Ludacris concert scheduled for June 26.

Winning would help, too. Minnesota has  a 38-43 record and sitting just outside the playoff picture. The American League remains crowded enough that a sustained hot streak could quickly put the Twins back in the postseason conversation. Fans have shown throughout the Target Field era that they'll support a contender. The challenge for the organization is convincing them that this team (and this ownership group) is worth investing in again.

The Twins expected some attendance fallout after last year's deadline teardown and payroll reduction. What they probably didn't expect was to be tracking below a season that already represented a historic low point for Target Field.

Promotions, giveaways, and concerts can provide temporary boosts, but they don't address the underlying issue. Fans respond to belief. They buy tickets when they trust the organization is committed to putting a competitive product on the field.

Right now, the attendance numbers suggest many Twins fans are still waiting to be convinced. With half the home schedule remaining, there is time to change the story. Whether the club can do enough on the field (and off it) to bring fans back through the gates may be one of the most important questions facing the franchise during the second half.

What stands out about the team’s attendance so far this year? Leave a comment and start the discussion.

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[Whitey333]

Interesting article.  No real surprises however.  Pundits were speaking of this attendance decline most of this past off season.  Ownership dug this problem themselves with a series of public relations blunders the past couple of seasons.  It's not going to change overnight if at all until and unless the team is sold to new owners.  While there is time to get it back during the second half it will be interesting to see attendance figures once late August and September come around.  It could get worse.

[FlyingFinn]

Fans don't think the Twins ownership is trying to win. Worse yet, they think that ownership is just trying to -make money off of us with the low payroll. For both, a great example is the Twins bullpen. Thus, low attendance.

[Peter]

Attendance will get better and crowds bigger!!! Last night was most important win of season as twins are must watch every game!!! Especially now as we are only 1.5 back of wild card and 4.5 back in division!!! It’s going to be intense action packed 2nd half!!! Buckle up!!! 

[nclahammer]

This season is my first since 2010 that I have NOT been a Twins season ticket holder.   Nothing about this season thus far has me thinking "I'm a Believer."

[tarheeltwinsfan]

I think there is more to this story of low attendance, which TD writers and posters ignore. I  don't think Minnesota and the surrounding areas are capable of successfully supporting a major league baseball team as well as other, warmer areas of the USA or other areas with a more concentrated population. 1) Minnesota weather is extremely nice in the summer. Open air baseball parks are very nice in the summer in Minnesota, but these parks often are uncomfortable, and sometimes brutal, many days and nights in April, early May, September and October.  2) The fan base is drawn from many areas which are located long distances to travel for baseball games in Minneapolis. People are reluctant to make hotel  reservations and travel long distances to see baseball games, which may be postponed due to the weather or which are so cold at night that they are uncomfortable for the fans. A domed stadium would have solved some of these problems. But the owners, the city, county and state governments, and ultimately the fans, did not want to spend the money for a domed stadium. Instead they settled for short sighted mediocrity with a beautiful open air stadium. They said: "Baseball was meant to be played in the open air.  They said, "Minnesotans are a hardy bunch and used to cold, damp weather".  OK I get it. However hockey is played indoors and football does not require stadiums to be filled 81 games a season, mostly at night.  Face it, players don't like to play in wet, cold weather. Especially players from warm weather areas like Latin America, California and Florida. It is dangerous to accurately throw a wet baseball 95 mph with cold numb fingers, especially in a drizzle. Wet grass can cause unnecessary falls, embarrassed players and injuries. Most fans don't enjoy sitting in the cold weather to watch baseball. That is why the game is played most places in the US only in the warm weather months, and played year round only in warm weather climates. Paraphrasing Apollo 13 Commander James Lovell, "Ah, Minneapolis, we've had a problem".

[Nshore]

Calvin Griffith forgot more about baseball than any Pohlad will ever know, and ultimately he couldn't make a go of it here.  It's concerning.  In a losing year, die hard fans will still come out to see the star players from other teams and because they enjoy the game.  But most fans here need a winner.  Maybe a new baseball agreement will change the economics and help the cause.

[tony&rodney]

Attendance for baseball in Minnesota (the Twins) has always been tied pretty much to wins and losses. The Wild and Vikings draw even if they lose. Games are won by talent, which is the job of the front office. Despite a huge emphasis on payroll, which also makes its way into this article, it is talent that wins games. Unless one believes that the Twins owners should be carrying payrolls of $200+ million for players, the focus on money is misplaced as far as winning. As a brief reminder I will list Hoskins, Montgomery, and Gallen as players who various people forwarded for the club to sign if they weren't so cheap. 

The Dodgers took off when they hired Andrew Friedman in 2015 (I think). The accumulation of talent can be helped with access to large piles of cash, which MLB kindly provided to LAD when they exempted them from sharing their revenue in the same manner as all other teams. One cannot blame the Dodgers for spending that $600+ million unexpected money on talent. That does not negate that Friedman has built a terrific scouting and development system whereby the Dodgers always have a ton of talented players available for promotion or trades. Thus, I will suggest that the most important job of an owner is hiring the right people. The identification of talent leads to winning which leads to increased attendance. Minnesota will draw more fans when the team plays better and that will happen as new talent replaces a few of the current guys on the roster. 

While I may have actively opposed the sale of the Twins to Carl in 1984 because I preferred two of the other groups (MLB only okayed/allowed CP), it seems somewhat childish for people to throw out numerous articles that excoriate the Pohlads for their spending, while failing to note their relative absenteeism through the years. The real problem, as it is for all sports' franchises, has been a lack of talent and that falls directly on the shoulders of the front office. If Tom Pohlad is more aggressive with holding the front office more accountable or if he just goes absent due to a something like disinterest (was that Jim Pohlad?), there may be an article worth writing and reading. My personal thoughts are that the current group of coaches and Shelton are doing a good job. Can whomever is running the front office these days take the necessary steps to increase talent in the organization on on the Twins roster? If the answer is yes, attendance will increase. I really doubt that Tom Pohlad is scouring the fields across the world for baseball players or even making phone calls/texting people in front offices across MLB.

[Sjoski]

It's easy to pointing to:

1/ ownership’s payroll slashes,

2/ a mediocre product on the field,

3/ and April/May weather.

I agree. That's a ...

 Strike 3.

But there’s a massive elephant in the room that this fan base—and the local sports media—completely refuses to acknowledge.

The real attendance crisis isn't just about baseball. It’s about the city itself.

For a massive segment of the suburban fan base, the calculation for a night out completely changed after 2020. What used to be a seamless, routine trip downtown now feels like navigating a political minefield and a landscape a lot of folks simply no longer want to support or step foot in.

When you combine a hollowed-out downtown climate with premium parking rates, expensive tickets, and an ownership group that actively signal-flashed a surrender on the season before it even began, the magnet is gone.

Free tickets won’t fix it. Cheap beer  barely moves the needle. If the team won't invest in the fans, and the city doesn't feel like the welcoming entertainment hub it used to be, a lot of us aren't even stepping into the batter's box anymore.

[tony&rodney]

2 minutes ago, Nshore said:

Calvin Griffith forgot more about baseball than any Pohlad will ever know, and ultimately he couldn't make a go of it here.  It's concerning.  In a losing year, die hard fans will still come out to see the star players from other teams and because they enjoy the game.  But most fans here need a winner.  Maybe a new baseball agreement will change the economics and help the cause.

This is true. Minnesota (on the whole) doesn't really see baseball as among their top choices for entertainment. It isn't just attendance, it is also the number of people watching or listening.

[DJL44]

18 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

This is true. Minnesota (on the whole) doesn't really see baseball as among their top choices for entertainment. It isn't just attendance, it is also the number of people watching or listening.

Basketball and even soccer seem much more popular among the 18-30 year olds with disposable time and income. Baseball is viewed as “grandpa’s sport”.