Twins Ticket Sales Booming As Team Wins Ballgames
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - As the Minnesota Twins continue to win, demand for game tickets is growing. And that means those cheap seats you'd hope to score this season may cost a bit more.
On Monday, the Twins won for the seventh time in nine games, as they defeated the Red Sox 7-2.
They're now in second place in their division, just two games behind Kansas City.
We talked with ticket brokers about how all of this is affecting ticket prices and availability.
The team hasn't played this well since 2010, their first year at Target Field.
Over the last few years, as the Twins struggled, the overall attendance at games dropped.
But in the last month, as the team regained their mojo, demand for tickets grew and the resale value of tickets went up as well.
Managers at Ticket King say they've seen increased demand for tickets as a result of the team playing well.
Mike Nowakowski is the president of Ticket King.
"It's more of a situation where we are able to sell through our inventory," he said. "In years past, it didn't matter what the price was, people just weren't interested in going."
We've seen what it looks like when Twins fans check out: lots of empty seats at Target Field, like at many of the games at the end of last season.
"In Minnesota, we are starving for winners," Nowakowski said. "So it is the person who is saying, 'I'm going to jump on board this Twins thing. It's fun, they're athletic, they're young, they're likable. New manager. Just has a whole new different feel to it.'"
Nowakowski said they have far fewer unsold tickets for games the Twins have played so far this season, compared with previous years.
"The fact that we are selling out of games in May is a miracle for us, the way it's gone the past few years," he said.
Ticket King is already seeing people buy more tickets for games later in the season, meaning your odds of getting those really cheap seats are slim to none.
"That fan who is used to paying five, six, seven bucks -- it's not going to happen," Nowakowski said. "We are even seeing some of our low-end tickets later in the year creep up."
The Minnesota Twins say that after four losing seasons in a row, fans are slowly coming back as the team` performs better.
Attendance numbers tell the story.
On April 16, on a Thursday afternoon against Kansas City, about 17,000 people filled Target Field. It set a record for lowest attendance at the ballpark.
Monday afternoon, against the Boston Red Sox, more than 29,000 Twins fans were in the house.
The highest demand for tickets is always Opening Day.
The second highest is the series with the Chicago Cubs. They only play the Cubs every few years. And it's in June, on Father's Day weekend. Tickets are going fast: Saturday's game is the most popular of the three-game series.
