Tag: Twins tickets

As the Twins rise in the standings so do the ticket prices

2010 - present Twins primary logoThe Minnesota Twins finally had a winning season (83-79) in 2015 after having lost 90 or more games for four consecutive years and watched as their attendance drop lower and lower each season. The team’s performance kept individual game ticket prices relatively flat during the losing stretch but after finishing just two games over the .500 mark Twins management has decided that it is time to raise the ticket prices, after all, the team hasn’t raised their ticket prices since 2012. I noticed this past off-season that the Twins didn’t brag about holding down ticket prices and they made no announcement that ticket prices would go up but you didn’t have to be a genius to assume that ticket prices would rise in 2016. So let’s dig in a bit and see what transpired this off-season.

Twins Raise Ticket Prices

Bottom line is that the Twins raised ticket prices $1-$3 for every seat in the Main Level of Target Field for every tier of games in 2016. The club pretty much left the Club level, Terrace Level, Outfield Mezzanine Level and Budweiser Roof Deck tickets at 2015 prices except for “The Field View” tickets in the Terrace level which were increased by a buck for each tier of games. These price changes increase the average 2016 Twins ticket price to $31.72 from an average of $31.25 in 2015.

The variable ticket pricing plan that was instituted in 2006 with 2 tiers jumped to 3 tiers in 2009 and 5 tiers in 2013 remains unchanged in 2016. Last year the tiers were called “extra value”, “value”, “select”, “premium” and “elite” but this year the Twins have not yet announced the names for the tiers nor how many games fall into each tier but with a little digging I think we have gotten down to the bottom of it. The number of games in each of the tiers did change slightly once again from 2015. The “extra value” games are the cheapest priced games and all eight of these games fall in April and September when school is in session and the weather is expected to be cooler. The next step up is the “value” plan and the number of games in this category decreases from twelve last season to eight in 2016. The “select” category is the middle of the line category and this is pretty much the Twins baseline for ticket prices. The number of games in this category increases this year to 49 games from 41 last year. The next step up is the “premium” games and the Twins decreased the number of games in this category from nine to eight. The top of the line category is the “Elite” games and this category of games remained unchanged at eight games. The Twins strategy this season puts 60% of the games in the middle “select” tier and then splits the remaining 40% of the  games evenly between the lower tiers and upper tiers.

Individual game tickets went on sale February 20 but those prices are only in effect for one day because as of February 22 demand-based pricing kicks in for the rest of the season and the Twins and their demand-based pricing partner, Digonex Technologies, Inc. will monitor and change ticket prices based on a number of conditions.

Average ticket prices for the various tiers

An “extra value” game is $16.85, a “value” game is $24.40, a “select” game is $31.70, a “premium” game is $38.95, and an “elite” game is $46.70.  If you attend an “elite” game you will pay on average about three times as much for your seat as you would if you attended an “extra value” game. Same seat, same game of baseball but the tier designation determines how much money stays in your wallet. By the way, if you are lucky enough to sit in the first row, you will have to pay a $5 or $10 premium depending on what section your seat is in.

2016 Twins single game ticket prices on February 20

(Main level)
Champion’s Club – Season Ticket only
Dugout Box – $51/$68/$84/$100/$117
Home Plate Box – $38/$51/$63/$75/$88
Diamond Box – $29/$39/$48/$57/$67
Field Box – $23/$30/$37/$44/$51
Left Field Bleachers – $10/$17/$24/$31/$38
The Pavilion – $12/$20/$27/$34/$43
Overlook – $12/$20/$27/$34/$43
Great Clips Great Seats – $29/$34/$42/$49/$56
 
(Club level)
Legend’s Club – Season Ticket only
The Deck – $19/$25/$31/$37/$43
 
(Terrace level)
Home Plate Terrace – $21/$28/$35/$42/$49
Field Terrace – $10/$18/$25/$32/$40
Home Plate View – $10/$18/$25/$32/$40
Skyline View – $6/$11/$16/$21/$26
Field View – $7/$11/$15/$19/$23
Family Section (Alcohol-free section includes a hotdog & a soda) – $10/$18/$25/$32/$40
 
(Outfield Mezzanine level)
U.S. Bank Home Run Porch Terrace – $10/$17/$24/$31/$38
U.S.  Bank Home Run Porch View – $7/$12/ $17/$22/$27
Grandstand –  $7/$12/$17/$22/$27
 
(Budweiser Roof Deck)
Fixed View Seat – $18/$27/$36/$45/$54
Standing Room ticket – $8/$12/$16/$20/$24

Season Ticket Prices

Although I did not spend a lot of time comparing 2016 season ticket prices to 2015 prices it appears that the season tickets jumped up in the same areas as did the single ticket prices. The Left Field Bleachers full season ticket for example went for $1,620 in 2015 and in 2016 it costs $1,701 which brought the ticket price up $1 a ticket from $20 to $21. If you yearned for the best of the best,  which is the Thomson Reuters Champions Club then you would need to fork over $24,705 this year, up $10 a ticket from $23,895 last year.

2016 Target Field Seating map

Hammond Stadium Renovations & Spring Training Tickets

2014 Twins ST schedule 2David Dorsey of the Ft. Myers News-Press provides you with a short but informative video on how the improvements to Hammond Studium are coming along. Phase One of a two-phase, $48 million project is scheduled to be completed Feb. 15, just in time for when Minnesota Twins pitchers and catchers report for spring training duty. It sounds like they will be working right up to the last-minute to get it ready. You can watch the video right here.

Twins Spring Training tickets went on sale on Saturday, January 11th and the Twins really changed things up this year on the types of tickets they sell. Here is what the Twins are doing this year.

Location Season Tix Value Premium
Dugout Box $38 $40 $43
  Home Plate Box $22 $27 $30
  Diamond Box $20 $25 $28
Home Plate View $19 $25 $28
  Field View $17 $23 $26
  Bullpen Zone N/A $23 $26
  Left Field Drink Rails N/A $14 $17
Lawn Seating N/A Left: $12 Right: $14 Left: $15 Right: $17
Scoreboard Pavilion N/A $18 $21
Grandstand N/A $16 $19
Party Porch N/A $18 $21
Right Field Bullpen N/A $16 $19
  Right Field Drink Rail $21 $26 $29

View Twins Seating & Pricing – Premium pricing applies to the 3/5, 3/6, 3/9, 3/13, 3/22, and 3/28 games.

I had written a piece last year on spring training tickets prices that you can check out here and you can see for yourself how Twins ticket prices and categories have changed over the years. Increasing or changing the ticket seating categories allows a team to increase their ticket prices without actually telling their fans that the price to see a spring training game has gone up even if the team has been a cellar dweller for the last three seasons. I am looking forward to getting down to Hammond Stadium to check out the improvements for myself.

Florida spring training ticket prices

money in walletDo you have plans to get away from the cold and snow and feel the sand between your toes, the sun on your back and hopefully catch some Twins spring training baseball in Florida? What better way to forget your problems and get away from it all. For the first time in many years I will not be attending spring training in Ft. Myers but that is a whole different story. Well, if you are going, you might want to raise your credit card limit and keep a tight grip on your wallet or purse because MLB and the Twins are looking to help themselves to your money.

The Detroit Tigers apparently have found a new way to gouge a few additional dollars from their fans. The Tigers normally open the gates to Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida 2 hours prior to home games but by that time the Tigers have already completed their batting practice. Baseball fans enjoy watching the home team take batting practice so the Tigers have decided to allow fans to get in early for home batting practice but the fans will be limited to the left-field berm and will need to scratch up an extra $5 for the privilege. Tigers management take on it is that the fans requested it since they could not watch batting practice and now they will be able to do so, if they come up with the bucks. Way to push it on the fans Detroit Tigers management, if the Tigers were really just doing a good deed they would not charge for the privilege or if they did, any money they collect should go to charity or to the old-time baseball players with little or no pensions that baseball has neglected so badly. But it is not just the Tigers, other teams are also looking to take more money from the wallets of their fans. It seems to me that a fan should not be punished if he/she decides to go to a baseball on short notice but that is not the case if you want to take in an Atlanta Braves game in Lake Buena Vista as their web site states that “A $5 Walk-Up fee will apply to Day-Of-Game purchases”, what idiot came up with that idea? Punish walk-up ticket sales? Calvin Griffith is rolling over in his grave this very moment. Other teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates (who have not played .500 ball for 20 years) for example have come up with this plan “Prior to the individual ticket on-sale, fans will have the opportunity to take part in an “Early Bird” online only pre-sale from January 23-25. “Early Bird” pricing is different than regular single game pricing and is an alternative purchase opportunity for fans who want to be guaranteed seats to high-demand games.” This means that for 3 days the Pirates allow you to pay more for a spring training ticket that you normally would. Where the heck do these idiots come up with these ideas and why is the general public falling for these shenanigans?

I see this as just another way that baseball is looking at additional fees to take in more money from their fans. I sure hope this is not something that spreads like wildfire through out baseball as spring training is one of the few places where fans get a chance to get close to their team and now it just seems like baseball is going to make them pay. Fans that attend spring training are the true fan base of any team, they spend their hard earned money to travel to a destination to observe their favorite teams and they should be rewarded by their teams and not punished with extra fees.

The Minnesota Twins have made it tougher to get close to some of the fields in spring training themselves and that is a trend that I see getting worse over the years. Probably won’t be long before they start charging fans for watching the minor leaguers play their games on the back fields. Baseball should be looking for ways to encourage fans to go to spring training by making it affordable but that apparently is not the case.

Look at the Twins spring training ticket prices for example, this is year 2 of “Value” and “Premium” pricing and the tickets range from $13 for a “value” lawn ticket to $43 for a “premium” Dugout Box seat. Last year 3 of the 16 (18.8%) home games were designated as “premium”, this year 6 of the 18 (33.3%) of the home games are classified as “premium” games.  2013 is the first time in a number of years that the Twins have not raised their spring training ticket prices at Hammond Stadium from the previous season but they doubled the number of their “premium” games so yes, they will make more money off ticket sales. YES, $43. How in the world can the Twins who are coming off of back-to-back 90+ loss seasons, dropping payroll, charge $43 to watch a team that will not even have big leaguers playing most of the time? The Twins average spring trainng attendance in 2012 was 7,344 which was a drop of a little over 9% from 8,091 in 2011.

If you are going to have variable pricing why not come up with a plan that is more fair to the fans, charge less for these early spring training exhibition games than you do for games played later in March because for most of March it is mostly minor league players playing most of the game with major league players making cameo appearances. Let’s take a look at the Twins spring training ticket prices since 2008.

Ticket type 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012* 2013**
Dugout Box $38 n/a $39 $39 $40/$43 $40/$43
Box $22 $23 $24 $25 $26/$29 $26/$29
Reserved $20 $21 $22 $23 $24/$27 $24/$27
Drink Rail $20 $21 $22 $25 $26/$29 $26/$29
Lawn $12 $12 $12 $13 $13/$16 $13/$16
* – 3 premium games
** – 6 premium games

Twins Tickets – Value, Select and Premium

Wait, is that one of the Pohlad's?

Like many other baseball teams, the Twins have categorized their tickets the last few years into value home games, select home games, and premium home games or categories similar to this. The value games are the lowest price and then the select games are usually about $2 more and finally on the high-end we have the premium games that are about$3 more than the select and $5 more than the value games. I thought it would be interesting to see how the Twins designated their tickets since 2009 so here is what I found.

YEAR Value games Select games Premium games
2009 60 (74%) 14 (17%) 7 (9%)
2010 27 (33%) 39 (48%) 15 (19%)
2011 22 (27%) 36 (44%) 23 (28%)
2012 20 (25%) 38 (47%) 23 (28%)

It appears to be getting tougher and tougher to find “value” games year after year. These so-called “value” games were once upon a time the going price for attending a baseball game. In 2012 only 25% of the Minnesota Twins home games will be “value” games, the remaining 75% of the tickets are marked up as “select” or “premium games”. Like many other businesses, baseball is looking to raise revenue but doesn’t want to irritate the fan base by raising ticket prices so they just pick certain games that they categorize differently and charge a higher price for them. This is just a fee that is not called a fee. Baseball assumes that the general public is too dumb to realize what is going on. Who or how games are determined to be “value”, “select”, or “premium” at the beginning of each season would be interesting to know. These higher fees for “select” and “premium” games do not apply to season ticket holders here in Minnesota. Let’s do some math for the fun of it and let’s start with a couple of assumptions, first that the Twins have about 25,000 season tickets sold for each game and that the capacity of Target Field is 39,000 as a nice round number. That means you have about 14,000 tickets sold to the general public for each home game. So, if you have 38 “select” games in 2012 these 14,000 tickets at a $2 premium over a “value” game would bring in an extra ($2 x 14,000 x 38) $1,064,000. If you look at the 23 “premium” games in 2012 these 14,000 tickets at a $5 premium over a “value” game will bring in an extra ($5 x 14,000 x 23) $1,610,000. The numbers I am using I think are very conservative so the total extra dollars brought in through this ticket categorization are very likely higher that what I have here. These kinds of things just frustrate me to no end, ticket prices are already based on seat location meaning that better seats cost more and I understand that but why should I have to pay more to see the Yankees or the Cubs play or why should I pay more because the game is being played on a Saturday night? The Twins are no better and no worse at this than the other MLB teams but in my mind this is just not right. It is these kinds of things that cause baseball fans to jump off the home team bandwagons and stay off until the team is a winner. The bad part is that the teams don’t want to spend money to get good players unless they have the fans support and the fans don’t want to spend their hard earned money watching a crappy team. So it becomes a “what should happen first scenario”.

So what happens over the next few years to the “value” games? They are already down to just 25% of the home games. I guess when the “value” games drop to next to nothing, the “value” category will be eliminated, and the “select” category become the lowest price category and a new category for the high-end will be invented and called something like “platinum” and the game goes on. MLB best be careful, their ticket prices in all these new stadiums are getting out of hand. In most cases the taxpayers are footing a huge chunk of these ballpark costs and it will be sad when the fans get priced out of going to watch their home team play in a ballpark that they paid for to begin with.

I understand that baseball is entertainment and that salaries are extraordinary in the entertainment industry but when does it reach a point of no return? The average salary for a Twins player according to USA Today in 2011 was $4,509,480 and we are talking about a team that lost 99 games. The Kansas City Royals had the lowest average in 2011 and that was still at $1,338,000 and the Yankees were of course the highest with a $6,756,300 average.

I know this blog won’t change anything but writing it does make me fell somewhat better knowing that I have gotten it off my chest. I just hope that Twins fans in 2032 will still be able to attend a Twins game in person at Target Field and get to enjoy baseball the way it should be enjoyed, outdoors at your local ballpark in person. Hell, by then everyone will probably have some kind of igadget that puts everyone out in the field of play so we all get the same view as the players do.