As attendance and engagement plummet, Target Field now feels more like an empty cathedral.
Television issues and the offseason payroll retrenchment have only deepened the disconnect between the team and its community.
Unless the franchise finds a way to reignite that spark (on the field, on the airwaves, and in the front office), it risks losing young fans forever, imperiling the franchise’s long‑term vitality.
Attendance Crisis at Target Field
This April, the Twins announced a paid crowd of just 10,240 for a game against the New York Mets. It was the smallest attendance for a non‑COVID season since Target Field opened in 2010.
The bleachers in left field were embarrassingly sparse, a stark contrast to the sellouts and energy surrounding the team’s 2023 postseason run. During that run, fans proved they would show up at Target Field if there were something to cheer about.
Perhaps even more alarming is the evaporating core of season‑ticket holders.
Based on the attendance for the Mets series, the Twins’ season‑ticket subscriber base sits below 10,000, which is one-fourth of the ballpark’s capacity.
Some teams have played poorly in the Target Field era, but this might be the lowest point in Target Field history when it comes to fan morale.
Management has kept season ticket renewal figures under wraps, but future attendance will only sink lower without a solid base of committed fans.
Minnesota averaged only 17,995 tickets sold per game through their first nine home dates, ranking 25th out of 30 MLB clubs.
This trend threatens the pipeline of tomorrow’s supporters. If children and young adults don’t experience the magic of Target Field now, the Twins will face an even steeper climb in decades to come.
Television Issues and Youth Engagement
In 2024, a bitter carriage dispute left many Comcast Xfinity subscribers unable to watch Twins games on Bally Sports North.
Fans tuning in saw only a “Bally Sports is no longer available” graphic, a fiasco that left households dark for months. During that stretch, the Twins played some of their best baseball of the season, which added insult to injury. That blackout certainly didn’t help cultivate new fans.
Amid the bankruptcy proceedings for Diamond Sports Group, MLB assumed production and distribution of Twins broadcasts in 2025 via its own local media arm.
And while MLB’s direct‑to‑consumer approach may broaden availability by getting rid of archaic blackout rules, it also generates far less revenue than traditional RSNs, raising concerns about budget cuts down the line.
Baseball endures, at its roots, as a game of childhood wonder, but if young fans can’t catch a single pitch on television, they’ll never develop that passion.
In an era of on-demand streaming and bundled sports packages, the Twins’ recent broadcast missteps have driven away potential lifelong supporters before they even picked up a glove.
Ownership on the Sidelines
Coming off the elation of October 2023, the Pohlads stunned fans by trimming payroll by $30 million before the 2024 season.
More dollars don’t guarantee on‑field success, but investment signals ambition in the underfunded AL Central.
Instead, the payroll rollback whispered that baseball is just another balance sheet line item for ownership.
Dwelling in the middle of the AL Central, the Twins have made remarkably few roster upgrades over the past two seasons.
Minnesota stood pat even at the 2024 trade deadline, when a bold swing could have electrified the fanbase. There was no impactful free-agent acquisition or blockbuster trade, just roster inertia that echoed from the front office to the stands.
Fans rally around new faces and renewed hope. Change for its own sake is rarely advisable, but stagnation born of a dearth of better ideas is even worse.
Here, the silence of the phones in Derek Falvey’s war room has fostered only apathy.
When fans have no reason to pay attention, families choose cheaper, more reliable forms of entertainment, and kids lose interest in the game’s narrative.
The team sometimes seems to forget that its fans are awake and hungry for entertainment year-round, rather than only during the season, and that transactions freshen the vibes in both the grandstand and the clubhouse.
Reigniting Hope
Baseball’s beauty lies in the ebb and flow of the season, the promise of a comeback forged out of adversity.
The Twins need that narrative again, through meaningful payroll commitments, bold midseason moves, and a broadcast plan that ensures no child is left without a window into the action.
It will take more than tactical tweaks. It will require genuine communication, transparency, and a renewed partnership with the community.
Right now, the Twins can’t be trusted to do this.
Many fans have seen firsthand how a game can capture a child’s imagination.
The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, and the butterflies before a big pitch are memories that last a lifetime.
But without that spark kindled early, baseball becomes just another note on the page of youth’s digital distractions.
The Twins must remember that their truest investment isn’t a free agent contract or a broadcast fee. It’s in every first‑time fan who thrills at a homer, who dreams of stealing bases and calling “let’s go!” in a stadium full of strangers.
Target Field has a chance to once again pulse with life. If the organization can reconnect with that emotional core by filling the stands, helping fans with their broadcast coverage, and showing that payroll reflects purpose. If not, new owners will soon look back and see they lost more than games.
They’ll have lost a generation.
