Attendance will be limited to 25,000 for the first ever baseball game at Target Field when the Gophers play Louisiana Tech beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 27. Limiting attendance to about 15,000 under capacity will make it more manageable to use the game as a trial run for vendors and workers. Only general admission tickets costing $2 each will be sold for the game with proceeds benefiting the Twins Community Fund. Tickets will be available only at Target Field beginning at 8 a.m. on game day.
Stubhub.com listed tickets from $152 to $7,000 on Wednesday for the initial regular season game at Target Field on April 12 against Boston.
The New York Knicks have bought out the contract of former Wolves forward Brian Cardinal. Cardinal, 32, told Sports Headliners he wants to continue playing and if another NBA team doesn’t sign him he would be eligible after 30 days to rejoin the Wolves if there is mutual interest.
The Timberwolves begin an aggressive season tickets marketing campaign for 2010-11 on March 1 with discounts up to 50 percent. The Wolves have been losing money in recent years and a good guess is that owner Glen Taylor’s franchise will lose at least $10 million this season. Management has decided it’s better to put more people in the seats at surprisingly steep discounts than not sell those tickets at all.
Basketball boss David Kahn said on the Ch. 45 TV broadcast of the Wolves game Sunday night that his rebuilding team probably won’t make the playoffs next season but hopes the win total will push past 30.
It’s obvious the coaching staff doesn’t want to commit even short term to a lineup offering heavy minutes to both Al Jefferson and Kevin Love at the same time. Rather than have the two 6-10 power forwards on the floor, coach Kurt Rambis wants more size. Playing either Ryan Hollins or Darko Milicic, both 7 foot centers, with Jefferson or Love provides better defense.
Milicic, the 24-year-old whom the Wolves acquired earlier this month form New York, has played intelligently and made his teammates better. Those attributes are ones that rookie point guard Jonny Flynn can improve upon.
With 37-year-old Pat Williams a possibility for retirement, popular speculation is that the Vikings will pick Tennessee defensive tackle Dan Williams at No. 30 on the first round in the April NFL draft. He is about 6-2, 329 pounds (Pat Williams, 6-3, 317).
Vikings linebacker Ben Leber said earlier this week on NFL.com he thinks quarterback Brett Favre will return for another season.