Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners that the club could draw 100,000 fans for the final game in the Metrodome next Sunday if that many seats were available. That game is part of an historic series of sports events including the first ever Big Ten Conference football game at TCF Bank Stadium on Saturday and the first matchup of Vikings quarterback Brett Favre against his old team, the Green Bay Packers, next Monday night at the Metrodome.
The Twins play their last series in the dome Friday, Saturday and Sunday, ending the 2009 regular season while looking forward to next year and a new home at Target Field. St. Peter said that if the Twins are still in contention to win the Central Division championship, all three games could be sellouts. “Even in a worst case scenario” he expects a crowd of close to 40,000 on Friday and above that on Saturday, with a sellout of more than 50,000 on Sunday.
Normal baseball capacity is about 46,000 but the Twins are raising the curtain in right field to use seats there to increase capacity to over 50,000 for Sunday’s game which is sold out. Ticket demand for the game has been intense and the franchise is also giving away free tickets to people who have worked for the Twins since the dome opened in 1982. St. Peter said if the Twins were in contention for the division title and there was enough capacity a crowd of 150,000 might watch the historic final game.
The Gophers will try to win back Paul Bunyan’s Axe when they renew their border rivalry with Wisconsin on Saturday. Like all home games at TCF Bank Stadium, capacity 50,805, the game is sold out. The last three Gophers home games against Wisconsin in the Metrodome attracted crowds of 59,000 or more. With both teams off to winning starts (Wisconsin 4-0, Minnesota 3-1), a crowd of 60,000 to 70,000 would be a certainty if TCF had more seats.
Next week’s Monday night Vikings game is a local, regional and national phenomenon. This is a “perfect storm” involving the Vikings and Packers, two long time NFC North Division rivals with their own border battle legacy. Both teams entered this season among the favorites to play in the NFC title game. Favre played in Green Bay for 16 seasons, winning a Super Bowl, setting numerous NFL passing records and creating a love affair with Packers fans who now feel betrayed by his signing on here to play at age 39. And then interest went to an even higher level (if possible) with Favre’s miracle throw yesterday to lift the Vikings over the 49ers, 27-24.
The game will be a sellout in the dome with about 64,000 fans, mostly Vikings supporters but also including Packer backers. But demand for tickets could push attendance to 90,000 if the dome had that many seats, according to knowledgeable sources.
The game will be televised across the country by ESPN and seems likely to set a ratings record for cable TV programming. Last year’s Monday night telecast of the Eagles-Cowboys game was seen in almost 13 million homes.
On Tuesday night, October 6, night the Wild will open its home season at the Xcel Energy Center against Anaheim. A capacity crowd of 18,064 will attend, the franchise’s 342nd consecutive sellout, the longest streak in the NHL.
The Twins, Gophers, Vikings and Wild will play before about 265,000 fans in four days. And that total might be 75,000 or higher if there was larger capacity for the games at the dome and TCF Bank Stadium.
The attendance total would grow even bigger if the Twins play a one game Central Division tie breaker against Detroit a week from Tuesday before a Metrodome crowd of potentially 50,000 or more. And although it’s more of a participant than spectator event, tens of thousands will be involved with the annual Twin Cities Marathon next Sunday.
Extraordinary days lie ahead.