Talk of building a structure to house a retractable roof on Target Field persists but has no fact. “That falls into the category of urban legend,” Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners. “For the 100th time, we’re building an open air ballpark.”
St. Peter said the Target Field facility, which opens next spring, isn’t designed to accommodate a roof with existing technology. He also said there are no plans to relocate the Hennepin County garbage incinerator that’s adjacent to the stadium and rumored to be the site for housing a retractable roof.
It’s too soon for the Twins to know the date of their regular season home opener in 2010 but they have requested major league baseball that the team open on the road. It’s likely, according to St. Peter, that the Twins will play two exhibition games at Target Field against a major league team, probably Friday, April 2 and Saturday, April 3.
Those games will ease some demand for tickets to see the first regular season game in the 40,000 seat ballpark. Single game tickets will be available for all three games, although the Twins haven’t announced an on sale date.
The Twins will sell a franchise record 15,000 to 20,000 season tickets in 2010, St. Peter said. Group sales will also lessen inventory for single game tickets throughout the 2010 season. St. Peter expects about 11,000 season tickets to be sold in 2009, bettering the franchise mark of approximately 10,500 set in 1993.
A season ticket base of 15,000 to 20,000 will make the Twins about average compared with other franchises, according to St. Peter. He also said the team has nine unsold suites at Target Field from an inventory of 60.