Three years from this month the Minnesota Twins will be playing outdoors at home for the first time since 1981. What the weather gods will choose from their April bag of tricks is harder to predict than the next Anna Nicole Smith headline. The weather worry warts are already in anxiety mode about games in April of 2010 in the new downtown ballpark but team president Dave St. Peter has a calming message.
The Twins anticipate playing almost all their games as scheduled, April-October. St. Peter said rain will cancel only a handful of games and the team will play in cold weather. “A state of the art” drainage system will allow the grass field to accept “significant amounts of rain” and still be suitable for play, according to St. Peter. The field will be heated, too, making the grass not only green during cold weather but safer for the players.
While there is no possibility of adding a retractable roof to the stadium, St. Peter said the Twins are planning to make fans comfortable during inclement weather. There are plans for heating concourses and some seating areas. It may also be possible to both heat and cool individual seats, just like in cars. Four or five lounges with capacities of 150 to 200 people will provide indoor viewing and be open to the general public. Sixty private suites will offer the ultimate in climate controlled comfort but even fans paying on the cheap, sitting in the bleachers, will have something going, too–the most exposure to the sun in the ballpark.
The Twins open the season this year at home during the first week of April but prefer later home openers starting in 2010. St. Peter said major league teams have some influence in determining schedules. “We hope for the middle of April to open up (at home),” he said.
The Twins also have input on whether games are played during the day or night. While some April games such as the home opener will certainly be played during the day, St. Peter said the Twins will play at night in April. Weekday games, because of all the downtown workers, will provide parking challenges for fans.
On the Twins Web site St. Peter’s blog includes research on how Minneapolis compares favorably in temperature and precipitation with other northern major league cities. Minneapolis and Cleveland have an average April temp of 57 but seven other cities are between 58 and 62 degrees. For April-October precipitation, Minneapolis has the second smallest amount among nine cities.
Small crowds of less than 20,000 were the norm during April when the Twins played in Met Stadium but the new ball park will have lots of customers every month of the year. Season ticket projections are about 17,000, although the total could go to 20,000, exactly half of the stadium’s capacity. Individual and group sales will be brisk, too, as fans respond to the opportunity to see outdoor baseball for the first time in more than a quarter century.