A few weeks ago, we examined the high expectations heading into the 2016 Minnesota Twins season. In fact, excitement was at such a premium that a new season ticket holder entered the fold!
For most of my
life, I lived a considerable drive—3+ hours—from the Metrodome. As such, my live game attendance was perhaps 5-8 times a year. Even that was goosed by a baseball-loving aunt and other relatives living in the TC metro.
Then in 2010, I moved to the suburban concrete jungle myself—almost synonymous with Target Field’s inaugural. What a boon! At least until I discovered that tickets would be at a premium for The New Place (TM).
So, for the first six years of Target Field baseball, I was a StubHub scrounger—looking for deals whenever I could. While sometimes I’d score sweet “clearly someone needs to unload this ticket” finds (especially in the 2011-2014 doldrums), it was also frustrating to be at the whim of others to attend a baseball game. Plus, there’s my 6’8” frame to consider, making an aisle seat slightly closer to “necessity” than “nice bonus” for me.
But then 2015 happened and my love for live baseball was revitalized. Dozier was depositing dingers, Miguel was mashing moonshots, and the vibes were simply fun again. As is always the slight paradox of supply-and-demand, this also meant less StubHub steals and more ushers clearing out lower sections of matriculating patrons.
Now that I was juuuuuust financially secure enough to afford a multi-hundred dollar bank transaction without breaking out in a rash, it was clear I needed something more stable. So, I headed to 1 Twins Way in the dead of the 2015-2016 winter to put my money where my mouth (or in this case, heart) was. I showed up in-person because I was adamant about putting butt-to-seat before purchasing, just to make sure I wouldn’t be viewing a railing every time I settled in. Ultimately, I found everything to my satisfaction and left the premises the owner of twenty 2016 games in section 319 (upper deck between home plate and 3rd base).
I was so excited I didn’t even screen the terribly dark, poorly framed, slightly out of focus pic snapped by the Twins ticket representative who probably just wanted to get out of the freezing cold…
As we’ll see—and many of you already remember—over the coming months, it’s amazing I lasted more than a solitary season after what happened in ‘16. But I’ve not only continued to re-up each year—I’ve also re-located to section 221. Of course, you’ll hardly even find me there for the amount of times I do a further nominal upgrade into the lower deck (hahaha).
Do you have any interesting stories about being a season ticket holder or just purchasing tix in general? This would be the place to drop them as we slog through a cold December.
