MN Twins Sold A LOT of $2 Beer at Home Opener

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Credit: Marc Vasconcellos/The Enterprise / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

When you’re struggling to engage fans as the Minnesota Twins have been for most of the last few years, it is wise to pull out all the stops to try and bring them back. Unless, of course, your last name is Pohlad and you have to spend money.

For weeks leading up to the MN Twins home opener on Friday April 3 against the Tampa Bay Rays, the team sent multiple emails advertising tickets as low as $20, and sales representatives manned the phones to try and convert customers on the fence.

Ultimately it resulted in ticket sales of 36,042 (down roughly 700 from 2025) on a cold and drizzly night in downtown Minneapolis. The star of the promotional show, however, was a pregame happy hour at Target Field, featurning $2 beer.

Beer sales a success in Minnesota Twins home opener

Originally, it was scheduled to take place from the time the gates opened, until first pitch. Between that two-ish hour time slot, fans could grab Bud Light, Budweiser, and Twins Pils 12 ounce cans for just two dollars.

However, a pregame power outage in downtown Minneapolis caused a power outage at Target Field. Because point of sale systems were down, beers could not be purchased for at approximately an hour.

When the power came back, $2 beers were extended until the end of the second inning. And as it turned out, there was a lot of supply — at least 24,000 cold ones worth.

At 24,000 beers, the Twins probably sold more cans than there were actual fans through the gates. A rough estimate for the actual crowd size Saturday was around the 20,000-25,000 mark.

Of course, with fan morale in the tank, and weather consisting of 30-degree temperatures with drizzles, that number really isn’t too bad. Having been in the stadium, the entire experience was an interesting one, mostly due to the outage.

Eventually heading through the gates around 3:10pm, there was clearly some miscommunication to vendors. The first I ran into instructed fans that $2 beer sales were no longer taking place, due to the scheduled first pitch having passed.

Venturing further into the concourse, however, the $2 deal extension was still in play. At some point, the Twins put it up on the jumbotron that the sale was extended through the second inning.

Partnerships could help MN Twins to rebound

Not even Tom Pohlad is thick enough to believe that $2 beers alone will help bring Minnesota Twins back to the park in a meaningful way. However, the infusion of dollars that would otherwise not be there can’t hurt the bottom line for ownership that is constantly crying poor.

Beverage sales aren’t the only new financial infusion of cash into the stadium. Minnesota went through more than $5.2 million in renovations to their premium Champions Club section behind home plate.

That area did push a price hike to season ticket holders, and it looks like the team added a new sponsorship deal with United Healthcare to generate another revenue stream.

Ultimately fans want to see the Pohlads put a team on the field that has a respectable payroll. Being under $100 million isn’t that. At this juncture, being below $160 million isn’t even reflective of that. Until they get there, keeping fans hydrated and trying to pull in other revenue is hardly a bad way to operate on the fringes.

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