MINNEAPOLIS — It's now been three full seasons since Target Field was build in downtown Minneapolis, but the home of the Minnesota Twins will receive another change this offseason.
The bleacher seats above the wall in right field will be transformed into seven rows of drink rails in sections 139, 140 and 141. The drink rails will have stools with backs, and the new sections will be able to hold about 200 fans. Behind the drink rail seating will be a canopy that will also include radiant heating, much like what is available at various locations throughout the ballpark.
Each offseason since Target Field was opened in 2010, the Twins have made changes to the downtown ballpark. Prior to 2011, a second scoreboard was added in right field, along with a 100-foot tall Twins Tower. Thursday's announcement of changes to the right field seating is among the latest modifications.
“I think the overall headline is that we try to work on refinements and different things every year. Some years big, some years not big, but just kind of try to keep the fan experience at the forefront of our decision making,” said Kevin Smith, the team's executive director of public affairs. “Those sections in the right field corner, those bleachers, had some level of obstruction into the outfield areas. So we kind of took a look at that to see what we could do to mitigate that.”
Tickets for the drink rail seating area will primarily be sold as group tickets, Smith said, much like the Budweiser Roof Deck in the left field corner. There may be single-game individual tickets available on a game-by-game basis, however, depending on the number of group tickets sold.
Construction on the project will begin this month and will be completed by January 2013. The finishing touches will be done in March and the seating will be ready for Opening Day on April 1. The bleachers previously used in those sections will be donated to youth baseball fields in St. Paul.
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