{"id":474250,"date":"2026-02-17T17:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/474250\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T17:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:58:07","slug":"minnesota-twins-tom-pohlad-focuses-on-business-fan-experience-while-building-new-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/474250\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Twins\u2019 Tom Pohlad focuses on business, fan experience while building new culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Twins principal owner Tom Pohlad<\/a> has \u201cfocused most of his time on the business side<\/a>\u201d of the team since assuming the role in December, according to Bobby Nightengale of the MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE. Pohlad, who is \u201coften\u201d meeting with corporate sponsors, also \u201cwants to make Target Field more attractive for fans\u201d — which included a $2 happy hour promotion for select ticket holders<\/a>. Pohlad said, \u201cThe point is to provide a bridge to fans and build some value in the experience at Target Field until actual games are being played, and we see where our team stands.\u201d He added that the Twins \u201cdrew about\u201d 50,000 signups for their Twins.TV digital streams<\/a> last year, and that other organizations under MLB\u2019s TV umbrella — such as the Padres, Rockies and D-backs — \u201csaw more growth in subsequent seasons after moving off a regional sports network\u201d (MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE, 2\/16<\/a>).<\/p>\n

BUILDING TRUST: In St. Paul, Betsy Helfand noted Pohlad, who went to Georgia to meet with CF Byron Buxton and traveled to California to talk to P Joe Ryan, has also \u201crecently been tapping into the knowledge of former players, including the rotating cast of television analysts.\u201d Pohlad said, \u201cI can\u2019t outsource earning back the trust of our fans<\/a> or of our employees or of the players. I think that work\u2019s got to be done by me. So that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do.\u201d Helfand wrote there is \u201cstill a long way to go to win back fans, many of whom are upset with ownership and have tuned out in recent years.\u201d The Twins\u2019 attendance was 1,768,728 last season — the lowest since Target Field opened with the exception of the two pandemic-impacted seasons. Their average attendance per game was 24th of 30 teams (St. Paul PIONEER PRESS, 2\/16<\/a>).<\/p>\n

SHOWING FACE: THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Dan Hayes noted Pohlad \u201cspoke to the club for 10 minutes\u201d during spring training in efforts to \u201cgive players an understanding of the team\u2019s new leadership trio.\u201d The start of Pohlad\u2019s speech \u201cfocused on how accountability begins with the ownership group,\u201d noting how the family had \u201cgotten off track over the past few years.\u201d Pohlad also \u201cdiscussed the need to rebuild trust\u201d and how he \u201chopes to establish a new culture.\u201d Pohlad \u201cused his speech to let the players know he\u2019s spending a month in camp to build relationships and improve the lines of communication\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 2\/16<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Twins principal owner Tom Pohlad has \u201cfocused most of his time on the business side\u201d of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1558,690,15799,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-474250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-fan-experience","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}