HOK Sport

Lore & Background

Target Field is the Twins/Senators sixth ballpark, and the franchise's third in Minnesota. The Twins had played 28 seasons at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and before that 21 seasons at Metropolitan Stadium. The Twins shared both facilities with the Minnesota Vikings, and the Metrodome with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. The final budget for construction was $435 million, of which $175 million was paid by the Twins and $260 million was paid by Hennepin County by way of a 0.15% county-wide sales tax. An additional $120 million in infrastructure costs were split between the county ($90 million), the team ($20 million), Target Corporation ($4.5 million), the Minnesota Department of Transportation ($3.5 million) and the Minnesota Ballpark Authority ($2 million) bringing the project's total cost to US$555 million.

In Their Own Story

The parking lot at Target Field is still half-full when the last car pulls in, headlights cutting through the October dusk. A woman in a faded 1987 Twins cap—her father's, she says—clutches a thermos of coffee and a scarf knitted by a neighbor three blocks over. The crowd noise is a living thing, a low roar that builds and swells like a river finding its channel. Someone in the bleachers starts the old chant, and within seconds it is a wave, a tide, a thousand voices braided into one. The shortstop fields a grounder, the crack of the bat echoes off the brick facade, and for one suspended moment the world is nothing but the diamond, the crowd, and the stubborn, beautiful hope that this night might be the one. HOK Sport is not a place on a map. It is the feeling in your chest when the third baseman turns for the double play and the entire stadium exhales as one.

Reader's Guide

The Twins were in their 13th season in the Metrodome when they formally declared their desire to find a new home on July 18, 1994. Carl Pohlad, owner of the Twins, told the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission the current facility was 'economically obsolete' due to changes in the economy of Major League Baseball. This declaration started a process which would culminate nearly 16 years later with the opening of Target Field. In the intervening years, many ideas, financing plans and possible locations came and went. The long process included threats of relocation, infighting between the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and numerous pieces of legislation at various levels of government. The process spanned the terms of three Minnesota governors, five mayors of Minneapolis or St. Paul, and even two long-tenured Twins managers. The timeline includes key events from 1961 through 2010, including the identification of the eventual site of Target Field in 2000, the 2005 financing agreement between the Twins and Hennepin County, and the start of construction in 2007.

Did You Know?

• Target Field is named for Target Corporation, which is headquartered in Minneapolis.
• The stadium hosted the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
• In 2010, ESPN The Magazine ranked Target Field as the number one baseball stadium experience in North America.
• The Twins set a three-game series attendance record (123,385) against the Milwaukee Brewers on Armed Services Appreciation Day, July 3, 2011.