At the Dome, St. Peter says, the Twins don’t get parking money. Suite money, “for the most part, is controlled by the Vikings.” The major signage in the Dome is controlled by the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, though the Twins do get income from concourse signage and concessions. And “we have the fewest number of quality seats of any ballpark in America—between first and third base—which makes it very difficult to sell season tickets,” St. Peter notes. “All of those things add up to a very ugly economic picture.”
But, he adds, “When we get our new ballpark, we’re not a small market.” Small markets are Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, maybe even Cleveland and St. Louis, he says. Their metro areas may be larger than the Twin Cities, but the Twins draw from a larger geographic area, stretching into Iowa and the Dakotas. Once the stadium is built, he says, “the markets I think we should be compared to are Denver and Phoenix and Seattle. You don’t hear the Arizona Diamondbacks referred to as a small-market team. We should be able to have the same level of success as other mid-markets.”
And no, the stadium isn’t only about money. It’s about those humble fans again. And here is where you begin to understand just how happy the Twins are to have Dave St. Peter out in the community speaking at luncheons and other events:
“We have played in the Metrodome now for longer than we played at Met Stadium [1961–1981]. Most people don’t realize that. The Dome for us has been a facility with many wonderful, positive memories. But we’re playing baseball in a corner of a football stadium.
“That has been the baseball-viewing experience for a generation. We’ve got an entire generation that has never watched a game outdoors and has never had what we consider to be a first-class, Major League Baseball experience. They deserve better. They deserve a legitimate Major League ballpark, with superior sight lines, superior food and beverage service, with concourses that are twice as wide, with a Major League–quality scoreboard and sound system. So yes, it’s about revenue. But I think it’s also about experience. I think that’s what finally turned the tide [in the political battle for the stadium]—people saying, ‘Yeah, let’s build a ballpark.’ Don’t underestimate the experience.”
And whether you agree with him or not, dammit, you believe the guy.
Dave St. Peter Timeline
1989 - St. Peter
leaves the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks, a few credits short of a
degree in public relations. (He later finishes his degree.)
1990 - St. Peter joins the Twins as an unpaid marketing intern. Five months later, the team hires him to manage its retail outlet in Richfield.
1992 - The Twins name St. Peter head of a new corporate communications department.
1999 - After taking on more and more responsibility in the organization, St. Peter becomes senior vice president of business affairs, responsible for all sales and marketing.
2002 - St. Peter is named president of the Twins, succeeding Jerry Bell, who shifts his focus to other team business, most notably the drive for a new ballpark.
