Amid more wins on court, Timberwolves and Lynx use tech to fill seats

Pro sports teams for years have relied on technology to help players win on the field or court. Now more teams are using it on the fans in the stands.

After one of its most successful seasons in years, the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA team is investing in technology to better understand a resurging fan base.

The Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx, the team's WNBA counterpart, entered a multiyear partnership with Massachusetts-based Kraft Analytics Group, or KAGR, last fall to better decipher data on ticket pricing, merchandise sales, events and fan engagement.

The two organizations were introduced by Alex Rodriguez, co-owner of the Timberwolves and former professional baseball player.

The Timberwolves reached the NBA playoffs this past season, the second time since 2004. The franchise had a record of 46-36 and won nearly 67% of its final 33 games of the season, a performance that attracted hundreds of thousands of new fans, said Jessica Gelman, KAGR's chief executive.

KAGR uses a team's existing data, ticket purchases for example, and data gathered from scrubbing the internet for publicly available information specific to a team's market, to determine patterns of fan engagement.

"Where we've helped organizations is when you have that uptick and how you maximize it and sustain it," Gelman said.

The team's on-court success, coupled with new analytical data, resulted in the Timberwolves renewing more than 90% of season ticket holders for next season, the most since 2004. The team also set a record in single-game ticket sales, said Ryan Tanke, the team's chief operating officer.

"The timing is perfect," Tanke said. "What you saw this season was resurgence of our fan base."

KAGR is a spinoff from Kraft Sports and Entertainment, a division of the Kraft Group of billionaire Robert Kraft, who owns the NFL's New England Patriots. It focuses on data management, analytics and strategic counseling and also works with the Patriots, the Sacramento Kings and Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA and the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils.

The Timberwolves plan to use analytics collected by KAGR to tailor offerings to fans, including how it sells food and beverages at Target Center and how it sells team gear. KAGR will help identify where the team can adjust prices depending on the types of fans who are expressing interest in the team.

The Timberwolves enter the upcoming season ranked in the top five in the NBA for new season tickets, Tanke said, and are on a trajectory to reach 10,000 season ticket holders. At that level, teams in the NBA and NHL generally have a chance to sell out every home game in a season, he said.

According to Deloitte, teams can dive into past attendance data to target repeat ticket buyers with new promotions, such as discounts to games similar to ones they have attended in the past.

The Timberwolves had average home attendance at Target Center of 16,028 for this past regular season, ranking them 21st out of 30 NBA teams. They sold out 16 games last season. The franchise hasn't sold out for an entire season since Target Center was built in the early 1990s.

Before the 2021-22 season, the Timberwolves were valued at $1.55 billion, a 10% increase compared to the previous evaluation period, but still the third-lowest among all NBA teams. Last July, the NBA approved the sale of the team by Glen Taylor — who also owns the Star Tribune — to Rodriguez and tech investor Marc Lore.