Good seats available: Evaluating the state of fandom in Minnesota

Holly Callen Hamilton's roots as a Minnesota sports fan run deep. She was the first woman to join the University of Minnesota Golden Dunkers booster club and served as a director of development under former Gophers women's athletic director Chris Voelz.

As ambassadors for the men's Final Four in 1992, she and her husband, Rob, were standing behind the Duke bench when Christian Laettner hit "The Shot" over Kentucky to send the team to Minneapolis.

Pause the video of Duke forward Thomas Hill wandering around with his hands on his head in disbelief after the shot, and you will see the Hamiltons, giddy with the unrivaled euphoria of live sports, running onto the court to hand out Final Four T-shirts.

Hamilton, of Bloomington, knows that she has lived a charmed life as a sports fan.

And she knows that over the course of the pandemic, her life as a sports fan has been irrevocably changed.

"I'm not sure that we will ever go back — speaking for my husband and myself — to revolving our life around sports," she said. "I'm not saying we won't go [to games] … but just to fill the time? Will I put myself in front of the TV to watch a Vikings game if instead I have something else that I would like to do? I'm not sure that I would put the Vikings or the Gophers ahead anymore. I think we have kind of re-evaluated our lives."

That re-evaluation, for better or worse, is happening around Minnesota for sports fans of every team with every level of passion.

Sports leagues around the United States shut down over a fateful few days in March a year ago. While the games came back a few months later, most fans in Minnesota remained shut out.

Fans of the Wild, Lynx, Twins and Loons couldn't cheer at home playoff games. The Vikings languished at U.S. Bank Stadium, going 3-5 without 66,860 eardrum-rattling fans. Lynx fans have gone 560 days and counting without being able to see their team at home. For Twins fans, it's been 524.

That is about to change. Gov. Tim Walz announced on Friday that effective April 1 outdoor stadiums like Target Field can have as many as 10,000 spectators. Indoor venues like Target Center and Xcel Energy Center are allowed up to 3,000 fans.

There is no question that sports fans will return. More than 1,500 people responded to a recent Star Tribune questionnaire, and 74% said they would attend a game this year, if allowed. But when asked how their fandom has been impacted by the pandemic, 7.9% said their interest in sports had increased while 28.2% — like Hamilton — said they are less interested in sports than a year ago.

For some season-ticket holders, the absence of the routine of going to games made the heart grow fonder.

Mary Wadlow of Apple Valley has had Twins season tickets since 2010, and in 2019 she went to more than 50 baseball games in 10 different states.

"So when I say I'm a baseball fan, I'm a baseball fan," she said.

She had just returned from spring training in Fort Myers when the world shut down last year and the games disappeared.

"FSN started showing old games, and even though I knew the outcome of the game, there was something soothing about having the baseball game sounds on my television. It was weird how comforting that was," Wadlow recalled. "Soothing is the word that keeps coming to mind, but it's more than that. It's my summer companion, I guess."

Tim Purington of Hammond, Wis., has had Vikings season tickets since 1998 and said when it comes to his level of fandom, "I'm KFAN all day long." But something was lost watching Vikings games with empty stands.

"I watched them religiously like I always would," Purington said. "The one thing I found was even though you were able to still watch the games and I still got a lot out of it, I always found myself [before COVID] when there was a big touchdown or a big play, they'd always pan to the fans. And seeing their reaction, if I was home watching a game by myself and there is no fan reaction, I can't look at the fans on TV and go, 'Hey, I'm feeling the same way you are.'

"I'm not seeing that … It just doesn't feel as important or as big because there is just no one there."

Remember when: Last home games with fans in Minnesota

For Jodi Saari's family in Apple Valley, her teenage daughter's burgeoning sports fandom meant that the family found a lot of comfort during the pandemic in their ability to watch sports of all kinds, especially the Twins and Gophers softball and volleyball.

"We're definitely now much more of a sports family than we ever were," Saari said. "It has hugely driven our sports interest."

Teams across the state worked to keep fans engaged through social media, and it worked for the Saaris.

"My daughter and I both follow [teams and players] on Instagram for the sports we want to see, we have grown in our knowledge of who plays what sport," she said. "My daughter [will say], 'Mom, did you see this player had 39 kills and 19 assists last night?' And it wasn't a Gophers player, it was another college volleyball player that she saw."

Saari's family has realized how much they want to see these teams in person.

Local pro sports teams have worked together since last spring, envisioning how fans' return to their venues will look, sound and smell. They also tried out new ways to keep fans involved.

The Timberwolves and Lynx attempted to maintain relationships with season-ticket holders and fans with gifts — some delivered by mascot Crunch — and virtual Zoom sessions featuring their players and coaches. A recent one featured Wolves No. 1 overall pick Anthony Edwards and newcomer Jaden McDaniels.

The Wild had an outdoor watch party at the Saints' ballpark for a playoff game in August. The Twins hosted a drive-through fan appreciation parade at Target Field in September. The Vikings held a virtual draft party last April that drew 75,000 people.

Vikings Chief Operating Officer Andrew Miller said the team would likely keep some of the things that were introduced as a result of the pandemic. This summer's training camp, for example, could include more virtual elements to expand its reach beyond the 5,000 fans who can attend practice in a day.

"We want to create a situation where it has all the best things you can experience where you are on-site, but we still give people access that aren't there in person," Miller said.

Games remain the richest source of connection between fans and their teams and one another. Bob Neuman of Chaska said the company of his three sons or other friends and family has always been a drive for him to buy tickets, especially for the Loons and Twins. And he's ready to attend games — once his vaccination is complete later this month. Many fans said being vaccinated was a deciding factor in whether they will return to stadiums soon.

A big reason Neuman's excited to go is because of the work that teams have put in to make it safe.

"Those people deserve a lot of credit, they're working hard at trying to restore in-person attendance within the safety protocols, and that's hard work," he said.

Monica Weber of South St. Paul has had season tickets to the Timberwolves for the past seven seasons, but she currently has no desire to go to Target Center, where up to 3,000 fans will be allowed as early as April 5.

"I would not feel comfortable sitting in an indoor stadium right now," she said. "I have no idea what trades the Timberwolves are going to make over the next period of time, but if certain people are traded before I get to see them again in person, I will be sad. But that just may be the way life goes."

Teams are aware that comfort with safety measures varies from fan to fan. Minnesota United COO Maureen Smith, whose team has its home opener April 24, acknowledged that "we don't know yet what the demand will be" and that some fans are "not quite ready" to return.

"COVID is a setback everyone experienced," she said, "but I don't believe it has changed their love for our team, our game and our players."

No matter where fans stand on attending games, the nature of being a fan in public may take a while to get used to again.

Hamilton said her passion for sports could be reignited, once she is able to enjoy it again with family and friends.

"Going to a Gopher football game wasn't just going to see the sport. It was going to be with these friends or talk about other things," she said. "Going to all the various NCAA tournaments we've been to and the Final Fours and things we've been to, wasn't just to go see the event. It was the whole thing, the whole social involvement. If we get back into that, then I'll have a different attitude toward sports."

Staff writers Jerry Zgoda and Ben Goessling contributed to this report.