American Association SUNDAY Insider: American Associaiton returning to Minnesota

 Kevin Luckow

(non member of IBWAA)

It's been funny. I've seen stories, thoughts and opinions all around about the announcement of an American Association team in Blaine. They are nice recaps, crosses the t's and dots the i's. But all from an outsider perspective. There's a phrase I like to use when people refer to me as knowledgeable about the going ons in Independent Baseball. It's not that I'm smart, it just means I've been around a long time.

For this story I think we have to go back to September of 2020. The St. Paul Saints were playing their final game of the Covid season against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. It was in front of a relatively sparse crowd. A weeknight in mid to late September and there was nothing at stake outside of who was going to win the American Association batting title. Drew Ward would end up edging Correlle Prime after Prime was robbed of a base hit late in the game. After the game I talked to Jeff Bittiger who was traveling with the RedHawks and doing color with Jack Michaels on radio. He asked if the Saints were going to move to AAA. I laughed off the notion but was leery because of Bit being an insider. Was something up?

Less than three months later, the news came down. My fears were realized, the Saints were indeed becoming a AAA team for the Minnesota Twins. At the time you couldn't blame the Saints for making the move. There was still a "pandemic" and with an uncertain future for live sports, the Saints made the move that was going to leave them financially secure. The Saints had been good to me all these years. The least I could do is give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it will be just like the good ol' days. 

2021 came around and the Saints began their AAA era. From Opening Night I could tell this was not going to be the Saints I remembered. No longer would most of the league they were playing in be in driving distance to see them on the road. No longer did players mingle with fans before and after the game. The Dodger like throwback jersey was replaced by a red, blue and gold jersey. It was very workman like with the players. And rivals, outside of Iowa and Omaha, no teams were close enough to go see on the road. Playoffs that season? There were none. There is now a truncated playoff system.

The entertainment team was still there, but on field promotions in 2021 were only permitted in the outfield. It changed as Covid protocols lightened up in the following seasons, but promotions had to be approved by MiLB and had to end within the allotted time frame. It reminded me of Wayne's World when they were bought out by a corporation and it just wasn't the same show anymore. "Does it seem weird to anyone else, I mean we're looking down on Wayne's basement. Only that's not Wayne's basement. Isn't that weird". It was the same cast of characters on the entertainment team and in the PA area, but it felt different. 

Fans that were regulars at Saints games before 2021 were suddenly not as many. But they were more than replaced by baseball fans looking to see the next big prospect of the Twins. They weren't wearing Saints gear, Twins gear was prevalent throughout the ballpark. It was no longer a 100 chase to the playoffs, but a 150 game through late March through September, players constantly coming and going. 

Although I still make occasional games at CHS Field to see how things are going, my heart just wasn't into St. Paul Saints Baseball. I'm doing an online Hall of Fame to recognize the players through the Saints Independent era, but not covering the current team. Instead since 2021, I've been covering the American Association in what feels like the middle of nowhere. It's sucked at times. On Saturdays when I should be at the park, instead I'm grilling at home, watching games online.

The American Association was now left with a geographical hole in the middle of the league map. In 2024 word was out that Blaine, Minnesota was a potential expansion location. I remember in years before that when Josh Buchholz was on with us on This Week in the Association, I'd bug him about whether we'd have a team within driving distance of me again. There were misfires in the years before. Talk was rampant and there was even fund raising for a ballpark in Shakopee, southwestern Twin Cities area, near Canterbury Park horse track. It never got going and the area just became an amphitheater that just opened this Summer. Years before that when the Northern League was still up and going after the split with the four teams that left to form the American Association, there was talk of Burnsville, a suburb south of the Twin Cities. Clark Griffith was the Northern League Commissioner at that time and he was desperate to grow the league out once again, his office in Bloomington, north of Burnsville. There was supposed to be a Northwoods League team in River Falls, Wisconsin, not that far away from St. Paul that was supposed to get done in 2018 but never was built. They even had former Saints GM Bill Fanning hired as GM. In 2024 I crafted a vision of what I wanted out of a stadium in Blaine.

Sunday Insider from 2024, vision of a Blaine Ballpark

I became skeptical as two years passed. Even remained skeptical of it this Summer when I had heard a June groundbreaking that came and went. Well, now we have a ground breaking and a starting date. They are going to go the Milwaukee route and make the ballpark a part of an overall development of retail, dining, entertainment and residential development. The project being referred to as The Farm. That's catchy, would sound good on broadcasts, but I would be shocked if at some point we don't see naming rights sold for the ballpark. Duke Cannon Park would have a nice ring to it. 

From what I saw of the artist's renderings of the ballpark, it'll be a turf field as it will also be used as a soccer field, even though there is a soccer stadium in Blaine albeit a stadium that is now 36 years old. It was once the home of the Minnesota Thunder. The Thunder was a pro soccer team, pre MLS, that played in Blaine. So maybe the new ballpark will end up being the replacement for NSC Stadium. Speaking of soccer, Blaine hosts the USA Cup every Summer that brings youth teams in from around the world. I'm guessing the AAPB team will be on the road that week so the ballpark could host soccer games, and you don't have to worry about finding lodging for visiting teams. 

I'm not a fan of the field turf myself. Although it looks better than the old artificial turf fields, you still get the high bounces off the turf and the ball seems to get through the infield quicker. But if you're going to use the field for concerts and soccer, along with possible High School and College baseball in the Spring, you're going to have to go the field turf route. Just make sure it's done right. It was embarrassing to see the turf at Kamp Oconomowoc get pulled up on the mound when a pitcher tried a pick off play to second base. 

Now comes tthe questions about the team itself. How do you compete for fans in a market that has a MLB team in Minneapolis and a AAA team in St. Paul? The answer to that can be found in part just by trying to drive from Blaine to St. Paul or Minneapolis at 5 pm Monday through Friday. Blaine is in an area with six good sized cities in close proximity to it. It'll be convenient for fans in those cities to see games in Blaine instead of dealing with traffic in the Twin Cities.  I see it being a similar situation to Kane County where fans in all the surrounding cities converge on Northwestern Medicine Field. 

The team itself needs to realize that you cannot be the Twins or Saints. You will not have the on field talent that either club boasts. You will be the new team in town. The Saints are the gold standard for running a minor league ball club. You cannot be the Saints. But you can be who you are and still draw enough fans to be a success. The Saints are handcuffed a bit by being governed by Minor League Baseball. I've noticed as the years go on, the edgy promotions that made the Saints what they are have become fewer. That or what was edgy at one time, has just turned into a yearly promotion and doesn't stand out. The Blaine ballclub has an opportunity to really think outside of the box and come up with some Wild and Outside like promotions. If they think they can just play a game and expect fans to show up with no other reason than seeing a game, it'll not go good.

Be sure to stand out, or be buried within your own facility. The team will need to compete within other options at The Farm for the entertainment options. I visited a similar facility, Franklin Field, home of the Milwaukee Milkmen, recently. It was a sparse crowd, albeit a Tuesday night with the Brewers in town, but the rest of the area was buzzing with cars and people out and about. 

I read that there will be 1500 parking spaces avaiable. I do not know what exactly is needed to accommodate a large crowd. What I do know is that if there is not tailgating in the lots, that is going to be a sticking point for fans that want to see American Association baseball like they used to at Midway Stadium when there was parking next to the ballpark with porta potties and garbage disposal areas. A lot for tailgating next to the ballpark would give them something the Saints do not offer currently. I have been told that tailgating has tailed off at CHS Field. A proposed tailgating lot was never constructed and now there are no porta potties at the CHS Field Tailgate Lot. I was even told that you have to purchase parking when you buy your tickets to a Saints game if you want to park in the tailgate lot. I cannot confirm or deny. But I know a tailgate lot where players and coaches can mingle with fans before the game would be a great marketing tool. The sticking point may come from restaurants and bars in The Barn complex. But, they could play along, having food trucks in the parking lot for fans that didn't want to grill out. 

Traffic needs to be figured out also. The Farm will not be located near any major highway so Blaine best do its work to make sure that fans can get in and out of the area in a timely manner. Fans at Midway Stadium probably still have PTSD about trying to get out of the parking lot, onto Energy Park Drive and out of the stadium area. 

Ticket prices will need to be reasonable. For fans picking what ballpark to go to, if they are paying as much to go to an American Association game as they are for the Saints, they'll likely go to St. Paul. The financial model of the American Association seems to be leaning towards leaning more into revenue from streaming and league wide advertisers. The break even point used to be drawing 3,000 fans a night if you want to be in the black financially. That was many years ago however. But your product looks better on TV and will attract Twin Cities media if you're putting butts in the seats. Do not get in the habit however of giving tickets away as fans will wait for free tickets to materialize instead of buying them from the box office. I've argued that for years with respected colleagues, and I will die on that sword. 

Scheduling will be important. If you have a home schedule where you're mostly home when St. Paul is, you're making your task that much tougher. The 2027 Saints schedule was released last week, the MLB schedule for 2027 was released a few weeks ago. You can't avoid conflict all the time when you're squeezing 50 home games between Mother's Day and Labor Day, but the fewer conflicts the better. Matter of fact, maybe schedule some day games when the Saints or Twins are home for those wanting to catch a two venue day night doubleheader. I've done that in the past with the Twins and Saints. 

Although I alluded to this two years ago, there is a strong Minnesota Townball culture. Reaching out to fans that go to Townball games would be a great marketing tool. A partnership with Minnesota Baseball Association would help on that front. The Saints used to have a pre season game every season at a Townball park that would pack stadiums in rural Minnesota. The Blaine team would be wise to do the same. It would make it easier to get extra games in for Spring Training without teams having to travel to Blaine and vice versa. 

Embrace the past. There are a lot of former Saints players that will never get the recognition for what they did in the American Association, outside of being in my online Hall of Fame. Have an alumni lounge where players from the past can get together at games, reminisce and have meet and greet with fans before games. 

Keep concession prices reasonable. I like the policy Fargo-Moorhead has that their hot dogs will never cost more than $3. A concession stand with bargain priced baseball staples would do great business. Have a concession stand where you can get all the Townball staples at reasonable prices, especially including Busch Lights. 

So, in conclusion, it may look like a daunting task, competing for the baseball dollar with a AAA and an MLB team. But look at Milwaukee and Lake Country being in the shadow of the Brewers. All the American Association and Frontier League teams that make a go of it in the shadow of Chicago and two MLB teams. If Blaine does truly become a community team for the Blaine area and can connect with the surrounding cities, this could work out. There's a guy I know that's willing to do anything they need to help out.