Twins hold hiring event at Target Field in anticipation of full reopening

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Twins will announce Thursday their timeline to increase capacity, with the first bump this Friday.

Before they welcome more fans, they're hoping to bring on more staff members. Wednesday, a job fair was held at Target Field. Five more fairs are planned through mid-June.

Twins work to hire workers as team prepares to announce plans to increase capacity

On the eve of the Twins announcing an increase to capacity, the team hosted a job fair to hire Target Field workers to meet that increased capacity.

"If it was earlier in the pandemic I probably wouldn’t be applying here, but since now, since I’m all vaccinated, and everybody else is vaccinated," said Michael Paradise, who applied for a job.

Like bars and restaurants, Target Field’s concession partner, Delaware North, is finding hiring people back to be tough.

"Yeah I think we’re all under that crunch in the hospitality world," said Peter Spike, the general manager of Delaware North.

The Twins, so far, have only had 25% capacity, which amounts to about 10,000 spectators. Fans have been strategically spread into pods across the stadium between zip-tied seats, but no longer.

The zip ties are now all gone. As of last Friday, there are no social distance requirements of capacity limits for outdoor events, but that does not mean the Twins will go to full capacity immediately.

"We knew it would be fast when we finally got some light at the end of the tunnel, and I think we’re seeing light now," said Spike.

The Twins will increase capacity in phases, allowing concessions to hire back in phases, which helps when workers are hard to get.

Delaware North has upped referral bonuses both for current employees who refer and those they hire. They are also upping payouts to nonprofits who typically staff concessions.

"We need to get back to 2019 numbers and we’re in the process of trying to get there through these hiring events," said Spike.