Wolves announce a mass-lowering of ticket prices
3/3/2009, updated 1:42 p.m.
Phil Mackey, KFAN.com

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor held a press conference at Target Center on Tuesday to announce a massive lowering of 2009-2010 ticket prices.

Here are the important points:

The Wolves are calling this the “Three-Point Plan”, where the “three points” are Affordability, Protection and Convenience.

Affordability: For the early bird season ticket plan, the Wolves are lowering prices on 95% of season tickets. Upper deck season tickets will go for as low as $5 per game, while lower deck season tickets will go for as low as $15 per game.

Protection: If you lose your job, the Wolves will reimburse your money for any unused season tickets. Basically, if you purchase season tickets and your company goes out of business and/or you lose your job, you will be refunded.

Convenience: People who buy season tickets will have nine full months to pay for tickets without interest.

Taylor said the team will not make money in 2009, and with this ticket package they are unlikely to make money in 2010.

“Even if we find that this next year that we have to move ahead and not make money, I will say that this team is in a position where we can do that,” Taylor said. “We don’t like to do that, but we can afford to do it.”

Taylor also said the team will remain in Minnesota, regardless of the difficult economic times.

The idea for the new ticket plan started when Taylor asked members of his sales and marketing team to talk with fans about what it would take to pack the Target Center once again.

“The higher the attendance at our games, the better it is for us and all of our players,” Taylor said.

“This is the first time in my lifetime that I’ve had to lay off people. That’s way down in the chain of thoughts for me, to lay off people, and we’ve had to do it because we’ve lost a lot of customers and chances to serve those customers.”

Taylor also addressed the current coaching situation, saying the players, as a whole, enjoy McHale as a head coach, and they would like him to return for next season.

“The decision will be made at the end of the year, but I will tell you up front that I hope the decision is that Kevin will [continue coaching],” Taylor said.

For more information about this new ticket plan, visit www.timberwolves.com.