Bob Collins
Would a guarantee that you could get your money back if you lose your job motivate you to buy a season ticket to the Minnesota Timberwolves? Today, Glen Taylor, the owner of the NBA franchise, unveiled his “No-Risk Pledge,” which guarantees a refund for unused tickets should season ticket holders lose their jobs in 2009.
He also announced a $5 reduction in most ticket prices.
The Timberwolves are a tough sell. The front office has been relatively incompetent for most of this decade, penalized five years of draft choices for the illegal signing of a marginal player, and allowing Kevin Garnett to slip away to win an NBA championship, and booting most of the first-round picks they’ve had in the last few years (Kevin Love appears to be a rare exception).
Beyond that, the Timberwolves appear to be placing all of their hopes in a one-month stretch of otherwise uninspiring — sometimes insulting — basketball.
“We are in a rebuilding process with the team, but in January our fans had the opportunity to see firsthand the potential we think this team has. We believe strongly in our core group of players led by Al Jefferson, Randy Foye and Kevin Love, and also believe the future is extremely bright,” Taylor said at a news conference today.
He’s pointing to the stretch of the season when the Timberwolves won 10 games and lost only 4. It happened immediately after the team fired its head coach. Perhaps it was a sign of the future. Or maybe it was just a fluke. After all, the same players won only 2 of 16 games in December, and were in the process of reverting to form when the team’s best player, Al Jefferson, was injured shortly after the January run. The team had lost 5 of its previous 6 games, and although they weren’t as lethargic as December, moral victories don’t suggest the “bright future” Taylor does.
Meanwhile, Timberwolves fans continue to exercise their own ticket reduction plan. The worst kept secret in town is that you can buy a cheap seat at Target Center, and sneak down to any one of the nice — and empty — seats downstairs.
