Good news, everyone! Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold is no longer asking for $394 million from the state of Minnesota for upgrades to his now 26-year-old arena, as he was last year at this time. Instead, he’s only asking for $200 million in state money, some unspecified share of which will go toward St. Paul’s convention center, along with $162.5 million in money from the city.
That’s not a lot better, but it is better! Unless, that is, you instead compare it to the plan that Leipold and city officials downgraded to last year when their initial demand went nowhere at the statehouse, which would have involved only $50 million in state money, something this deal would be worse than. But at least Leipold — who has a net worth of $3.6 billion, according to, and I am not making this up, Superyachtfan.com — is promising to extend the Wild’s lease (by an unspecified number of years) in exchange for the renovation cash, though since his current lease is not set to expire until 2035 anyway, that wasn’t exactly an urgent problem.
What is an urgent problem, apparently, is that the Wild arena needs to “remain competitive — attracting top performers, cultural events, and, of course, sports,” as St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her was quoted saying in a press release issued this morning. Leipold clarified last year that this meant “competitive within our local market,” which takes at least a little chutzpah when the whole reason you have to compete with the Timberwolves‘ arena across the river is because your franchise didn’t want to share it with them and demanded its own. Leipold also proclaimed that his arena is “booked 150 nights a year with events and entertainment – more than any other venue in Minnesota,” which sounds pretty competitive in its local market, though it’s true that the T-wolves owners have been talking about upgrading their arena for years to incorporate such things as “augmented reality,” you can’t afford to let A-Rod open a Google glass gap!
The state legislature summarily ignored Leipold’s ask last year, but clearly hope springs eternal, especially with the state budget in somewhat less dire shape than it was a year ago. Mayor Her said she plans to fight hard for the state subsidies, while “above all” being “committed to being a good steward of taxpayer dollars,” who said comedy was dead?
It’s long fascinated me that the Twin Cities have two competing “Big 4” arenas. Philly went through some kabuki theater that they might have a second until either the Sixers or Flyers blinked first and I expect some version of that to happen in Dallas before everything’s over.
So since it’s opened- Xcel Energy Arena has been the preferred arena for big name touring concerts. It’s got the traditional seating bowl while Target center is more of an octagon. With the octagon you lose more seats in the traditional concert configuration. Xcel Energy is also a part of a convention center complex, while Target center is not.
Even before these arenas you had the Met Center in Bloomington (a defacto Minneapolis facility) and the St Paul Civic center in St Paul. All of this plays to the rivalry between both cities and their county governments. I think that’s mellowed a bit over time but St Paul is clearly fighting to keep the Wild, it will be interesting if Minneapolis fights for the T-wolves, who seem interested in some kind of suburban arena complex.
Keep the Wild from going where? They have nine years left on their current lease, and Leipold has said he’s not moving them: https://sports.yahoo.com/article/wild-owner-craig-leipold-pledges-015400930.html
I believe Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Phoenix (when hockey was there) were the only metros with their four major sports teams all playing in four different venues. I think that’s right. And MPLS is the only one with an MLS team to make it 5/5.
SF Bay Area hasn’t shared venues since the Giants left the Stick.
Great catch! However, I think our unique geography accounts for a lot of that.
The Bay Area hasn’t hd an NHL team since the Golden Seals. (South Bay is designated as a separate metro area.)
Sorry but that’s just not an accurate depiction of a market or what the Bay Area in general is. Yes, San Jose is the anchor of a separate MSA than SF/Oakland but the Bay Area is also a much larger CSA and one giant media market. Whether some of the outlying counties in the CSA are really in the “Bay Area” is probably up for debate but the South Bay is very much so.
The initial post was about “metros,” so I went with the official definition. Obviously what a “market” is is open to debate.
I will say that my sister’s family live in SF and used to go to minor-league hockey Bulls games regularly, and it never would have crossed their mind to travel to San Jose for a Sharks game.
And Miami.