Minnesota Twin Cities Again Involved In The Arena Game

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The Minnesota Wild's arena needs a renovation.

Minnesota taxpayers are on the hook for many facilities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market.

Minnesota’s twin cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, are again in the middle of the stadium and or arena game. The new ownership of the National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Timberwolves franchise and the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Lynx franchise is looking to build an arena in Minneapolis. Across the river in St. Paul, the owner of the National Hockey League’s Minnesota Wild franchise owner Craig Leipold is looking for money to upgrade his present home arena or get a new venue entirely. In the arena game, it made some sense in Philadelphia for the owners of the NHL’s Flyers franchise and the NBA’s 76ers ownership to work out a deal where the teams can share a new venue. But that does not seem to be happening in the twin cities and that might cost Minnesota taxpayers a lot of money.

“We are going to stay in St. Paul and they’re going to stay in Minneapolis. Pretty hard to negotiate from that point,”  Leipold said. What is probably going to happen in 2026 is this. Leipold and his lobbyists will meet with state legislators in St. Paul and ask for money to upgrade the present building. The Timberwolves-Lynx ownership will be doing the same thing starting in 2026. There is only so much public money to go around considering how much Minnesota lawmakers have spent on a baseball stadium, a football stadium in Minneapolis, along with a college football stadium. What does Leipold want? “In order to survive in the NHL, you not only have to be in a market, a great market, which we are in. We need to be in a really good building that gives us the opportunity and the chance to take advantage of all of the revenue streams that our competitors have in the NHL.” The Minnesota arena game continues.

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Wild owner Craig Leipold