Timberwolves to St. Paul?

[Rolf]

So, Coleman's plan is to take 2 major sports teams away from Minneapolis and move them to the St Paul area, while asking Minneapolis residents to pay an equal amount of the bill as St Paul residents for the trouble? Am I reading that right?

[funkatron101]

I'm not interested in any tax increase to support professional sports acquisition of new arenas. If an industry that generates that much financial traffic can't figure out how to support itself let it die.

Well, in the Timberwolves case, they play 41 games at the Target Center. 41 days out of 365. Major concerts, Kids shows like Sesame Street Live, Yo Gabba Gabba, etc. also use the Target Center, which helps generate revenue for the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota.

Why should the Timberwolves foot the entire bill when the facility benefits the entire state?

[Mr Dew]

This would never happen. This is simply political posturing... if Coleman were serious about this, why didn't he propose it two months ago when the Vikings were evaluating options for a new site??? It's past the point of this being a legitimate proposal and it simply gives him something to point to politically when people complain about the sales tax increase in Ramsey County to support the Vikings stadium in Arden Hills... now he can say, "Hey, I tried. Look at what I proposed!"

[TMo519]

I'm not interested in any tax increase to support professional sports acquisition of new arenas. If an industry that generates that much financial traffic can't figure out how to support itself let it die.

Well, in the Timberwolves case, they play 41 games at the Target Center. 41 days out of 365. Major concerts, Kids shows like Sesame Street Live, Yo Gabba Gabba, etc. also use the Target Center, which helps generate revenue for the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota.

Why should the Timberwolves foot the entire bill when the facility benefits the entire state?

I feel that way too. People want these teams to single-handedly build these new facilities that are gonna be used by way more than just them. I don't think that's right.

[C.lupus]

I'm not interested in any tax increase to support professional sports acquisition of new arenas. If an industry that generates that much financial traffic can't figure out how to support itself let it die.

Well, in the Timberwolves case, they play 41 games at the Target Center. 41 days out of 365. Major concerts, Kids shows like Sesame Street Live, Yo Gabba Gabba, etc. also use the Target Center, which helps generate revenue for the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota.

Why should the Timberwolves foot the entire bill when the facility benefits the entire state?

I feel that way too. People want these teams to single-handedly build these new facilities that are gonna be used by way more than just them. I don't think that's right.

The city fathers need to sell the ideas differently, imo. Instead of saying "we want to build a new arena for the Timberwolves", they should say "we want to build a new state of the art multi-use facility to house the Timberwolves, headliner concerts, and Sesame Street. This facility will increase our revenue by X dollars". I think the public would be more open to that approach.

[Rolf]

Instead of saying "we want to build a new arena for the Timberwolves", they should say "we want to build a new state of the art multi-use facility to house the Timberwolves, headliner concerts, and Sesame Street. This facility will increase our revenue by X dollars". I think the public would be more open to that approach.

They did a really good job of that in the proposal for Target Center renovations that was recently released. That website and pamphlet stated over and over again that the Twolves are a tenant at Target Center, nothing more, and account for only a fraction of the total revenue.

The Target Center website also claims that the city of Minneapolis has experienced a 17-to-1 return on the initial tax dollars used to build Target Center, which, if true, is an insanely good investment, and also explains why Coleman is posturing to consolidate all Target Center activities to his own city's facility.

[funkatron101]

Instead of saying "we want to build a new arena for the Timberwolves", they should say "we want to build a new state of the art multi-use facility to house the Timberwolves, headliner concerts, and Sesame Street. This facility will increase our revenue by X dollars". I think the public would be more open to that approach.

They did a really good job of that in the proposal for Target Center renovations that was recently released. That website and pamphlet stated over and over again that the Twolves are a tenant at Target Center, nothing more, and account for only a fraction of the total revenue.

The Target Center website also claims that the city of Minneapolis has experienced a 17-to-1 return on the initial tax dollars used to build Target Center, which, if true, is an insanely good investment, and also explains why Coleman is posturing to consolidate all Target Center activities to his own city's facility.

Exactly. The renovation proposal seems much more palatable when looking at the ROI, and the Arden Hills proposal puts the renovation in jeopardy, IMO. I haven't seen Taylor's proposal that included a new Vikings stadium, but it sounds like it's not even under consideration. Which is a shame.

I'm not sure how many other venues a new Vikings stadium is going to attract. You've got the rare, mega music event, monster truck rallies, and...? That's a lot of dates to fill for a team that plays at most, 12 games at home?

[Calinks]

Nope. Time to come to St. Paul. Been a fantasy of mine for years. I'd actually have a reason to go the the Xcel.