Minneapolis mayoral hopefuls shouldn’t close door on financing new arena

With the mayoral election in Minneapolis racing into the home stretch, one important issue that has been given little attention and even less love by the candidates is whether the city ought to be involved in any type of subsidization, through public funds, real estate tax exemption, or other devices to construct a  new state-of the -art facility  to replace the aging  downtown Target Center, not only for the two professional basketball teams that play there, the men’s Timberwolves club and Lynx women’s squad, but as a centerpiece for an entertainment and recreation complex akin  to what the Vikings have tried to establish at their Eden Prairie site.

The issue is significant because without a substantial upgrade the organization’s new ownership, an investment group led by entrepreneur Marc Lore and former baseball star Alex Rodriguez, is primed to look around for other spots in the city or elsewhere unless the city makes a full-court press to keep the clubs here. If a suitable spot cannot be found within the municipal boundaries, Lore-Rodriguez team will be eyeing relocation either in some inner ring suburbs or even outlying ones, which may be eager for the opportunity to bring the organization to their cities to boost the income streams for the businesses located there and the municipal tax base, along with publicizing the community.

The issue of public subsidization is clouded with emotionality for not wanting to use public funds to support wealthy moguls owning this organization or others for that matter. But that train left the station long ago. It’s a reality in today’s environment  that public financial support is often necessary to keep these pro teams in their locales or they may be lured away with better deals, as almost occurred 31 years ago when the Timberwolves nearly moved to New Orleans, the Twins about a decade ago when they were being shopped around, and the hockey North Star who had actually did leave for Dallas in 1993.

Losing the basketball teams to another place, even one in the metropolitan area, would deprive the downtown area, already struggling in the post-COVID era, from hosting some 75 or more pro basketball games per year, along with many other high school sports contests, occasional concerts, and other events bringing about a million visitors  to downtown each year, providing significant revenue to the hospitality industry, boosting employment in the area, giving national and international name  recognition and publicity to the city, and stimulating other economic opportunities that would go elsewhere if a new arena is constructed in a different community, as the new ownership is wont to do without some form of taxpayer assistance.

The issue of public  financial assistance, directly through subsidization or indirectly via exemption from real estate taxes came up shortly after the Twolves acquisition was finalized following a bruising ownership legal battle between the victorious Lore-Rodriguez team when then-owner Glenn Taylor resisted completing a sale transaction due to the buyers tardiness of the financially-challenged buyers in making the final payment on the $ 1.5 billion acquisition, about half the current market value estimated by Forbes magazine.

Mayor Frey stated that he would not support any public funding this spring shortly after the Lore-Rodriguez team finalized acquisition of the teams from long-time Taylor, the owner of the Star Tribune, who had stepped in to buy the Timberwolves and save it from that imminent removal to New Orleans more than three decades ago. But Frye left a narrow crevice open for the City somehow aiding the owners in searching for a new place to build an arena within the city. His chief opponent, Democratic Socialist Omar Fateh, nixed both direct cash and indirect tax relief types of financial aid, aspirant Jazz Hampton, running a distant third in the sparse polling, also has rejected use of public funds but indicated that he might be amenable to some other, lesser form of financial help.

This serial hostility may be a fatal blow to public financial aid for a new arena in the city, a reluctance that surveys show is in accord with the majority of public sentiment. But that attitude always seems slanted against public financing of pro sports teams until the threat of them leaving becomes imminent.

Now that the Timberwolves season has begun, off to a rousing start with a dramatic come -from-behind opening night victory at Portland followed by a frustrating defeat by the Lakers in Los Angeles before coming home for a trio of games, concluding with those Lakers, again, at that sturdy but stodgy Target Center to open their home season this week, it’s a live issue that has rebounded into public purview and needs to be in the electoral dialogue in these waning days of the campaign.

The candidates should belatedly be pressed on where they currently stand on the matter.

Mayor Frey, a big promoter of the business community, ought to revisit his abruptly proclaimed prior position on the issue. His chief challenger, Fateh, might consider some form of public funding acceptable if the city acquires a partial ownership interest in the team. It’s not exactly a Marxist tenet, but it’s a position in keeping with his Socialist outlook of governmental ownership of business activities.

Frey predecessor, Betsy Hodges, whom he defeated eight years ago, kicked away the proposition of public funding for a modest-sized stadium for the nascent Minnesota Loons professional soccer team nearly a decade ago. After she booted the club away, it was then welcomed with the new Allianz Field in the revitalized Midway area in St. Paul, where it has had a successful six -year run. Minneapolis ought not foul that up again with the conjoined pro basketball teams.

Speaking of the threat of losing one of the community’s pro teams to another locale, Hubert Humphrey once warned that a departure would convert Minneapolis, where he formerly served as Mayor, into “a cold Omaha,” a derogation that was not warmly welcomed in that Nebraska city with a somewhat milder climate.

Relocating outside the state by the two basketball teams, even to Omaha, is highly unlikely given the assurances of staying put that the purchasers made in the acquisition, but they’re not restrained from moving outside the city limits of their births in 1989.