Tens of millions in public funding for Minnesota pro sports facilities will need the legislative equivalent of a Hail Mary touchdown pass to win approval this session as lawmakers grapple with the state’s fiscal challenges.
Lawmakers are likely to punt the requests to 2026 and instead study the teams’ various proposals. However, anything can happen at the Capitol in the final deal-making days of the session.
Studies are typically a sort of legislative purgatory, but they will give Minnesota’s various sports teams and their civic backers the chance to answer a key question:
Why should taxpayers pay for the upkeep of facilities, which they already helped to build, where pro sports teams worth billions play?
Team representatives emphasize the economic impact that their facilities and the events held there have on the community. They claim economic impact studies show hundreds of millions in new spending because of venues, like U.S. Bank Stadium, Xcel Energy Center and Target Field, and the big-ticket events they host.
B Kyle, CEO of the St. Paul Area Chamber, which is backing a $488 million overhaul of the X, says the facility is clearly the economic engine of downtown. To see it firsthand, “take a walk downtown on an evening when there is an event,” she said.
“Nobody takes these things seriously,” said J.C. Bradbury, an economics professor at Kennesaw State University, who studies the local impact of sports facilities. Bradbury says consultants find ways to paint a rosy picture of the local benefits.
