Moving men: How the Wolves could find a new home but not leave the Twin Cities
Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have said they plan to foot the bill for a new arena, but that doesn't mean they won't look for some public assistance. What happens if they don't get it in Minneapolis?
Are the Timberwolves going to move?
That was the question many asked late Tuesday afternoon after a three-member arbitration panel ruled in favor of Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez in their case against longtime Wolves owner Glen Taylor. Taylor’s failed attempt to cancel a pending sale of 40 percent of his ownership stake to Lore and Rodriguez last March means the pair will take control of the franchise, pending approval of the NBA Board of Governors.
The concern from Wolves fans is understandable. While Taylor was fine with occasionally putting lipstick on the pig that is 35-year-old Target Center, Lore and Rodriguez are going to want a new building. Target Center is the second-oldest arena in the NBA, and the oldest, New York’s Madison Square Garden, underwent a $1 billion renovation in 2013.
Lore and Rodriguez, who originally began their $1.5 billion purchase of the Wolves in 2021, have said they want to build a privately financed arena near Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. Now that they are going to take control of the Wolves, we are about to find out how serious they are about investing their own money to not only build an arena, but also secure the land on which it sits and pay a multitude of other expenses.
Anyone over the age of 40 can be forgiven if they are having unpleasant flashbacks in contemplating the Wolves’ future. It will be 32 years ago this March that owner Norm Green announced he would be relocating the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas. Green, like Lore and Rodriguez, had no ties to Minnesota — he was a shopping mall developer from Calgary —but became a savior who was showered with chants of, “Norm, … Norm, … Norm” after buying the North Stars in 1990 and watching them advance to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1991.
Two years later, with Green having received no help in getting significant improvements to Met Center or an agreement that would have enabled a profitable move to Target Center, Green bolted for Texas. That left behind a now-aging fan base that hasn’t forgiven Green.
There’s a hesitancy to allay fears too much because while there have been no indications that Lore or Rodriguez plan to begin issuing ultimatums, that almost never happens during the honeymoon phase of the owner-fan relationship. It also would be naive to put full faith in either Lore or Rodriguez, given we know little about how they will conduct business now that they have the keys to the franchise.
But there are some major differences in what transpired with the North Stars and what might happen with the Wolves.
The first is that any obstacles Green would have faced from the NHL in relocating his franchise were removed in 1992 when the league gave him approval to take the North Stars anywhere he wanted as part of an agreement that he would not pursue moving to a new arena in Anaheim, Calif. The reason being the NHL wanted Disney to be able to put the expansion Mighty Ducks in that building.
Green had carte blanche to do whatever he wanted.
Lore, a billionaire tech entrepreneur, and Rodriguez, a 14-time MLB All-Star whose career was marred by the use of performance-enhancing drugs, are based in New York and Florida, respectively. If the duo is serious about privately financing an arena, and everything that goes with it, there should be little issue. But if they look for city, county or state assistance of any sort, things could get interesting.
The Twin Cities is the 15th largest media market in the United States and the NBA isn’t going to lose that. More importantly: Where would the Wolves go if they were relocated? Las Vegas and Seattle are two potential destinations, but those two cities have been earmarked for expansion teams. The projected price for each is $7 billion, making those two markets essentially off limits to current franchises.
This doesn’t mean the NBA won’t support Lore’s and Rodriguez in their quest to get a new building. The Wolves aren’t coming anywhere close to maximizing their revenue potential in Target Center — a building that was designed with more seats upstairs than downstairs and lacks the amenities that are common in modern arenas.
The NBA’s newest building is the $2 billion Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. It was privately financed by Clippers owner Steve Balmer, the former Microsoft CEO who is one of the 10 richest people in the United States. A better comparison for the Wolves would be the Fiserv Forum, which became home of the Bucks in 2018 and is located in downtown Milwaukee. Built at a cost of $524 million, the Bucks’ owners paid $174 million, taxpayers contributed $250 million and late Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl donated $100 million.
It was reported last June that Rodriguez and Lore were targeting land near the Minneapolis Farmers Market. That would put their arena near Target Center but not on its footprint.