Sports in Minneapolis–Saint Paul

Sports in Minneapolis–Saint Paul includes a number of teams.

Maya Moore, the 2014 MVP in the WNBA,^[1] of the Minnesota Lynx.

The Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Twins arrived in the state in 1961. The Vikings were an NFL expansion team and the Twins were formed when the Washington Senators relocated to Minnesota. Both teams played outdoors in the open air Metropolitan Stadium in the suburb of Bloomington for twenty one years before moving to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in 1982. In May 2014, the NFL announced that Minneapolis will host Super Bowl LII in 2018.^[2]

The Twins won 8 division title (1987,1991, 2002–04, 2006, 2009, and 2010), 2 American League Pennants (1987 and 1991) and the World Series in 1987 and 1991. The Twins moved to Target Field in 2010.

The Minnesota Timberwolves brought NBA basketball back to Minneapolis in 1989. They play in the Target Center. The Minnesota Wild of the NHL play in St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center.^[3]

Major professional sporting events hosted by the city include the 1985 and 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Games, the 1987 and 1991 World Series, Super Bowl XXVI in 1992.^[4]

Table

Major League Soccer

On March 25, 2015, Major League Soccer announced that it had awarded its 23rd MLS franchise to Minnesota United FC, a team from the lower-level North American Soccer League. Bill McGuire and his ownership group that includes Jim Pohlad of the Minnesota Twins, Glen Taylor of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Craig Leipold of the Minnesota Wild had intended to build a privately financed soccer-specific stadium in Downtown Minneapolis near the Minneapolis Farmer's Market, but their plan was met with heavy opposition from Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, who claimed that her city was suffering from "stadium fatigue" after building two stadiums, for the Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Golden Gophers within a six-year span.^[7] On July 1, 2015, after failing to reach an agreement with the city of Minneapolis, McGuire and his partners turned their focus to St. Paul.^[8]

On October 23, 2015, Bill McGuire of Minnesota United FC and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced that a privately financed soccer-specific stadium would be built on the vacant Metro Transit Bus Barn site in St. Paul's Midway neighborhood near the intersection of Snelling Avenue and University Avenue. The stadium will seat 20,000 and open in 2018. The team hopes to play in the MLS in 2017.^[9]

Minor league professional teams

The Minnesota Lynx WNBA team began in 1999. In recent years, the Lynx have been the most successful sports team in Minneapolis and a dominant force in the WNBA, reaching the WNBA Finals in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015 and winning in 2011, 2013, and 2015.^[10][11][12]

The soccer team Minnesota United FC of the NASL play in Blaine at the National Sports Center.^[13]

College sports

Since the 1930s, the Golden Gophers have won national championships in baseball, boxing, football, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, indoor and outdoor track, swimming, and wrestling.^[14]

Minneapolis has hosted the 1992 NCAA Men's Division I Final Four, and the 2001 NCAA Men's Division 1 Final Four.^[15]

Venues

ESPN called Target Field, the Minnesota Twins' new home, "the #1 stadium experience in major league baseball".^[16]

Tribal Nations Plaza at TCF Bank Stadium, a gift of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community who donated $14.5 million to the University of Minnesota, the largest gift in Gopher athletics history

The downtown Metrodome was the largest sports stadium in Minnesota from 1982 to 2013, and the only stadium in the country to have hosted a Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the NCAA Basketball Men's Final Four. Demolition started in January 2014 to make way for a new 65,000 seat clear roofed stadium for the Vikings which opened in August 2016.^[17]

U.S. Bank Stadium was completed in August 2016, six spectator sport stadiums will be in a 1.2-mile (2 km) radius centered downtown, counting the existing facilities at Target Center and the university's Williams Arena and Mariucci Arena.^[18] Target Field is funded by the Twins and 75% by Hennepin County sales tax, about $25 per year by each taxpayer.^[19] The Gopher football program's TCF Bank Stadium was built by the university and the state's general fund.^[19] And the $1.061 billion U.S. Bank Stadium for the Vikings is funded by the Vikings ($563 million), State of Minnesota ($348 million) and the City of Minneapolis ($150 million).^[20]

Other sports

Minneapolis has made it to the international round finals to host the Summer Olympic Games three times, being beaten by London in 1948, Helsinki in 1952 (when the city finished in second place), and Melbourne in 1956.

Minneapolis hosted the 1998 World Figure Skating Championships.^[21]

Gifted amateur athletes have played in Minneapolis schools, notably starting in the 1920s and 1930s at Central, DeLaSalle, and Marshall high schools.^[22]

Former major league teams

Professional sports are well-established in Minneapolis. First playing in 1884, the Minneapolis Millers baseball team produced the best won-lost record in their league at the time and contributed fifteen players to the Baseball Hall of Fame. During the 1920s, Minneapolis was home to the NFL team the Minneapolis Marines, later known as the Minneapolis Red Jackets.^[23] During the 1940s and 1950s the Minneapolis Lakers basketball team, the city's first in the major leagues in any sport, won six basketball championships in three leagues to become the NBA's first dynasty before moving to Los Angeles.^[22]

The American Wrestling Association, formerly the NWA Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club, operated in Minneapolis from 1960 until the 1990s.^[24]

References