Author: David Shama

The drive to bring major league baseball here in the 1950’s included the building of Metropolitan Stadium.  The stadium financing was led by Minneapolis backers who located the stadium in Bloomington because land was inexpensive and the suburb was seen as neutral Twin Cities ground.  About the time Metropolitan Stadium opened for the minor league Minneapolis Millers, St. Paul also built a new ballpark, Midway Stadium, that like its rival in Bloomington was expandable to major league seating capacity. Capitol city boosters hoped that it would one day be home to a Minnesota American or National league team.

By the late 1970s Met Stadium had unhappy tenants in both the Twins and Vikings.  A site fight developed between those who campaigned to extensively remodel the Met versus boosters who wanted a domed stadium downtown.  Eventually the Metrodome was approved with revenue bonds financing but not without a lot of controversy and hard feelings.

Timberwolves original owners Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner were courted by the Met Center, home of the NHL North Stars, but faced a directive from the NBA to have their expansion team play in a basketball-first arena.  They used private money to build the Target Center and opened the facility in 1990.  Since then the city of Minneapolis has taken over ownership and uses taxpayer money to help operate the facility.

When the Met Center was razed in 1994, the Twin Cities had only one major arena for awhile.  But the Xcel Energy Center opened in 2000 and the downtown St. Paul facility has been battling Target Center for concerts and other attractions ever since.

Not only did St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman lead the political drive to bring the NHL to town with the expansion Wild, but he also courted the Twins and their stadium ambitions.  What killed the plan, though, was a rejection by St. Paul voters to use part of the city sales tax to build a stadium.

A new home for the Twins was approved by the legislature in 2006 by dedicating a portion of Hennepin County’s sales tax for the construction of Target Field.  Neither the county or Minneapolis (already with obligations including Target Field, Target Center and the Convention Center) is likely to step up as the “banker” for a Vikings stadium that will also receive financing from the franchise’s ownership group including Zygi Wilf.

And if Ramsey County residents are willing to pay more sales tax, that might deliver the Vikings to Arden Hills.  Other funding options could include metro wide or state funding for a stadium with initially a no-site directive from the state legislature.  The site to be determined later strategy was used back in the 1970s before the dome landed downtown.

Back to the future?

Here’s a guess that two Twins pitchers who may have surprise seasons and help solve an unsettled pitching staff are Brian Duensing and Glen Perkins.  Duensing, 28, is a possible starter and impressed last season, his second in the majors, with a 10-2 record and 2.62 ERA.  Perkins, also 28, has the experience (he won 12 games in 2008) to make a comeback from last year’s 1-1 record and help in the bullpen.

The Wolves Kevin Love is the best in the NBA this season with four games of 30 or more points and 20 or more rebounds.

Apple Valley High School basketball player Tyus Jones was featured this week on FSN North’s Prep Zone show.  The ninth grader has classic point guard court awareness.

Coach Steve Fritz is pushing toward 600 career wins and could get No. 589 tonight when St. Thomas hosts Northwestern College (Roseville) in an opening NCAA tournament Division III playoff basketball game.  In 31 seasons he has 588 wins, 246 losses and his Tommies recently won a 10^th MIAC playoff title.

Former Gophers and Vikings player Jack Brewer has a foundation that helped organize a recent trip to China promoting the NFL.  Among those accompanying Brewer was Vikings wide receiver Sidney Rice.

College hockey increases its prestige next year with the debut of Penn State’s Division I men’s and women’s teams. The school will open an impressive new arena in 2013.  Web reports include Wisconsin women’s coach Mark Johnson as a possible candidate for the Penn State men’s job.

Edina native and Toronto general manager Brian Burke expressed confidence in another Minnesotan when he acquired defenseman Jake Gardiner in a recent trade with Anaheim.  The 20-year-old Gardiner, who played high school hockey at Minnetonka, is third on the Wisconsin Badgers in assists with 37 points (nine goals, 28 assists).

The Wild’s Cam Barker will participate in the Polar Bear Plunge at Lake Calhoun tomorrow to support Special Olympics.  He will match all funds raised up to $15,000.

The Wild’s Brent Burns and Nick Schultz have a bet to see who can last the longest without having a haircut.

As of Wednesday, recently acquired Wild Finnish prospect Mikko Lehtonen led the Swedish Elite league with 29 goals and was second in scoring with 57 points in 53 games.

The Swarm game against Buffalo from Xcel Energy Center on March 27 will be televised nationally on VERSUS.

Joel Maturi may continue as the Gophers athletic director beyond the expiration of his current contract that ends in 2012.

Maturi told Sports Headliners he and incoming University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler will determine his future.  Kaler officially succeeds president Bob Bruininks on July 1.

Bruininks offered Maturi a two-year contract extension last year but Maturi didn’t think it was in the best interests of the new president or the University to accept the offer with the changes going on in school leadership.  The refusal was an example of Maturi’s integrity, a character trait that endears him to associates and friends.

During an interview Maturi said he and Kaler will use the new president’s first year as an opportunity to make a mutual decision about whether he should continue to lead the athletic department.  Maturi, 66, is in good health, and has set no specific retirement goal.  He said “if it’s good for the University” he’s interested in a contract extension.

Kaler and Maturi are already working together.  “We’ve had meetings and discussed concerns (in the athletic department),” Maturi said.

Kaler is a sports fan and his commitment to athletics was among the reasons University regents approved of him as Bruinink’s successor.  Whether he and Maturi determine it’s the right fit for Maturi to continue as athletic director will probably be decided before the calendar year ends.

Maturi, a native of Chisholm, has been athletic director since 2002.  He is credited with uniting the men and women in his department, operating a 25 sport program that is both fiscally and ethically sound, and helping to build TCF Bank Stadium.  He’s been nationally praised as an outstanding athletic director, although in Minnesota he has many critics who are unhappy with the performances of his three marquee sports–men’s basketball and hockey, and football.