New majority Timberwolves and Lynx owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez announced the hiring of CEO Matthew Caldwell late last summer. The former front office executive of the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Panthers, Caldwell is tasked with figuring out where the two Minnesota pro basketball teams will play in the future.
Caldwell has a newsworthy 10-year deal from his bosses to lead the Wolves and Lynx. It might take that long to see the doors open on a new home for the teams who play now at the NBA’s second oldest arena.
Target Center opened in 1990 and was privately financed by Wolves owners Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner. The building is now owned by the city of Minneapolis whose citizens recently re-elected Jacob Frey as mayor.
Insiders seem certain Frey’s election kept in play the possibility a new arena can be built within the city limits. Before the election, Frey commented about his support for such a facility if it was privately financed. He values the millions of people Target Center attracts, generating tax and business revenues helping fuel the downtown economy. But he also knows the aging facility still has debt from renovation about eight years ago.
Frey’s primary mayoral foe, Democrat Socialist Omar Fateh, “nixed both direct cash and indirect tax relief types of financial aid” for a new building, according to a Minneapolis Times article by Marshall Tanick in October. Few arena authorities believe a Fateh mayorship, with his emphasis on progressive policies regarding wages, rent, the homeless, transit and the environment, would have been interested in using city dollars even for infrastructure adjacent to a new building.
Asked by Sports Headliners if for certain the Wolves and Lynx want to remain in the city, Caldwell said: “That’s the goal. We’re in a (Target Center) lease right now for 10 more years in Minneapolis. I look forward to working with the mayor and the council and hopefully we can find a good location for everyone.”
Multiple sites for a new arena have drawn speculation including City Center, the Farmers Market near downtown, the Star Tribune printing property in the North Loop and the former Graco site in Northeast Minneapolis. The latter is a potential 40-acre site that could be attractive but there are concerns about traffic flow. It’s not impossible the Target Center site could be under consideration for either a new building or a renovation.
At this early stage of the process, Caldwell said there are many options when asked about the Target Center site. “I am not sure yet. We’re still looking through…different locations but everything is on the table. I just started a few months ago, so I am trying to get to know everyone. We want to take our time and make sure we pick the right site. But at the same time we want to do what’s best for the community and we gotta get a lot of feedback.”
Is there a commitment from ownership to financing a new arena privately? “Not yet,” Caldwell answered. “No…like I mentioned earlier all options are on the table. So, we just gotta see. Marc and Alex are fully dedicated to building a new arena, and they’ve committed we’re staying in Minnesota. And we’re just trying to find the right site and see what the best deal is for everyone.”
Ownership’s stance is a new facility is needed to better serve the public and make the two franchises more business viable with the amenities and features already present in new NBA arenas such as the Chase Center in San Francisco and the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. Both were privately financed and the latter reportedly cost about $2 billion.
There has been speculation sites outside of Minneapolis could figure into the puzzle of a new building and location. One intriguing location whispered about is near the Mall of America in Bloomington. That area fits in with the goal of NBA team owners to have surrounding land that can offer additional revenue streams from sources such as lodging, retail and perhaps gambling.
A Bloomington location, seen as a more politically neutral site between Minneapolis and St. Paul, might attract tax dollars not only from that city but also the state which is being pitched for major renovations to Grand Casino Arena, the home of the NHL Wild since 2000. A new arena hosting the basketball teams and the Wild could have considerable public support and political backing from politicians representing areas other than the Twin Cities.
Timeline? Caldwell said the goal is to both work through the arena process “as fast as possible” but also don’t “rush it.” There’s a lot of money at stake for various entities with the project and all kinds of details from site and architectural selection, to financing to infrastructure, from permitting to environmental concerns, and the list goes on. That’s why Caldwell said that even after the first ceremonial groundbreaking occurs, it will probably be three years before the doors open to the public.
Caldwell’s contract with his owners gives him security and confidence to work through the monumental project. So, too, does his personal background with experiences at West Point as a cadet, serving in the Army, working for Goldman Sachs and his successful tenure with the Panthers.
Asked about who he is and his leadership development, Caldwell started talking first about being at West Point: “They kind of break you down and build you back up. …Get rid of as much ego that you have, and then a lot of it is about leading by example. A lot of it is about never tell your people or your soldiers to do something that you couldn’t do, right? …You have high standards, but you care about your people, and people respond to that.
“And that’s always stayed with me, whether I was in finance or sports. Since I left the Army, I’ve always tried to keep that sense of camaraderie. That sense of leading from the front at the end of the day. So, it’s really important and it’s a foundation of how I operate.”