The cost for renovating the home of Minnesota’s professional basketball teams has shot up and now the question is who will foot the bill.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal says the cost for renovating the Target Center may increase by $11 million – that’s on top of the original $97 million price tag.
Rising construction costs and other delays have caused “the buying power of that money [to evaporate],” MPR News notes.
Now the three groups funding the renovations – the Timberwolves and Lynx, the City of Minneapolis and the arena operator AEG – have to decide on how to fill the budget gap.
MPR News says the question is now whether the project will be scaled back or if the parties behind the renovation will look for more public funding.
“The design group is meeting regularly with our consultants to consider solutions,” Kevin Carpenter, Minneapolis’ chief financial officer and member of the committee, told the Business Journal. “[The] outcome will be a collective decision with all options on table.”
The growing cost of construction, including rising steel prices, has also affected the cost of the Minnesota Vikings’ new stadium. In August, the team kicked in additional money so it didn’t have to scrap certain features to cut costs, ESPN reports. The team has contributed nearly $50 million more since the $975 million stadium budget was approved.
The price tag for the stadium now tops $1 billion. Earlier this month, the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority in charge of the stadium’s construction announced its 23 percent complete.
