You hear that? That’s build-a-stadium talk being whispered through the basketball world about the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
While the Lynx are preparing to begin their season this month, the Timberwolves just wrapped up a 46-win campaign followed by the franchise’s second playoff appearance in 18 years. The future appears bright, but how long will future owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore want to play inside the NBA’s oldest arena?
Rodriguez, making his regular Sunday night appearance on ESPN’s KayRod MLB broadcast, let a “hopefully the building of a new arena one day” comment slip into a discussion about the Timberwolves.
Small comment from @AROD on ESPN2 about his Timberwolves ownership: “A lot of implementing old school and new school [analytics], hopefully building a new arena one day.” pic.twitter.com/pdGTr3pyxu
— David Schuman (@david_schuman) May 2, 2022
The idea that Rodriguez and Lore desire a new arena is no secret. Lore said as much during their introductory press conference last September.
“I think there’s a great opportunity to eventually build a new arena,” said Lore.
Last week, Rodriguez, Lore and current Timberwolves/Lynx owner Glen Taylor were interviewed by Shams Charania of Stadium TV. Charania asked: “Have you guys looked into building a new arena and where has that process been for you guys?
“Let’s break it down. First of all, when they came to town people said ‘oh they’re going to move the team away from Minnesota and stuff like this here,'” Taylor said.
Charania replied: “Don’t think that’s happening.”
“No, it’s not going to happen,” Taylor said. “It was important that we told the story, we corrected it. I bought it to keep it here and these guys came along to keep it in the same way for the next, let’s just say 20 years and stuff like that.”
There was an obvious edit after Taylor’s comment, so it’s unclear if their discussion included specific answers about building a new arena. If they did, it was edited out.
Target Center, opened in 1990, is the oldest stadium in the NBA, though it got a $145 million renovation several years ago.
