“Alex and I said this from the beginning, we’re never moving the team,” Lore said.
But just where they will play their games in Minneapolis is a future that is undecided and still unknown to Lore and Rodriguez.
What appears certain is the current set-up at Target Center is not good enough long term for Rodriguez and Lore when it comes the possibilities of the arena generating revenue that can then go back into the team.
“It is a necessary component to any business, especially us who are in a middle market,” Rodriguez said. “You need the revenue, you need the economic model to be able to generate more revenue, and then pull that revenue back in, just like a virtuous kind of flywheel, right?
“The market’s ready for it. Our fans deserve it, but Marc and I have a lot of work to do. We’ve been talking about this for over four years now, but there’s still a lot of wood to chop.”
Ideally, they would like an arena in downtown Minneapolis, because having the Twins, Vikings, Wolves and Lynx “does so much for our community,” Rodriguez said. But they have to find a location with the right kind of “footprint,” Rodriguez said, to support their vision of an all-encompassing arena entertainment district around the area.