The Xcel Energy Center was built in the city center of St. Paul in 2000 to move an NHL expansion team to Minnesota.
It worked and opened the door for the Minnesota wild.
A quarter of a century after its opening, the leaders of the St. Paul City and Wild Managers say that it was time for the urban arena and the adjacent facilities to maintain renovation.
“Our goal is not only to renovate the Xcel Energy Center, but also the Auditorium of Roy Wilkins, which is right next to it, as well as the Rivercentre,” said the Mayor of St. Paul, Melvin Carter. “In a way that has power to use the potential to use an economic effect of 383 million US dollars every year and to increase this by $ 100 million a year.”
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The project is estimated at 769 million US dollars. The Wild, St. Paul and Ramsey County plan to cover about half of them.
Mayor Melvin Carter and others will ask the state legislator to collect around 397 million US dollars of project costs.
The project would update the arena, security and accessibility, seats, seats, public bars and restaurants, which Carter will help to bring people to the arena before, during and after events.
In addition to The Wild, the Minnesota Frost Women's Professional Hockey Team plays in the arena. It also organizes concerts by artists such as Billie Eilish and Janet Jackson, comedy shows and other events.
Carter acknowledges that the state will be exposed to a stricter budget outlook in the future, but he said that the request has a certain flexibility.
“There are options that could actually contain the publication of the bonds in later years because obviously a lot of time would take,” he said. “But it would be helpful to have the means now so that we know that we have a project and we can plan the multi-year-old work it requires.”
Carter and others will present their application to the Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee and a Senate Committee next week on Thursday.