Met Center

The Met Center was an indoor arena that stood in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States, a suburb of Minneapolis. The arena, which was completed in 1967 by Minnesota Ice, just to the north of Metropolitan Stadium, seated 15,000. It was the home of the Minnesota North Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1967 to 1993. For its first 15 years, its official name was the Metropolitan Sports Center; the more familiar shorter name was adopted in 1982.

Met Center
Former namesMetropolitan Sports Center (1967–1982)
Location
Coordinates44°51′30″N 93°14′24″W
OwnerMetropolitan Sports Facilities Commission
OperatorMetropolitan Sports Facilities Commission
Capacity
  • 16,000 (basketball)
  • 15,000 (ice hockey)
Construction
Broke ground3 October 1966[1]
Opened21 October 1967
Closed13 April 1993
Demolished13 December 1994
Construction cost
  • US$5.8 million
  • (US$50.9 million in 2022 dollars[2])
ArchitectPattee Architects, Inc.[3]
Structural engineerK.M. Clark Engineering Co.[3]
Services engineerBrush & Morrow[3]
General contractorMcNulty Construction Company[4]
Tenants

The Met's other tenants included the ABA's Minnesota Muskies, which played just one season before moving to Miami for the 1968–69 season. The league responded by moving the defending champion Pittsburgh Pipers to Bloomington, but the Pipers left to return to Pittsburgh after the season. The NASL's Minnesota Kicks played two indoor seasons at the Met from 1979 to 1981. The Minnesota Strikers of the Major Soccer League (MISL) played indoor soccer at the Met Center from 1984 to 1988. The Boys' High School Hockey Tournament was also held there from 1969 to 1975.

The arena also held entertainment-related shows, including the first performance of Sesame Street Live in September 1980.

History

The Met Center was considered to be one of the finest arenas in the NHL for many years. Among NHL players, the Met was known for its fast ice and good lighting. Players also had much praise for the locker rooms and training facilities. Fans gave the arena's sightlines very high marks as well. The Met never boasted fancy amenities, and had cramped concourses and very few frills compared to modern arenas (though some luxury suites were added in the 1980s). As a sports facility, it could best be described as utilitarian, a theme which repeated itself in most Minnesota sports facilities built before 1988 (such as Metropolitan Stadium and the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome). Like the Metrodome, the Met Center was heavily utilized as a Minnesota sports venue, hosting various high school hockey and basketball events over the course of its lifetime. The North Stars turned down a chance to move the new Target Center upon its opening in 1990 due to conflicting soft drink rights (the Met Center was served by Pepsi whereas the Target Center's pouring rights belonged to Coca-Cola).[5][6][7]

After the North Stars moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1993 and became the Dallas Stars, the Met Center was demolished on December 13, 1994, in a series of three controlled implosions. The series of implosions was required after the initial detonation (which was intended to be the only one) failed spectacularly to bring down the building on live television.[8] The NHL returned to Minnesota in 2000 when the expansion Minnesota Wild began play at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Meanwhile, the Harlem Globetrotters, an annual visitor to the Met Center, moved on, as had a large portion of Met Center's concert business, to Target Center.

For several years after the arena was demolished, the property served as an overflow lot for the Mall of America. In 2004, an IKEA store opened on the west end of the property, and the new American Boulevard was rerouted through the east end of the property. The remainder of the site is planned long-term to become the site of Mall of America Phase II, of which the IKEA would be an anchor store.

Notable events

References
  1. Associated Press (1966-09-30). "Break Ground Monday for Hockey Arena". Winona Daily News. Minneapolis. p. 14. Retrieved 2022-03-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  3. Goldberg, Jeff (2018-02-28). "1967–68 ABA Arenas, and the Beginning of an Era". Arena Digest. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
  4. Associated Press (1966-10-21). "North Stars Get Okay on Arena Plans". Winona Daily News. Minneapolis. p. 11. Retrieved 2022-03-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "A look back: The Minnesota North Stars, the story back then and its legacy today | State of Hockey News". stateofhockeynews.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-09.
  6. "- YouTube". YouTube.
  7. Murphy, Austin (20 December 1993). "Gone but Not Forgotten: The still-unsettled Dallas Stars played a return engagement before Minnesota's sadder but wiser fans". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  8. "Met Center Demolition ~ but the building still stands..mp4". YouTube. 2011-06-10. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
  9. Associated Press (1968-01-15). "Masterson Still Critical". Montreal Gazette. p. 27. Retrieved 2022-03-08 – via Google News.
  10. Halstead, Craig; Cadman, Chris (2003). Jacksons Number Ones. Authors OnLine. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-7552-0098-6. OCLC 56451199.
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