On the heels of the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials and the Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, which brought in more than $127 million for the Twin Cities, Minneapolis will host two more massive NCAA events in the next few years.
"We've been working with NCAA wrestling since 2015, 2014," explains Wendy Blackshaw, President and CEO of Minnesota Sports and Events. "We had it in 2020. We sold out and we were two days away and of course, all the championships were canceled that year because of COVID."
The events coming now are the first and second rounds of the 2027 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, and the 2028 NCAA Wrestling Championships.
"One of the secrets to our success is we just don't put on the event in the stadium or in the arena," says Blackshaw. "We actually do a lot of fan engagement. That's what we love about this because, you know, we're bringing economic impact, reputational impact and people back down to Minneapolis."
Target Center will host the basketball tournament, while the wrestling championships will take place at U.S. Bank Stadium. It's the first time wrestling will be held in a stadium instead of an arena which speaks to the high interest locally for that event.
Minneapolis previously hosted the Men's Final Four in 2019 and the Women's Final Four in 2022, but the men's games were played at U.S. Bank Stadium. The last time the wrestling championship was hosted in Minneapolis was 1996 at the Target Center. The NCAA Women's Hockey Frozen Four is also coming in 2025.
Also coming up are the World Junior Hockey Championships. They're bringing the 2025-26 tournament to St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center along with 3M Arena at Mariucci on the University of Minnesota campus. The tournament in Minnesota will be the 50th anniversary of the World Juniors.
The 10-nation tournament features the best men’s players in the world under 20 years of age and the games of the championship take place over 10 days in December and January.