Security and concourse updates would be just part of a massive $769 million facelift to the Xcel Energy Center complex that the City of Saint Paul and Minnesota Wild are asking the state to help pay for.
The state is being asked to foot 50 percent, or about $384 million, of the project with the Wild covering 30 percent ($230 million). St. Paul and local partners, including Ramsey County, would cover the remaining 20 percent or $158.8 million.
St. Paul mayor Melvin Carter joined WCCO Radio's Jason DeRusha on Wednesday to talk about the project.
"It's a city-owned building, so it's city infrastructure," Carter said. "It wasn't only built before the pandemic fundamentally changed our understanding our understanding of how people can safely gather in groups, it was built before 9/11 changed how we think about people."
The Xcel Energy Center opened in 2000 with an expected 25-year lifespan.
The Saint Paul RiverCenter opened in 1998 and 93-year-old Roy Wilkins Auditorium would be part of the renovations.
"People don't realize the Xcel Energy Center has one escalator, so from a security perspective and all of those things, it needs to be brought into the current generation," Carted added. "$400 million is a whole lot of money, but that's the economic impact that building has on our state tax base every year. If we're able to do this renovation, that number will go up to $500 every year."
The Minnesota Wild originally contributed 70 percent of the $173 million needed to build the Xcel Energy Center with the remaining 30 percent contributed by public sources.
Over the course of 25 years the X has become the home to not only the wild, but countless concert and performance tours, the Minnesota Frost, the Minnesota State High School League athletic tournaments, high school graduations, and even the annual weekend-long Hmong New Year.
DeRusha asked Carter whether or not he was confident the Saint Paul City Council would back the investment that he said would be funded through repurposed sales tax dollars.
"Me and the city council, we've had our disagreements, that's their job and all of our jobs to do what's in the best interest of the city," Carter said. "One thing I think is putting a lot of fire under all of us right now is the impacts we've seen on property taxes."
Carter believes the council could get behind a major investment like the Xcel Energy Center.
"Nobody wants to feel like we're funding a professional sports team, but I think our council members know we're funding a city-owned facility and that this isn't just about somebody having a great time at a concert, this is about putting a real flag on the ground downtown and giving us something really big to rally our downtown around in the future."