For a metro of three million people the Twin Cities punches well above its weight in pro and college sports. Four major-league franchises, an MLS club, a Triple-A baseball team in one of the more beloved small ballparks in the country, a Division I university running football, basketball, and hockey at the highest level, and a women's pro hockey league that picked Saint Paul as a flagship market. These are the stadiums, arenas, and ballparks the year is organized around.
The Twins' downtown home since 2010. Limestone facade, real grass, sightlines from the upper deck that take in the Minneapolis skyline above the outfield. April through September it is one of the great Twin Cities afternoons. The walk-up pretzels at the third-base concourse have a small following.
Read full entry →The HKS-designed glass-walled Vikings stadium that opened in 2016 next to the Commons. The angular roofline reads as a Viking ship at the right angle. Hosted Super Bowl LII in 2018 when the Eagles beat the Patriots. Concerts and college football also book the room.
Read full entry →The downtown arena that has hosted the Wolves since 1990 and the Lynx since 1999. The Lynx have won four WNBA titles in the room, the Wolves are working on their first. Block from Target Field, two blocks from First Avenue, dead center of the downtown sports-and-music cluster.
Read full entry →The Wild's downtown St. Paul home since 2000, also where the Minnesota Frost won the first two Walter Cups in the PWHL. The atrium full of Minnesota hockey memorabilia is its own small museum. The walk to Mickey's Diner after a night game is a small Saint Paul ritual.
Read full entry →The first purpose-built soccer stadium in the upper Midwest, opened in 2019 in Saint Paul's Midway. The translucent ETFE skin glows from the inside on a night game. The supporters' section in the Wonderwall keeps the room loud through any weather.
Read full entry →A 7,210-seat ballpark in Lowertown, opened 2015. The Saints became the Twins' Triple-A affiliate in 2021 but the room still feels like an independent-league family operation. Cheaper tickets, picnic patios, dog days, fireworks every Friday in summer. Some of the best foul-territory seats in baseball.
Read full entry →The on-campus football stadium that opened in 2009, ending decades of Gophers football in the Metrodome. Limestone and brick, open end zones, real Big Ten energy on a Saturday in October.
Read full entry →A 1928 fieldhouse known across college basketball as "The Barn." Raised floor, balcony seating that hangs out over the court, no bad seats. One of the last truly historic college basketball rooms left in the country.
Read full entry →The home of one of the winningest college hockey programs in the country. The pep band, the chants, and the kind of Friday-night atmosphere that you cannot replicate in a pro arena. Tickets are still affordable.
Read full entry →The Vikings training facility in Eagan that also hosts the Minnesota Aurora FC, the cooperatively-owned women's USL W League team that has sold out every match since 2022. The Aurora home games in the summer are one of the better sports tickets in the metro.
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