Metropolitan Sports Center (Met Center), Bloomington

The Metropolitan Sports Center, or Met Center, was built to house the new Minnesota North Stars NHL team in 1966 and 1967. The facility, in Bloomington, was adjacent to the Metropolitan Stadium—once home to the Twins and Vikings. After the North Stars left the state, the Met Center was demolished.

When the Minnesota North Stars were announced as an NHL expansion team on February 9, 1966, the conditions of the bid included construction of a new arena that could hold 12,500 spectators—the minimum allowed by the NHL. Since the largest arena in the Twin Cities had a capacity of 8,500, Walter Bush Jr. and eight other businessmen who organized Minnesota’s bid offered the Metropolitan Sports Commission a plan for a future arena. The bid organizers would build an arena on land owned by the Commission and pay rent. The location, near the Commission-owned Metropolitan Stadium, would create a professional sports hub in Bloomington. The Commission agreed to these terms and construction started on October 3, 1966.

On October 21, 1967, the Minnesota North Stars played their home opener against the California Golden (later Oakland) Seals. As spectators arrived—12,951 by the end of the night—seats were still being installed in the arena. The game ended with a North Stars win. A few months later, however, visitors to the Met Center witnessed tragedy as the only NHL player to die as a direct result of his injuries, Bill Masterson, fatally hit his head on the ice during a North Stars game.

The Met Center was considered one of the best NHL arenas in its time, and it set standards for future facilities. Since the team played in Minnesota during the winter, Met Center management arranged to have tow trucks parked outside during hockey games to jumpstart cars. Soon after, other cold-climate NHL arenas followed their lead. The signature multi-colored seats were innovative and, according to North Stars coach Lou Nanne, made it look like there were more spectators in the arena on television on low attendance nights. In addition, the Met Center was the first NHL arena to sell advertising space on the rink sideboards, which is now standard in arenas across the United States.

The Met Center also hosted other events, including basketball games played by the American Basketball Association’s Minnesota Muskies. The Muskies’ first game was the day after the North Stars’ debut, on October 21, 1967. The Muskies, however, quickly left Minnesota after one season at the Met Center. Concerts held at the Met Center included shows by Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, LL Cool J, and Minnesota’s own Prince. The first concert was on December 16, 1967 featuring Sergio Mendes, and the last was Frank Sinatra on January 24, 1992. The most tickets sold for a concert at the Met Center was for a Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton collaboration on April 25, 1986 with 17,922 sold.

As the Minnesota Twins and Vikings left the Metropolitan Stadium for the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis, the North Stars soon became the last major professional sports team in the Twin Cities to be housed in Bloomington. Norm Green, a Canadian investor, purchased the North Stars in 1990. He sought to renovate the Met Center and connect it to the new Mall of America, built on the site of the old Met Stadium, but the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission (MSFC) denied Green’s proposal. When the Twins and Vikings moved to downtown Minneapolis, Green shifted his focus towards existing facilities in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Green, dismayed by the lack of support for his Met Center plan and disappointed with offers from existing facilities, decided to uproot the North Stars and head to Dallas. He announced this decision on March 10, 1993 in the midst of the North Stars’ season.

The last North Stars game at the Met Center was on April 13, 1993—a loss to the North Stars’ Midwest rival, the Chicago Blackhawks. Unable to find a new tenant for the arena, the MSFC tore down the Met Center on December 13, 1994. The land was used as an overflow lot for the Mall of America until furniture company IKEA opened a store in 2004.