Blaine’s National Sports Center seeks $2.5 million for maintenance facility

The National Sports Center in Blaine is turning to the state for a $2.5 million project to demolish and rebuild a maintenance facility.

Rep. Nolan West (R-Blaine) sponsors HF3766, which would appropriate the money from bond proceeds to fund the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission’s plan to tear down an old sod farm maintenance shed, and construct a new maintenance facility in its place.

The House State Government Finance Committee sent the bill to the House Capital Investment Committee without recommendation Wednesday. Its companion, SF3251, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Newton (DFL-Coon Rapids), awaits action by the Senate Capital Investment Committee.

The National Sports Center sees some 4 million visitors walk through its doors every year, and upkeep for a facility that hosts so many people is a massive undertaking. An improved maintenance building would help the rest of the work run smoothly, officials said.

“I don’t think the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission ever envisioned using a maintenance facility for 20 years, but that’s what ended up happening to be the case,” Executive Director Todd Johnson said. “We’re proud of the economic impact that [the National Sports Center] receives and gets for the state. It’s an important project ... We’re ready to go, we just need the funding.”

The Legislature established the commission in 1987 to promote the economic and social benefits of sports. In 1998, the state purchased the plot of land hosting the maintenance facility.

“Obviously the growth at the National Sports Center has been phenomenal,” Rep. Mark Uglem (R-Champlain) said. “It’s really a gem for the region and the entire state.”

While the National Sports Center’s budget is predominantly self-sustaining, the state allocated $303,000 in Fiscal Year 2018 and $305,000 in Fiscal Year 2019 for what West and Johnson said were for full-time staff salaries.

In his bonding proposal, Gov. Mark Dayton specifically outlined the $2.5 million maintenance facility relocation project, along with an additional $1.5 million for other maintenance projects to ice rinks, parking lots and door replacements.