The Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament returned to Minneapolis this month. Minnesota Sports and Events
Résumé: Annual events include the Target USA Cup (since 1985); and PGA Tour 3M Open (2019). Other recent events: 2017-19 ESPN Summer X Games; 2017 National Sports Forum; Super Bowl LII (2018); 2018 WNBA All-Star Game; 2018 and 2023 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships; 2019 NCAA Division I Men’s and 2022 Women’s Final Fours; 2022 Green Sports Alliance Summit; 2022 MLS All-Star Game; 2023 NFL Front Office & General Manager Accelerator Program; 2023 World Para Swimming World Series; 2023 and 2024 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament; 2023 USA Dance Breaking for Gold Regional Qualifier; 2024 Stifel Loppet Cup/FIS Cross Country World Cup; and last week’s Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Recent wins: NCAA Division I Men’s (2024) and Women’s (2025) Frozen Fours; 2024 U.S. Paralympic Swimming Team Trials; 2024 Society for American Baseball Research annual convention; 2024 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Women’s & Men’s Team Trials; and 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.
Minneapolis has become a consistent winner when it comes to bidding for big events with a Super Bowl; MLS and WNBA all-star games; April’s Division I Men’s Frozen Four (ninth time); and the 2025 Women’s Frozen Four (seventh time) highlighting the calendar. The Special Olympics USA Games arrives in 2026, a weeklong event that brings more than 4,000 athletes and their families. Additionally, the Target USA Cup is the largest youth soccer tournament in the Western Hemisphere and is held each year at the National Sports Center. Approximately 16,000 players (1,100 teams) compete each year, bringing about 25,000 people per day to the area during the tournament.
Forward progress: Minnesota United FC owner Bill McGuire in February filed paperwork with St. Paul officials seeking permission to build an eight-story, 150-room hotel near Allianz Field. Additionally, a two-year total renovation of the Minneapolis Convention Center’s meeting rooms is budgeted to begin this fall.
Stay and play: Municipalities and venue operators have partnered to create what might be the country’s most environmentally friendly sports market, so hop on the light rail and check out the Sculpture Garden, Mill City Museum and the city’s Minnehaha Falls. — D.B.
