ABOUT THE NATIONAL SPORTS CENTER FOUNDATION
The National Sports Center opened in 1990. The facility was built by the State of Minnesota as part of a statewide building program to improve Minnesota’s amateur sports facilities.
The current 600-acre campus, the world’s largest, bears only a faint resemblance to the facility that opened in 1990. The original complex had less than 30 soccer fields, the cycling velodrome, residence hall, stadium and sports hall. By 1994, the NSC had developed over 50 fields by purchasing land north of 105th Avenue. The Schwan Super Rink opened in October of 1998, the National Youth Golf Center opened in phases between 2000-2004 and the Schwan Center opened in April 2005.
The newest expansion at the National Sports Center is at the Schwan Super Rink, where four additional sheets of ice were added in the fall of 2006, making the eight-sheet ice arena the world’s largest.
Plans are also in the works to partner with a private developer to build a sports mall on 16 acres of the NSC campus. The sports mall will feature retail and service businesses of interest to the NSC youth sports clientele.
Even though most of the facility development and land purchases were made with State of Minnesota funding, the facility is operated by a non-profit corporation, the National Sports Center Foundation (NSCF). The NSCF operates the facility on a self-supporting basis. State funds were used to build the facility, but no operating subsidy is provided. The original state investment was $14.7 million, and to date the State has invested just over $20 million in the NSC campus.
Since 2000 however, the NSC Foundation has financed the majority of an ambitious construction phase through private investment. About 2/3 of the new National Youth Golf Center was financed privately, as was 100% of the construction of four new sheets of ice at the Schwan Super Rink, and a portion of the development of the Schwan Center meeting and events facility.
The Schwan Super Rink was funded by a cooperative of eleven local governmental partners along with the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission (MASC). The partners include the cities of Arden Hills, Blaine, Centerville, Circle Pines, Coon Rapids, Lino Lakes, Mounds View, New Brighton, Shoreview, as well as Ramsey and Anoka Counties. Total construction cost was $11 million. The new $10 million Super Rink expansion is also being built with non-state money. Partners, including Forest Lake, Centennial, Blaine and Tri-City Youth Hockey Associations, the Herb Brooks Foundation and Bethel University, will make an initial investment and then pay off the construction bonds through the sales of ice time.
Since opening its doors, the NSC has hosted over 22 million visitors. In 2005, 3.3 million people visited the campus, making it Minnesota's most visited sports facility – more than the Metrodome, Target Center or Xcel Energy Center.
The NSC has always had a dual mission:
- » To generate out-of-state economic impact through amateur sports events and programs. In an independent study of the NSC by the State of Minnesota Office of Analysis and Evaluation, the NSC produces over $35 million of out-of-state economic impact annually. Out-of-state visitors generate $2.3 million of taxes to the state annually, and $800,000 in annual local taxes.
- » To provide amateur sports opportunities to Minnesota residents. Even though the NSC has produced impressive out-of-state economic impact, the fact remains that the bulk of visitors are Minnesota residents – 92 percent, in fact. These are families and athletes who play in leagues and tournaments, attend events as spectators, buy tickets to non-sport events and play on the golf course. On an average day there are 12 different programs and events taking place at the NSC, and most service the local community.
The major theme that permeates the programming at the NSC is diversity – diversity in sport offerings, ages of participants, income levels and visitorship from around the world. The NSC is a priceless, innovative and unique state asset.