Duluth Seeks Partners to Build, Renovate Athletic Venues Under New Initiative

Duluth's ambitions for a new indoor ice sheet, an Enger Park Golf Course clubhouse and repairs at four of its busiest athletic complexes will require far more money than the city has on hand, parks staff told the City Council this week: up to $45 million in contributions from outside partners on top of the more than $31 million already secured through the Athletic Venues Reinvestment Initiative.

City parks staff told the Duluth City Council it has more than $31 million in funding for the Athletic Venues Reinvestment Initiative during a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday at City Hall. To complete a list of six projects that includes a new indoor sheet of ice, a new clubhouse at Enger Park Golf Course and updates and repairs to Wade Stadium and Wheeler, Lake Park and Arlington athletic complexes, the city hopes to find partners for up to an additional $45 million in funding.

The Minnesota State Legislature approved a request from the City of Duluth to renew a one-half-of-one-percent increment in tourism taxes to fund improvements to parks-based athletic venues that drive regional sports tourism, a program that will provide up to $36 million of investment implemented in phases over a decade. The tax was originally authorized in 2014 to fund $18 million in improvements to outdoor recreation facilities in western Duluth, then reauthorized in 2023 to fund up to $36 million in capital improvements to parks-based public athletic facilities in support of sports tourism and quality of life in northeast Minnesota.

Since reauthorization, the city has used nearly $5 million of the original sum to fund the upgraded irrigation system at Enger Park, snowmaking and lighting at Spirit Mountain Nordic Center, and main building structural repairs at Wade Stadium in 2025. Another $400,000 was used to develop the AVRI Action Plan.

That planning work was carried out by RDG Planning & Design of Des Moines, Iowa, which the Duluth City Council unanimously authorized at a cost not to exceed $338,500. Over summer and fall of 2024, the city and RDG conducted significant public outreach, including six focus group meetings with leaders from local athletics groups, three in-person community-wide workshops, and a sports-tourism focused market assessment, participation trends and facility needs assessments, and a regionally focused competitive analysis. RDG presented an update of those efforts and findings to the Parks and Recreation Commission on January 15, 2025. More than 100 people attended the in-person community workshops, and more than 1,400 people completed the online survey.

The city currently has a good level of quantity but not quality, according to the parks staff presentation, with staff recommending a "fix what we have" approach that prioritizes deferred maintenance to core infrastructure, public safety and accessibility. Early cost estimates for a tournament-ready indoor facility would consume all of the remaining AVRI funds, so the city instead hopes to partner with community groups to extend the scope of outdoor athletic facilities and to find partners in the nonprofit and business communities to fund a new indoor rink in Duluth.

Through partnerships, fundraising, grants, sponsorships and naming rights, the city believes there is between $20 and $45 million in potential cost sharing beyond AVRI. Under that framework, the city would make field and irrigation improvements at its athletic complexes and structural repairs at Wade Stadium, while community partners would add amenities like fencing, field lighting, scoreboards and a synthetic turf field at Wheeler Athletic Complex.

The question of where a new indoor ice sheet might land sharpened during Monday's discussion. Councilor Arik Forsman, who represents the city at large, asked whether Fryberger Arena in the Woodland neighborhood was excluded from the department's planning for a new rink. Property and facilities manager Erik Birkeland confirmed the building was in its end-of-life cycle and was not part of the department's plans, saying the building is worn out and not in a condition to improve, with the city anticipating Fryberger will be offline in the next couple of years.

The 22-member Mayoral Indoor Athletics Venues Task Force, chaired by Todd Fedora, a former Duluth City Councilor and longtime regional leader in commercial banking, is working in collaboration with city staff, project partners and consultants to develop recommendations on renovating existing indoor venues and constructing new indoor athletic facilities.

The hope, according to Parks and Recreation Manager Jessica Peterson, is to wrap up the study and planning phase and begin implementation in 2027. Mayor Roger Reinert has said the initiative has already drawn attention beyond city limits. "I'm excited for our community," Reinert said. "We've already had several potential partners, local and national, express interest. An indoor complex including ice and turf puts the city on par with our regional center peers, and is also what our community both wants and needs.