The story of Amsoil Arena cannot be retold as a clean, perfectly aligned sequence of events. No one can recall a precise date marking the start of the effort to bring a new arena to Duluth, and every turn of the page seemed to be followed by a false start or a moment of doubt.
Add to that a bewildering number of key characters pushing the project to completion over several years, and you're left with a convoluted chronology of setbacks and successes.
DECC officials, city leaders and local politicians fought a tough, diligent campaign in the state Legislature to secure public money for a new arena. Challenged by Gov. Tim Pawlenty to demonstrate local support for a publicly funded facility, they did just that, making their case to Duluth voters, who in turn voiced their overwhelming support (61 percent to 39 percent) of a food-and-beverage tax that would help pay for the arena.
Two years later, Pawlenty submitted to the Legislature a budget that included $38 million toward the $78 million arena project.
DECC Executive Director Dan Russell recalls the approval of the 0.75 percent citywide tax on Feb. 28, 2006, as not so much an advisory referendum, but a forceful shove that sent Amsoil Arena down the road to reality.
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"Any time you can get that kind of voter support for a tax increase, it's huge," Russell said. "We knew that once the referendum passed, the project would go forward. Had it failed, a few years would have passed, and my guess is we'd have ended up building a smaller facility on campus."
Here, the key figures in the arena campaign recall the long but successful effort.
"We went in with the attitude of, 'We're as important as the Twins, as important as the Vikings. We should be in the same discussion.' " -- DECC Executive Director DAN RUSSELL on the strategy the Duluth group took to the State Legislature in 2006 and 2007.
"We maintained a respectful dialogue, even though on two occasions they dismissed us. You can be obnoxious, you can be hard-nosed or you can respectful. It is a nuanced, sensitive dynamic to maintain relationships that are sometimes complicated and to do that in the one of the most challenging and emotionally charged environments, which is the budgeting session." -- David Ross, president and CEO of the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce, on perseverence after the arena project was left out of consecutive state bonding bills.
"I slept like a baby: I slept for an hour and cried for an hour." -- ROSS, on the setbacks and frustrations that accompanied the lobbying effort
"It was a difficult sell at first in the sense that not everyone realizes that the DECC isn't a local community center; it's a regional community center. It took a while to get that point across." -- State Rep. Mary Murphy, DFL-Hermantown. A longtime member of the Legislature's capital investment committee, Murphy led the charge in convincing fellow lawmakers of a new arena's benefit to Northeastern Minnesota.
"Because we hung tough, and because of some great pricing once we finally got approval, we'll be able to walk into an arena where -- we hope -- people will say, 'Wow!' " -- DAN RUSSELL
"At the time, the political climate presented a challenge. There was a lot of negativity about publicly funded or semi-publicly funded sports facilities. We had to remind people that, 'hey, the DECC was built with public money and it's been a great thing for Duluth.' " -- STEVE GREENFIELD, public relations consultant for "Arena Yes," the group formed late in 2005 to gain voter support for a citywide 0.75 percent food-and-beverage tax that would help pay for the arena.
"For me, the most memorable part of this is when the governor told us that before he could support this project, we needed to have clear support from the public .... I'm not sure he thought the community would say yes." -- GREG FOX, Minnesota Duluth vice chancellor for finance and operations and a member of the DECC Board of Directors.
"There can't be any question that the best place for students to our athletic events is on campus. But what would we have been able to build on site, the loss of land we'd have suffered and the long history that UMD hockey has with downtown were all factors." -- GREG FOX
