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The Big Ten announced on Wednesday morning that Target Center in Minneapolis, the home of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx will host the Women’s Big Ten Basketball Tournament in 2023 and 2024 and the men’s tournament in 2024. It will be the first time that either of the two tournaments will be held in Minnesota.
The Big Ten Tournaments have mainly been held in the Indianapolis and Chicago areas with a few other locations occasionally popping in. Minneapolis will be the 4th different location for the women’s tournament with Indianapolis having hosted the majority of the time since the tournament began in 1995. Other locations included Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2001 and Hoffman Estates, Illinois in 2013 and 2015. Minneapolis will be the 5th different location for the men’s tournament with Indianapolis and Chicago rotating for the majority of the time. The Big Ten tried moving the tournament to New York and Washington DC in 2017 and 2018 after their expansion of Rutgers and Maryland, but both events did not go well and the tournament has stayed in the Midwest since. The Meet Minneapolis group in connection with the University of Minnesota has been working hard to get some of these type of events to Minneapolis for some time, and with Kevin Warren now the President of the Big Ten and his knowledge of the area, it didn’t hurt.
Minneapolis and the Target Center received rave reviews for their hosting of the Women’s Final Four a few weeks ago which helped solidify the team for the Big Ten Tournaments to come to the same venue.
In 2023 the Women’s Tournament will take place from March 1-5 while the men’s tournament takes place the following week at the United Center in Chicago. In 2024 both tournaments will be played on back to back weeks at Target Center with the women’s tournament taking place from March 6-10 and the men’s from March 13-17. Hopefully both the Minnesota Gophers men’s and women’s teams will be rejuvenated by then and ready to complete for a title in their hometown.
The Big Ten also announced the Big Ten Football Championship Game will remain in Indianapolis until at least 2024.