Life Time confirms plan to close beloved basketball court, convert it for new high-energy competition

In the basement of the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis sits one of two remaining NBA-regulation basketball courts that used to regularly host Timberwolves and Lynx practice games.

Minnesota’s professional basketball teams moved into new, state-of-the-art facilities across the street in Mayo Clinic Square about 10 years ago. But the old court, owned and managed by Chanhassen-based Life Time, still hosts famous hoopers, according to regular courtgoers, and maintains the allure of a rarefied atmosphere.

At least for now. In an email to members on Tuesday evening, Life Time General Manager Brian Opatz confirmed the Target Center location would be closed in the coming weeks. He said the fitness club would put in its place a first-ever training and event space for a program called LT Games to come in the spring.

“LT Games is a high-energy, cardio, and functional training competition with regional events leading to a national championship, where top athletes will compete for cash and prizes,” Opatz wrote in the email, obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune. “This new experience will elevate training and performance for thousands nationwide, and Minnesota members will be the first to try the course.”

Opatz said basketball would be offered at other area locations including Fridley and St. Louis Park.

The new information shared with members on Tuesday evening came four hours after the Minnesota Star Tribune published an online article about potential changes. A spokesperson for the company did not respond to requests for comment on that subject over the past several days.

The announcement comes after signs went up around the gym earlier this month saying the basketball court would be off-limits for a competition. Then, a few days later, longtime Life Time members were disappointed to learn via email that the basketball court would be closed again.

Members began backing an online petition launched Sunday that calls on CEO Bahram Akradi to reverse any plans that would cut the basketball court from the downtown Minneapolis gym.

Jared Hanks, an eight-year Life Time member who started the online petition and penned an open letter to Life Time’s chief executive, said the situation has been confusing and frustrating.

Hanks pays about $500 per month for his membership package. Along with a breadth of amenities available for members of the luxury athletic club, Hanks pays for downtown co-working space through one of the company’s newer initiatives called Life Time Work.

“I have the highest-level membership that one can get at Life Time, and I love it,” Hanks told the Star Tribune on Monday, as he prepared to film a testimonial for the athletic club later in the day. “And I pay for it because I love all the amenities, whether it’s the spa that they have there, the steam room and sauna in the executive locker room.”

The downtown fitness club has seen some transformation in recent years as the publicly owned Life Time embraces its identity as a luxury athletic club.

Life Time now offers spa and health clinic services like IV drips and hyperbaric oxygen chambers in its downtown club through a spa and health clinic called Miora. On-site health care professionals offer blood draws to analyze hormones, thyroid health and the immune system. Also available are hormone and peptide therapy such as the GLP-1 drugs that have become a popular weight-loss aid.

The basketball gym was the most important part for Hanks. He trains there and takes along his 9-year-old son and his teammates. The court’s status as a practice spot of basketball legends provides his son bragging rights at school.

After playing basketball overseas, Adam Kado returned home and joined the downtown Life Time Club in 2015. It was an easy decision to become a member, Kado said, seeing the facilities built for Timberwolves greats like Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury to play on.

Today, Kado is a coach working with up-and-coming basketball youth in the Twin Cities. He said the court is a unique place because of its overall quality, access to workout equipment and central location downtown.

Among the local players Kado has worked with are high-performing college players in the NCAA like Dain Dainja of the University of Memphis, J’Vonne Hadley of University of Louisville and Terrence Brown of Fairleigh Dickinson. He said getting rid of the court is “like changing the culture of basketball in downtown Minneapolis and Minnesota overall.”

“It affects the fabric of the basketball community,” Kado said. “For a lot of [basketball] camps, there’s not a lot of gyms, especially not a lot of nice gyms, and that’s one that’s very conveniently located.”