Target Center Director of Sales Angela Wynveen Turns Arena’s Dark Dates Into Corporate Destinations

Target Center hosts nearly 60 regular-season professional basketball games each year, as well as concerts and traveling sports exhibitions. That still leaves potentially hundreds of calendar dates during which the venue, second-oldest in the NBA, goes dark. Home to the Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, Target Center is one of more than 400 venues worldwide operated by AMS Global, which turned to Angela Wynveen to help keep the lights on in Minneapolis more often year-round by hosting off-site gatherings for outside groups — mostly local companies. Wynveen was overseeing weddings and other special events less than three miles away at the admittedly smaller-scale Varsity Theater when AMS tapped her to launch this pilot program more than two years ago. AB senior editor Paul Steinbach spoke with Wynveen in early June — between the end of the Timberwolves’ NBA Playoffs run and the start of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for gymnastics — and asked her to explain the corporate sales approach now being implemented across the AMS portfolio.

Can you describe your relationship with AMS and Target Center?
I work for ASM Global. The City of Minneapolis owns Target Center, and we are the managing partner for the city. ASM global had made a decision that they were going to make private events a major part of their business moving forward. Target Center was one of the pilot programs. Now it’s throughout. Over two and a half years later, now all venues in the ASM portfolio are focused on private events.

How much of a pivot was this approach for Target Center specifically?
My position did not exist. I came to Target Center to build the private events program from the ground up. They contacted me based on my experience and pitched me the vision, and I said, “Absolutely, I’m 100 percent on board.” When I was brought on board, the focus really was to fill dark days, and that’s where the private events come in. That was what I was tasked to do. They didn’t focus on private events prior to me coming on board. Obviously, if somebody reached out and said, “Hey, can I have this?” “Sure.” But there was no focus on really filling dark dates. So that was what I was brought over to do — to build a private events program here at Target Center.

How much of the calendar is already consumed by sports?
The Timberwolves do about 41 home games a year, and the Lynx are at about 18 games a year — just in their regular seasons. So that does occupy a lot of days. Plus, of course, any playoffs. Something like the gymnastics, we have a booker who books all concerts and major events. And something like the Olympic Trials, that’s a city-wide initiative. The Olympics will be at the convention center. They’re taking over some streets. The actual Olympic Trials will be here, but it’s a city-wide event. Just like a city would bid on the Super Bowl or the Final Four, it’s the same thing with the Olympics. We do the boys’ state basketball tournament. We do state dance. There’s family shows like the Harlem Globetrotters. Obviously, as far as sports, our main focus is, of course, our tenants. And that just varies. This year, we had just one day of boys’ basketball. Sometimes we have the whole tournament. It really depends on the NBA schedule, because at the end of the day, our tenants come first.

One of your tenants used to be minor league hockey’s Minnesota Moose. Do you still have an ice plant in the building?
Oh, yeah. We do Disney on Ice every year. We can do ice, and if there was some type of hockey event, we could definitely make that work. We have a Zamboni in house, but that’s mostly just for Disney and Ice, which we host for a long weekend once a year. So, make ice a couple days before the show, then do anywhere from four to six performances, and then we’re right back into basketball. We get the court back down, and it’s time for NBA. We never put the court over ice here.

How many concerts does Target Center host in a typical year?
Annually, 25 plus. Of course, we can’t control who’s touring any given year, but on average it is our goal to do 25 plus a year.

And that’s the job of a booker. That’s not under your watch.
Correct.

Getting to the dark dates, how many was Target Center filling before your arrival two and a half years ago?
There were a few events. Obviously, Target has the naming rights of the arena, and they traditionally held a conference here every single year as part of our partnership with them. But outside of that, if the phone rang and somebody was interested, and it might have been a good fit, then sure. But there was just no initiative, no focus, no outbound marketing at all, prior to my arrival.

Now that you’re going on three years into your tenure, how many groups is Target Center attracting?
We’re doing about 30 per year, which is still not a ton. That can range anywhere from a two-hour networking event to a seven-day buyout — so all across the board. It just kind of depends on what the company needs. We are in a unique position, where we do have two tenants, and their schedules come first. So, for example, if you were looking to host an event in November, I have to wait for the Timberwolves scheduled to come out. That is the biggest challenge of being in an arena with two tenants, especially tenants with really strong records. We know the Timberwolves had an outstanding run this year. The Lynx are looking great this year. So, with that, we’re never sure about a playoff run, right? The NBA and WNBA are always going to trump anything, so we have to get really creative with dates, where events are inside of the arena, and how we work around our schedule for corporate events. Of course, our clients completely understand that.

What makes Target Center attractive to corporations?
They are looking for a really unique space. They want to be out of a ballroom or a room with four white walls. They want their guests or their employees to be inspired. And we are lucky here at the arena that we have all of the LED branding opportunities and the on-court shootarounds. So, there’s a huge draw to coming here. We just have to get creative with the schedule.

What do you offer, both from a practical standpoint and from a fun standpoint?
We have eight private event spaces that could be used throughout the arena that have nothing to do with the arena floor. We have the Lexus Courtside Club, the Backcourt Club and our Six One Two lounge. We have the atrium. We have theater boxes. We have a Club TI space. So smaller spaces that a lot of people don’t even know exist. Some people wouldn’t know the Lexus Club is even available unless you have courtside seats or are in the first four rows at a basketball game, right? It’s not open to the public. So that’s part of my job — educating companies, event planners and organizations that these spaces are available. Our Lexus Club, for example — very, very high-end furnishings — can fit 200 people in any room setup you want. Do you want rounds? Do you want classroom style? Do you want theater style? We can customize that to what your event needs are. 

Do you market each of these spaces individually for different-sized groups, or when someone books the Target Center for their corporate event, do they have access to more than one space, or maybe all the spaces?
It depends on what they need. If there’s a group of 100 that is having a networking event, and it makes sense for them to be in the atrium, and then a group of 200 has a gala at that same time, then they’re in the Lexus Club. You can rent out per space, you can rent out three spaces, you can rent out the entire arena. It really depends on what your needs are. But if you say, “Well, I have a budget of $3,000,” maybe you just rent one room. If there’s no crossover and noise bleed, then absolutely we’ll bring in another client to make that available for them in another space.

You’ve had overlapping events under the arena roof at one time?
Yes. Absolutely. It makes a lot of sense. During holiday parties, for example, maybe three different companies that are looking for a very new, unique holiday party have three different rooms, and then we bring them onto the court, change out the LED branding during their court time inside the arena bowl. So, they’re in their own private space, but then every single group within the arena still gets court time.

You’re scheduling within the schedule — taking one date and breaking it down.
That’s a great way, especially even for small-business owners, to make coming to the Target Center really affordable, because now you’re splitting a lot of the cost — security, guest services — with two other companies, even though there’s no overlap. You don’t see the other companies. It’s unique things like that that my team needs to do in order to even just get people in the door. We might do a meeting for 10 people for a company, just to show them this is a possibility, and then later in the year they bring in 400 people. It’s just really educating people that this is a rentable space and it can work. A lot of people really believe that, A) “I can’t afford the Target Center” and B) “My group isn’t big enough. I need 10,000 people.” That isn’t the case, I have a theater box that overlooks the arena floor. You can have all LED branding. You walk into that theater box, you think that it is your company’s arena for the day, and you can have a meeting for 30 people.

All arena ribbon boards show the company’s brand?
Yeah. It is definitely a “wow” effect. It makes it very, very memorable. One thing that’s really cool about Target Center is our scoreboard comes all the way down to the court. We can lower it and then put a stage in front of it, and then all of a sudden your screen, if you will, for your presentation is a scoreboard. We can take out the baseline seating, put in rounds, and you can have a plated dinner with an award ceremony, and the scoreboard is the backdrop. It’s a really great way to also make the arena feel smaller. Say, a group of 200 is doing a plated dinner, and they want that wow factor of being on the floor. The scoreboard, all the way down to the floor, makes it feel more intimate, because it really breaks up the space. You can’t see the other side of the arena anymore. Then it takes about three to five minutes to raise the scoreboard after the awards presentation, and they get to go shoot on the court just that quickly.

How is the hardwood protected during such events? Do you actually put tables and chairs on the Timberwolves court?
No, we just leave the court and we pull out all the baseline arena to open it up. We do put a stage on the actual basketball court and then bring the scoreboard down so that that’s the backdrop, but nobody is eating. We don’t allow any food and beverage on our court at this time until there is a really great solution of how we could have some type of dinner. Protecting the court comes first and foremost all the time.

Do you do anything with on the court in terms of protection when the stage goes up?
Just our normal carpeting that we put on. We just had the Big Ten championship, so Iowa wins, we bring out a stage, the confetti comes down, we do the trophy presentation. It’s exactly like that for a private event.

Do you do any cold calling? Do you just pick up the phone and call groups around the Twin Cities to let them know that this is available to them if they’re interested?
We cold call, cold email. We research what events are happening and then reach out and let them know for future years. “We saw you had this event. We hope that it went great. If you’re looking for a space in the next few years, please reach out.” We work a lot with Meet Minneapolis, which is filling the convention center. Work a lot with the surrounding hotels, so if a company has rented out a hotel block, but they’re looking at for an off-site welcome reception or a closing reception to bookend their conference that’s being held at the hotel. We are blessed here that we’re Skyway-connected, so even in the dead of winter in Minnesota, you can get to pretty much any hotel in downtown Minneapolis without going outside, so that is a huge benefit. We do attend a lot of conferences. We do open houses. We invite a lot of event planners, and even Fortune 500 company event planners down to just tour the arena on a one-on-one basis, and we’ll brand out the arena for their site visit. The key is really getting people inside the door, because most people are going to tell me, “I never knew that these spaces were here. I never knew you could rent it out.” It’s really bringing them into the spaces, letting them walk through and painting a vision, because most people just think about Target Center as basketball and concerts, right? And for even a large company to say, “This is our budget,” well, then to show them LED branding opportunities that they could sell as sponsorships to pay for their rental. And a lot of people don’t think about that, because if you’re going to a hotel ballroom, you don’t have those LED branding opportunities, right? So now if you’re having a trade show or just an educational conference, something like that, and you have two sponsors, the impact that that can make for a sponsorship is something that a lot of a lot of venues just simply don’t have — to light up the bowl and show them that makes it real.

I’m guessing your price structure must vary widely based on size of the group and what they want to do in the Target Center.
It’s all over the board. You know, that is also a challenge, right? If you want a theater box for four hours, and you have 30 people, well, you’re going to spend $500. Now, if you’re talking about renting out the arena for three days, and on the third day, you’re bringing in a major musical act for your closing reception, and I now have to rig and do production and all of that, that’s a whole other conversation. Some people have a million-dollar budget, some people have a $1,500 budget. It just depends on what your budget is and what you need. The Lexus Club can be completely different just based on production needs.

When someone’s in there for multiple days, do they have the run of the arena?
If somebody says, “We just want the arena floor for three days,” that’s awesome. Now the premium level — all the suites, the theater boxes, Club TI — there’ll be noise bleed, right? So those will be off limits. But the Lexus club, the Back Court Club, our Six One Two lounge are not directly connected to the arena floor, so those could be rented out. If a client says, “We don’t want anybody else in the building, whether we’re using that space or not,” no problem. That’s just a full rental buyout. But if somebody is open to saying, “We aren’t going to use Six One Two. It’s nowhere near where we’ll be,” then great. They won’t have to pay for that space, and we’ll save them some money by opening that up to other groups.

With Target Center being the second-oldest arena in the NBA, have hospitality renovations over the years made your events-hosting easier?
Yeah, as recently as right now. There are hammers swinging downstairs. We had a huge, $145 million renovation back in 2007, and right now we are updating a new club space. It was called Cargo and now it is becoming the Backcourt Club. We are excited that construction is underway for that, and with a projected opening date this fall. It will be brand new. We are also renovating some other spaces during this offseason, as well. We’ll pause during Olympics Trials, of course, and then we’ll get right back into it starting July 1 after the trials have wrapped up. Always, always, how can we make more premium, better club spaces? How can we reinvest in our arena?

And is the hosting of corporate events now part of that conversation?
Absolutely. What do companies need? There are arenas, even in the ASM portfolio, that don’t have any tenants, so they’re doing a lot more corporate events — now more than ever. But we do have a lot of dark days, and we know that this is a really huge focus for us, so we need to think about AV needs, setup, sightlines and all of that as we do renovations. Yes, it has to work for basketball games, and that is our top priority no matter what, but also concerts. One of our spaces is used during concerts for floor guests — bar, concessions, etc. We have to look at it through every single lens — from a fan perspective, basketball and concerts — but then also how do we turn it into a corporate event space for 150 people? And all of that has to be thought of because it is a high priority moving forward.

You’re at 30 events now. What would be your dream calendar year in terms of filling dark dates?
We always want our tenants to make deep playoff runs, which bring fewer dark days. But if we end up around 50 corporate events per year, that’s really our focus right now, being a two-tenant arena.

Are you at liberty to divulge what the filling of these dark dates means to the Target Center’s bottom line?
I’m not sure that’s something they want to discuss. I can tell you that, as a business, we are looking to private events as a huge priority, because anything can happen with a tenant’s season, with how many concerts are coming in. We can’t guarantee who’s going to tour from year to year. And we can’t control maybe what happens with a booked concert. For example, we had a concert that was booked here, and that artist jumped off the stage broke his leg and can’t tour. So what is that consistent thing that is going to help, and that’s private events. As long as we are continually booking private events, exposing people to the arena and the capabilities of what we can do here, that’s definitely going to help us recover from a slow concert year or maybe a year that we don’t get to host the Big Ten men’s and women’s and have the Olympic Trials. We’re fully aware that we’re not going to win that bid every year, and so we need to continually fill the hopper to make sure that these private events help us toward our annual goal every year.

You obviously offer food and beverage service.
Our catering partner here is Levy, and they do all food and beverage across the board, whether that is for games, concerts, as well as private events. The Levy team is in house. They office right out of the arena, so very lucky that I can meet with them and my clients can meet with them. That’s another perception, right? Clients think, “Oh, I’m going to an arena — that’s candy, hot dogs, popcorn. The Levy team, they do really amazing work, and the menus they come up with and what they can execute will rival any hotel or other venue. They do a phenomenal job. Whether it is a buffet, plated dinner, heavy appetizers, we can really do it all. Everything is coming right through Target Center. You’re not bringing in a lot of outside vendors to execute your event. To have it all in house, that’s a really huge plus for companies and clients.

You mentioned that ASM is making this a priority at all its venues. Are you aware, even beyond the ASM network, how common this among professional and even collegiate arenas?
I have seen just in the last few years, especially coming out of the pandemic, everybody’s working from home. So, for people to go to a company event, it has to be something really special. And I see companies focused more and more on the experience, and when they’re looking for experiences, it is a natural progression to look at their cities, universities, arenas, stadiums. I have seen an uptick myself just in the result of the Timberwolves season. We know that when you’re winning, and you’re putting 18,000 people into an arena night after night during the playoffs, that’s exposing your product to more and more people. People want to be a part of the buzz. New arenas and new stadiums, your phone is ringing off the hook. You’re the newest product in town. Same with when you’re putting a winning product on the court or field. And so I think there is just a natural progression across this industry as these event planners are looking for a way to really engage, really make something memorable, and just giving the overall experience. They’re getting more engagement, and that’s what they’re focused on. They need that return on their investment, and I think arenas, stadiums, unique venues are really giving them that return.

Is any of this directly involved with the Timerwolves or Lynx?
We also work a lot directly with our tenants to say, “Hey, if a company is coming on as a sponsor of the team, or maybe they’re doing a yearly lease on a suite, how do we help them build value?” Maybe that’s a company coming in and being a sponsor of the team, and then also getting an event here. So, how do we help the tenant build value in their sponsorships, and get that that company more engaged? We want Target Center to be a destination, all of the time — basketball, concerts, high school events, etc. It’s all about building value in those partnerships.

How do you go about creating repeat customers?
Just keep it new. How can we move them around the arena to keep it new and fresh? Maybe one time it’s a plated dinner. The next time it’s all about fun, and somebody’s playing Xbox on the scoreboard. It’s not every day and in every venue that you get to go play NBA 2K on your scoreboard during a company event, you know? We can get really creative. I think that’s the most intriguing and fun thing about Target Center. As the director of sales, I also oversee all premium sales for concerts — so sweets. A lot of times, if a client does a full buyout, then they also get a complimentary suite for an upcoming concert. So, now, I’ve had a company and their top salespeople get to come back a month later and go to a concert. I’m showing them how they can have a private event, how they can enjoy a concert. There’s so much overlap. We just want to target center to be the destination for everything.

Are you having fun?
You know, during the Big Ten tournaments, we didn’t sleep much those couple of weeks, and people were like, “Are you tired?” And I’m like, “No, this is my career. This is my office. Are you kidding? I just watched Caitlin Clark break the three-point record. This is what I get to do.” And then to watch my corporate clients come in, watch their faces when they see their name in lights and watch their employees start taking selfies — just being so appreciative that their company gave them that experience. It’s new every single day. And, yeah, it’s the best career in the whole world. I love it.