A contentious issue is returning — should tax dollars be used on sports arenas?

The Minnesota Wild want a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money to renovate the Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul wants $8 million to upgrade CHS Field and the new owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves have stated they want “a new arena,” but did not indicate how much, if any, public money would be used to get it done.

Between 2010 and 2017, taxpayers kicked in nearly a billion dollars to renovate Target Center and build U.S. Bank Stadium, Target Field and CHS Field.

Larry Jacobs, with the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the political landscape at the Capitol and city hall in St. Paul and Minneapolis will make any new taxpayer-supported stadium projects an uphill climb in the months ahead.

“We’re looking at a very difficult environment, and I think some of the stadium promoters need to be prepared for disappointment,” said Jacobs. “I would say the odds of the city councils of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the state Legislature getting behind stadium support is somewhere between slim to none.”

U.S. Bank Stadium is credited with being the catalyst that revitalized Downtown East in Minneapolis.

Former Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson helped secure the votes needed to approve the project. Johnson told KSTP that stadiums are now seen as an important part of economic development in the neighborhoods they’re built.

“If pro teams leave, we lose prestige and a sense of shared community,” said Johnson. “When you look at property taxes, I mean my goodness, when you look at the development around U.S. Bank Stadium, those were all empty parking lots before the stadium was built.”

The Wild and St. Paul requests are at the very beginning of the process, and there has been no movement on the issue of stadium renovations so far in this legislative session.