Well-Known Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota is Getting a New Name

A well-known piece of Minnesota is going away. It will be so weird to have the home of the Wild not be called the Xcel Energy Center, or The X for short.

The arena has been called the Xcel Energy Center since it opened in September of 2000. But reports say that it will soon no longer be called that in the near future.

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Xcel Energy Center Getting a New Name

In the Sunday sports column for the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, Charley Walters writes that we should be on the lookout for a new name for the Xcel Energy Center.

He says, "One company is said to already have made an offer to the Wild ... and a handful of other firms are seriously interested."

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Xcel Energy has been the title sponsor of the arena for 25 years, so it's going to be very strange to have a name change.

When Will the Xcel Energy Center Change its Name?

Charley writes, "Look for Xcel Energy Center ... to have a new naming rights sponsor after the next NHL season." But for those of us who aren't hockey people, when is that?

The 2024-2025 NHL season comes to a close in April of 2025, so we can expect to see the name change sometime in the spring of next year.

I can't imagine it being called anything else, though. Hormel Center? Pepsi Center? UnitedHealth Group Center? They all sound wrong. I predict this is going to be like when Camp Snoopy became Nickelodeon Universe. We're going to be calling it The X for a long time after the name change.