This afternoon, a Minneapolis City Council panel approved the hiring of Sink Combs Dethlefs to renovate Target Center: a $97 million project to be co-funded by the City of Minneapolis ($48.5 million), the Timberwolves and the Lynx ($43 million), and AEG ($5.5 million). It will be a welcome facelift for a venue famously described by Martin Devaney as looking like "a Cosby sweater."

With a capacity of 19,336, Target Center is one of the largest concert venues in the area; the only larger venues typically used for concerts are the Xcel Energy Center (20,554), Harriet Island (40,000), the Somerset Amphitheater (also 40,000), Target Field (42,524), and TCF Bank Stadium (58,805). The soon-to-be-demolished Midway Stadium will host approximately 14,000 fans to see the Replacements in September. For more information on comparative venue sizes, see our infographic.

Yes, that is a green roof—which, you may not have known, Target Center already has.