When talks of a new multi-million dollar Minnesota Hockey Hall of Fame started circulating, it seemed like a miracle might be needed to get it off the ground.

Well, this group believes in miracles.

Plans for the new Hall of Fame passed through the Inver Grove Heights planning commission Wednesday night, clearing the way for the concept to hit the Inver Grove Heights City Council later this month.

Minnesota Hockey Hall of Fame organizers announced in December they had selected a site in Inver Grove Heights for the new $70 million facility. The proposed Hall of Fame calls for more than 120,000 square feet of hockey-related amusements, including 30,000 square feet of museum exhibits, a 20,000 square-foot performance hall, a bar and restaurant and an indoor ice sheet. The project developer is Consumer Science North.

The Inver Grove Heights city council also previously entered a purchase agreement to spend $8.75 million on a 46-acre plot south of Interstate 494 near Argenta Trail and 65th Street West.

“The majority of council has been looking for a transformational development in a project such as this,” Inver Grove Heights Mayor Brenda Dietrich told the Pioneer Press before Wednesday’s meeting. “We are just extremely excited. It’s going to be a place for residents to connect — for sports, community celebrations, family activities, events. We couldn’t be happier.”

Public comment

A rendering of the lobby of the future Minnesota Hockey Hall of Fame. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Hockey Hall of Fame)

For the concept to move forward, the planning commission hosted a public comment hearing on Wednesday and then considered a comprehensive plan zoning amendment, changing parts of the parcels from office use to mixed use.

The planning commission then recommended approval to the Inver Grove Heights city council. The council is now set to hear the project at its Feb. 23 meeting.

Two residents offered comment to the planning commission, specifically questioning if light pollution and noise pollution standards would change under the new mixed use zoning standards. They also expressed concern about future traffic impacts to the area.

Inver Grove Heights Community Development Director Jason Ziemer said to the Pioneer Press that the same light and noise pollution standards exist for both zoning types. As for traffic, he said a new interchange on I-494 would serve the site; an interchange footprint study already has been completed.

City expenditures

Early project plans commit the city of Inver Grove Heights to future infrastructure support, estimated at $22 million in the project narrative.

Ziemer said that estimate relates to site improvements like road construction and extending utility connections so that the plat is a “development ready site.”

“That number was based on an early conceptual understanding of the project,” Ziemer said.

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City staff are now working on identifying funding options for the Hall of Fame site, Dietrich said, which could include grants, county involvement and city tax dollars, as well as a future appropriation or bonding request to the Minnesota Legislature.

‘Everything sort of moves in steps, and things will become more defined and more detailed as the months move forward,” Dietrich said.

The city’s purchase agreement allows until Oct. 31 to officially close on the site.

In the meantime, if the project continues to move along as scheduled, a groundbreaking is estimated for this year, with construction lasting through 2027, and a preliminary grand opening set for June 2028.

Construction firms Mortenson and Greiner Construction have been announced as partners in project construction, along with ESG Architecture and Design.

Colombian star midfielder James Rodriguez was en route to Minnesota on Thursday to finalize a contract with the Loons, a source confirmed to the Pioneer Press.

If the deal is completed and approved by MLS, the 34-year-old attacking midfielder will join Minnesota United on a short-term contract. The exact length is not yet known, but it is presumably through at least the mid-summer FIFA World Cup break.

Rodriguez will not be one of the club’s Designated Players, the source said, but still will likely command a large salary. The Loons do not need to pay a transfer fee to another club for Rodriguez’s rights because he is currently a free agent.

Rodriguez would become the Loons’ most-recognizable player across the club’s 10 season in MLS. He has has played for two of the biggest clubs in the world — Real Madrid and Bayern Munich — and has been part of a UEFA Champions League winner. He was the leading scorer at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Rodriguez needs a club team after his stint with Club Leon in Mexico’s Liga MX ended in late 2025, with his goal to be a top player for Colombia in the upcoming World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. He hasn’t played club soccer since Nov. 8.

The Loons can put Rodriguez into the the middle of its attack once he is fit, with Joaquín Pereyra alongside him and Kelvin Yeboah as a forward. It’s unclear how close Rodriguez is to being ready to play in matches.

MNUFC’s regular season starts in just over two weeks. The Loons have three preseason friendlies at the Coachella Valley Invitational in Indio, Calif, starting Saturday against Sporting Kansas City, followed by D.C. United on Wednesday and Charlotte FC on Feb. 14.

United’s season opener is Feb. 21 at Austin FC and the home opener at Allianz Field is Feb. 28 vs. FC Cincinnati.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

Pizza Hut plans to close 250 U.S. restaurants in the first half of this year as its parent company considers a sale of the chain.

Yum Brands said Wednesday it’s targeting underperforming Pizza Hut restaurants in its system. Pizza Hut has more than 6,000 locations in the U.S.

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Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum Brands said in November it was conducting a formal review of options for Pizza Hut, which has struggled with outdated stores and growing competition. The chain’s U.S. same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 5% last year, Yum said.

Rival Domino’s, the world’s largest pizza company, hasn’t yet released its full-year earnings, but its U.S. same-store sales were up 2.7% in the first nine months of last year.

Internationally, Pizza Hut’s results have been stronger. International same-store sales were up 1% last year, with growth in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, Yum said. China is Pizza Hut’s second-largest market outside the U.S., accounting for 19% of sales.

Yum CEO Chris Turner said Wednesday that the company plans to complete its review of options for Pizza Hut this year. He declined to share further updates on the process.

Pizza Hut ended 2025 with 19,974 stores globally, which was 251 fewer than it had the previous year. Pizza Hut opened nearly 1,200 stores across 65 countries last year, but closures outpaced that. Yum said Wednesday that Pizza Hut plans more global openings in 2026 but it didn’t give details.

Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas. PepsiCo acquired the chain in 1977 but spun off its restaurant division — which became Yum Brands — in 1997. Yum Brands also owns KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill.

By DEREK GATOPOULOS

MILAN, Italy (AP) — Annika Malacinski remembers the moment the door to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics was slammed shut.

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On a flight from Munich to Denver, she bought airplane Wi-Fi to join a conference call with the International Olympic Committee, certain that Nordic combined competition would at last be opened up to female athletes.

“Then the decision came: ‘no.’ No explanation, no discussion. Just ‘no,’ and then they moved on to the next topic,” she told The Associated Press from her training base in Norway. “I cried for eight hours straight on that flight. When I arrived in Denver, my eyes were swollen shut. It felt like my world had crashed.”

That was in June, 2022. And despite an ongoing campaign led by Malacinski, an athlete from Colorado now aged 24, her sport remains the last to exclude women – even as Milan Cortina is showcasing the highest level of female participation in Winter Games history at 47%.

Left out at the elite level

Malacinski is a frequent top-10 finisher at elite competitions in the sport that combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing and demands rigorous year-round training.

Her younger brother, Niklas, will compete in the men’s event for the United States and she plans to travel to northern Italy to cheer him on.

“It’s bittersweet. I know how hard he works, and he absolutely deserves it,” Malacinski said. “I do the same sport as him. I jump the same ski jumps and ski the same courses. The only difference is that I’m a woman.”

Female skiers racing in Seefeld, Austria, last weekend protested the exclusion by raising their poles overhead to form an X.

Men have competed in the Nordic combined since the first Winter Games more than a century ago, at Chamonix, France in 1924.

The sport is now at risk of being removed from the program at the next Winter Olympics in 2030. The IOC says Nordic combined has struggled to attract participation from enough countries and draws a limited television audience.

A long climb toward participation and parity

Women were excluded entirely from the first modern Olympics in 1896. When they were allowed to compete in Paris four years later, participation was limited to a handful of sports, including tennis, archery and croquet.

Track and field opened to women only in 1928, at the Amsterdam Games – but restrictions were imposed around beliefs of female fragility. Although the 800 meters was originally included, it was later withdrawn for more than three decades.

The first women’s Olympic marathon did not take place until 1984 in Los Angeles – 88 years after the race inspired by an ancient Greek battle debuted.

Nearly all differences have since been eliminated, though some disparities remain. At the Summer Olympics, women compete in the seven-event heptathlon, while men contest the 10-event decathlon.

Winter Olympics changes at a glacial pace

At the Winter Games, progress arrived even later. Ski jumping was off-limits to women as recently as the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and was introduced four years later at Sochi.

Cross-country skiing’s distance overhaul is the most recent and sweeping change. At Milan Cortina, men and women will race the same distances across all events for the first time in Olympic history.

Previously, the longest women’s race topped out at 30 kilometers, compared with 50 for men. Both will now have 50-kilometer mass start races — like at Nordic Ski World Championships last year.

Malacinski says she will continue her campaign for inclusion, now focused on 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.

“I’m a very gritty person,” she said. “If I put my mind to something, I know I can do it.”

“That just fuels the fire for me,” she said. “We deserve to be there, and I’ll fight until 2030 because that’s our rightful place.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics