Basketball comes back to downtown Minneapolis this fall. The Minnesota Timberwolves open the 2026-27 regular season on the road against the Miami Heat on Wednesday, October 21, and then play their first home game at Target Center on Sunday, October 25 at 6 p.m. against the Toronto Raptors. If you are coming into the city for a game, you do not have to stay in a chain tower two blocks from the arena. You can stay in a National Register mansion on a bluff above Loring Park, roughly a mile south of the doors, and walk home under the streetlights afterwards.
Here is what the home calendar looks like, and why a mansion room makes a better base than a parking ramp.
Which Timberwolves home games are worth booking a room for?
The team announced its full 2026-27 schedule in August. A few dates stand out for anyone travelling in:
- Sunday, October 25, 6 p.m. — Toronto Raptors. The home opener. Minnesota has won ten straight home openers and thirteen of its last fourteen going back to 2013-14, so the building tends to be loud and happy on this particular night.
- Friday, October 30 — LA Clippers. The first of four Emirates NBA Cup group-play games, and a Friday night, which makes it the easiest October date to build a two-night weekend around.
- November 8-23 — a franchise-record eight-game homestand. More than two straight weeks without the team leaving town. If your schedule is flexible, this is the stretch with the most choice.
- Thursday, November 19 — New York Knicks. The defending NBA champions come to Target Center.
- Wednesday, December 16 and Friday, December 18 — Los Angeles Lakers. Twice in one week.
- Friday, December 25, 7 p.m. — Oklahoma City Thunder. The first Christmas Day home game in franchise history, on ABC. Five Christmas appearances for the Wolves, three of them in a row, but never before in Minneapolis.
- Thursday, December 31 — Denver Nuggets, and Saturday, March 13 — Philadelphia 76ers.
October holds seven games in all, November fourteen. Two additional dates will be added after the NBA Cup group stage and quarterfinals in December, and twenty-seven Wolves games this season are on national television — FOX 9 has the full breakdown. The roster looks different too: LaMelo Ball and Josh Green arrived over the summer.
How far is 300 Clifton from Target Center?
About a mile, straight up the hill from Loring Park into the north end of downtown. It is a walk most people do comfortably in good weather and a very short ride in bad. Our location page puts it plainly: the mansion sits on a quiet residential street a block from Loring Park, the central park of Minneapolis, and nearly every major attraction in the city is within walking distance of it.
The practical difference on a game night is parking. Guests turn off Clifton Avenue, come down the drive, and park on the brick lot behind the gardens — no ramp, no queue to get out, no circling. Check-in is through the door of the original stables. If you would rather leave the car entirely, Metro Transit’s trip planner will route you from the neighbourhood to the arena and back.
Where should you actually sleep?
Every room in the house is different, which is the point. The Crystal Mansion Room and the Grand Edwardian are the big theatrical ones — carved fireplaces, hand-painted murals, the full Gilded Age treatment. The Georgian Room gives you a king bed and a sitting area in front of the fireplace. The Coachman’s Room, the Forge and the Hayloft are tucked into the old carriage house and stables. Travelling with a group of four or six for the same game? The Estate Rooms or a whole-house booking keeps everyone under one roof.
What is there to do after the final buzzer?
This is where a mansion beats a hotel room. The garden hot tub runs year round and is genuinely at its best in November, when the air is cold enough to steam. Downstairs, Gertrude’s Cistern — the speakeasy and movie room with heated reclining seats — is a good place to watch the highlights with a nightcap. And if the house has a reputation for being a little haunted, well, October is the right month to find out.
What comes with a direct booking?
Book direct and every stay includes a $20 dining voucher per stay for the Pillsbury Club, the 1916 Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion a few minutes away, and a $20 voucher per stay toward a ride with Minneapolis Trolley Tours, which departs from the Club. Vouchers are for direct bookings only, are valid during your stay, and expire at checkout. Pre-game dinner is an easy problem to solve — the Club’s dining room and our list of nearby restaurants both sit between the mansion and the arena.
Staying longer than a weekend — a road trip through several home games, a work stint, a relocation? Oakland’s on 9th, our furnished month-to-month studios in an 1889 brownstone on South 9th Street, is built for exactly that and sits even closer to the arena.
Book early for the opener
Downtown Minneapolis has a habit of stacking its big nights. October 25 is a Sunday home opener; October 30 is a Friday; and the November 8-23 homestand overlaps with a good deal of other downtown programming. The mansion has eight rooms, not eight hundred, so the good dates go early. If you are already looking at that stretch, our notes on October 4, when three major events land on one day, and on Gopher hockey at Mariucci may help you pick a weekend.
300 Clifton is the Eugene J. Carpenter Mansion, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and often called the finest Georgian architecture in Minnesota. It is also, on the right night in late October, about a mile of good sidewalk from a basketball game. Check availability and book direct, or call us at 612-281-1550 and we will help you match a room to a game.
Keep reading: What Should You Expect When You Stay at a Bed and Breakfast in Minneapolis?