Marv Wolfenson helped bring basketball back to Minnesota Marv Wolfenson, who, with his longtime business partner, Harvey Ratner, brought NBA basketball back to Minnesota in the form of the Timberwolves, died Saturday in San Diego. His death was confirmed by his granddaughter Lauren Sundick. Mr. Wolfenson and Mr. Ratner, childhood friends who had created a successful chain of indoor tennis and health clubs, once paid $1,500 (U.S.) for a 3-per-cent share of the Minneapolis Lakers. When that team moved to Los Angeles in 1960, the partners, often referred to as "Marv and Harv," nearly tripled their money. Nearly 30 years later, when Minneapolis became the site of one of four NBA expansion teams, the league and the partners had become far more wealthy. Mr. Wolfenson and Mr. Ratner paid $32.5-million for the Timberwolves franchise. "The NBA is hot," Mr. Wolfenson said at the time. Indeed it was. The Timberwolves sold more than 14,000 season tickets for their first season, 1989-90. The team hosted games that year in the Metrodome, a venue better suited to football and baseball, but by the next season, the Timberwolves had a home of their own, Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. That arena, which Mr. Wolfenson and Mr. Ratner paid for themselves and initially seated 19,000, was both the glamorous exclamation point of their investment and the beginning of its end. When the cost of building the arena ran over estimates by about 50 per cent, to about $100-million, the partners decided to sell the team. In 1994, they reached an agreement with a group that planned to relocate the Timberwolves to New Orleans. But David Stern, the league's commissioner and a friend of Mr. Wolfenson's and Mr. Ratner's, opposed the move and stepped in to stop it. The partners sold the team later that year to Glen Taylor, a Minnesota businessman and a former state senator, who promised to keep the Timberwolves in Minneapolis. Taylor paid $88-million for the team. In 1995, the city of Minneapolis bought Target Center. Marvin Earle Wolfenson was born Aug. 13, 1926, in Minneapolis. He was a standout athlete in high school and won a citywide award as the top Jewish scholar-athlete his senior year at North High School. He served in the Army during the Second World War and later graduated from the University of Minnesota. He and Mr. Ratner began their partnership in the early 1950s, first building houses and apartment buildings and then starting a chain of athletic clubs that featured indoor tennis courts. The partners later sold the clubs to Life Time Fitness. He leaves his wife of 60 years, the former Elayne Berman; their three children, Ellyn, Ernie and David; and four grandchildren. Mr. Ratner died in 2006. Mr. Wolfenson continued to attend games after he and Mr. Ratner sold the team. He was often seen wearing a Timberwolves lanyard with current team credentials, even after he retired to San Diego. New York Times New Service