By Ben Nicholson
October 27 – Minnesota United FC has announced its intention to make St. Paul its home. After competing with Minneapolis to provide domicile to the MLS expansion franchise, the team owner, Bill McGuire, and St. Paul Mayor, Chris Coleman, announced that its 20,000-capacity soccer-specific stadium is destined for the Snelling-Midway redevelopment site in St. Paul.
The privately funded $120 million stadium, sitting within a 10-acre space, is intended to serve as a catalyst for redevelopment of the larger 34.5-acre block. The stadium will replace a shuttered bus maintenance facility, nearby a strip mall and surface parking structure.
How St. Paul managed to steer the stadium out of the clutches of its twin city is by its local council and county passing resolutions supporting a continuation of tax exempt status for the site.
Though this is yet to be approved by the state legislature, it is thought less troublesome to get a continuation than fresh exemption in an alternative location, particularly given Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodge’s reluctance to make any such privilege available.
Hodge is largely attributed with losing the city’s potential stadium due to her reluctance to exchange property and sales tax breaks for the build.
In contrast, St. Paul’s Mayor Coleman has enthusiastically courted the ownership. During the announcement he stated, “A soccer stadium will provide an important catalyst for the redevelopment of the entire area – creating jobs, spurring housing and new commercial opportunities, and building on our commitment to transit oriented development,” which is the characteristic rhetoric of redevelopment that he has employed to culminate support for the idea.
So enthusiastic for the stadium he has been, though, he has yet found time to pin down costs for infrastructure improvements like sidewalks and green space.
Beyond the monetary benefit, to Minnesota FC, of the St. Paul location, it carries the proven benefit of urban centrality. A population of 393,696 resides within 5 miles of the plot and it is proximal to colleges and a light rail system.
This all combines to suggest that there will be substantial opportunity for strong attendance figures, which is a proposition established in the recently finalised 2015 MLS attendance figures that saw those clubs with urban stadiums garnering greater fans than the alternative.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber, for one, is on board: “We believe the Midway location will be a tremendous home for Minnesota’s new MLS club based on the site’s central location, close proximity to a diverse millennial population, and easy access to multiple modes of public transportation.”
McGuire expressed similar optimism during the announcement: “By all measures important to soccer fans throughout the Twin Cities metro and the state, as well as the needs of the team and Major League Soccer, this is a great location for an iconic soccer facility that will house the MLS franchise in Minnesota.
“Located between two great downtowns, situated along multiple transit options and the interstate, and in the heart of a dynamic community, this site provides us the opportunity to work in partnership with the city of Saint Paul and the local community to establish top-tier professional soccer that will be readily accessible to everyone.”
Minnesota FC is slated for introduction into the MLS in 2018. The club intends to break ground at the site as soon as it has received the tax exempt go ahead from the state legislature.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734805570labto1734805570ofdlr1734805570owedi1734805570sni@n1734805570osloh1734805570cin.n1734805570eb1734805570