By AARON CRANFORD
The deadline for a Minneapolis stadium plan has come and gone for Minnesota United FC, so it and MLS have turned its attention to constructing a new soccer-specific stadium in St. Paul.
In a release on the league website, MLS said that it was now turning its focus to the other half of the Twin Cities, after completing a deal in Minneapolis became untenable late in May. Dr. Bill McGuire, owner of Minnesota United, had proposed a soccer-specific stadium plan that called for private funding for stadium construction but public subsidies on infrastructure around the stadium as well as other tax exemptions.
The plan did not receive enough support from the city of Minneapolis or the Minnesota state legislature, leading to the project being stalled for the time being.
The deadline for the Minneapolis stadium plan ended July 1, and MLS president and deputy commissioner Mark Abbott said the NASL club would meet with St. Paul officials, including a possible meeting with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, in order to hopefully rectify the situation.
According to The Star Tribune, two feasible St. Paul locations are a 15-acre space near Snelling and University avenues and a site near the State Capitol.
A spokesperson for Coleman said the mayor would be “excited” to possibly field a team in the city and will “work hard” to make it happen.
“We did decide that it would be appropriate for me to come to Minnesota (to) learn more about the opportunity in St. Paul, so that we can make a fully informed decision as to whether we should continue to consider Minnesota as a potential expansion market,” Abbott said of the situation in an interview on 1500-AM ESPN in Minneapolis.
Minnesota United’s back is against the wall, and without a stadium plan emerging in the next few weeks, MLS could possibly abandon the bid it gave the NASL club in March of 2015.
“We are pleased that MLS has agreed to meet with officials from St. Paul to learn about the possibility of building a new stadium there as we believe this is an opportunity that deserves to be evaluated further,” president of Minnesota United Nick Rogers said in a stateement. “Our ability to secure an MLS club is contingent on us finalizing a plan for a new stadium that will serve as a permanent home for our club.”
McGuire had originally desired a downtown location near Target Field in Minneapolis that would mostly be privately funded, but with the site now unlikely to come about there, McGuire must now try to persuade St. Paul officials into backing a proposed public subsidy package that he says is needed to begin the development of the estimated $120 million stadium.
“We probably could have worked harder to get to some resolution that was before the deadline,” Minneapolis City Council member Blong Yang told The Star Tribune of the proposal that fell through. “We’re still very interested in getting MLS into Minneapolis, and it’s a slow haul.”
Another issue facing Minnesota United is when it could potentially enter the league. When it was given an MLS expansion place, the league initially aimed at having it join by 2018.
But if Minnesota United are still looking for state subsidies, it’ll have to wait at least six months before those are discussed. The Minnesota state legislature meets from January to May every year.
What do you think about this development? Think St. Paul is a good location for Minnesota United? Think the club will have a plan within the next few weeks?
Share your thoughts below.
They better make sure to put turf in, we don’t want the grass to get cold!
Stadium building is a pretty touchy issue in Minneapolis since the recent Vikings stadium building plan has been controversial and unpopular in some circles. I imagine the politicians don’t want to push their luck. St. Paul would be okay though. Maybe not quite as good, but you could still get a nice turnout there.
@ Martha
why would I care what league Minnesota plays in?
Obviously Minnesota fans care, but I would love for them to succeed in either league.
MLS expansion will not be a problem.
McGuire is full of crap. He’s known basically since he bought the team that there was no government support for this in particular in the City Council. The city elections in 2013 that brought in Hodges (a no vote on the Vikings) and the new council were basically a rejection of the previous governments spending. The governor, state legislature and most of the county have been against it as well.
They can’t honestly say 3-4 months ago they thought they’d get the support and now that they haven’t say a few million in taxbreaks are the issue. They’re doing what every pro sports team does just on a smaller scale: bat eyelashes at St Paul and the suburbs. Hold the team hostage for more public $ The ownership group includes basically every seriously wealthy person in the state.
Just disgusting
As has been pointed out:
Miami: No stadium, no franchise
Minnesota: You can have a franchise but you only get 3 months to lock down legislative support and secure funding for a stadium
Orlando: It seems you probably have a stadium lined up even though you don’t have legislative funding secured so go ahead a hop into the league
LAFC: We trust you’ll find a stadium at some point
NYCFC: Please start playing immediately despite no real hopes of getting a stadium in the foreseeable future
#Consistency
Bye MinU!! You already F up the team!! They are all gone!!
MLS rules are merely suggestions. Where “stop complaining about soccer in U.S.” To defend the leagues honor
I am not from the area but looks to be some major politics at play.
The Vikings ownership group is pissed they didn’t get the expansion rights and every political connection they used to get a new nfl stadium (which I assume is using tex payer $) is screwing this stadium process. I can’t believe they were offered ownership of the stadium being privately funded and still didn’t put through the tax breaks.
At this point they deserve to loose the expansion bid, what is a deadline by the mls if not upheld. There is no lack of cities with everything ready to jump at the chance for expansion rights.
But look 2 years plus later Miami is still a joke.
I am from the area.
The biggest problem, in my view is not necessarily the fact that the Vikings ownership is trying to screw the stadium process (though the conspiracy theorist side of me loves that idea). Instead, it’s the fact that it needs to be approved by the legislature, of course, and they made the announcement with 30 days left in the legislative session. On top of that, given the bizarre and unique nature of the MN Legislature, it’s very unlikely that a deal gets made before next spring. Bottom line, there was never any chance of getting this figured out in 30 days, especially with how acrimonious the past decade has been with regard to the construction of the publicly-subsidized Twins and Vikings stadium constructions.
So who’s to blame? MLS, in my view. Why would you make a big expansion announcement, and then set a deadline when there was no conceivable way for the team to meet the deadline? And on top of that, all reports locally seem to indicate that MLS has done precisely nothing to assist MN United in brokering a deal with local and state government.
I’m from the area too. The ‘deadline’ is political fiction so that MLS can be the bad cop and McGuire can be the local home town good guy to put pressure on local residents. MLS knows exactly what it is doing and the deadline is just part of their strategy. Minnpost did a great analysis. Now they’re trying to play St. Paul and Minneapolis off of each other.
https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2015/07/does-soccer-stadium-saga-mean-mls-smartest-professional-sports-league-or-mos
Sacramento Republic.
As a resident of Minneapolis it annoys me to no end that mayor Hodges was and has been pretty much “NO” to making any accommodations on to the idea of any tax breaks for a fully paid stadium. Even the offer by McGuire to have the stadium that he will fully fund placed under public ownership, hasn’t swayed her. She would rather have the area the stadium was proposed to be built at be a permanent blight to downtown Minneapolis and generate almost no tax revenue. Let’s see, make $350k a year in property taxes on an abandoned building or have a new soccer stadium and development that will attract 20k fans at least 20 times a year. Makes a lot of sense Betsy!
Hopefully mayor Coleman of St. Paul can make things happen. At least he seems to be way more open about it.
Why the Tax Brake? They make a lot of money! Let them pay full!
As a resident of St Paul and one of the many ardent supporters of the idea that billionaires don’t need tax breaks, I will be pushing hard for my ward representative and Coleman to NOT give any public financial support for the stadium. I spoke to Betty a couple of times to encourage her to not succumb to McGuires BS pressure. (Let’s not forget, this is an smart, unscrupulous businessman who had to settle with Federal Regulators to the tune of approximately $400 million dollars for his shady workings/contract while head at United Health Care). I will be even more hardcore now that they are approaching my city to give them money for their investment.
The area that you speak of in Minneapolis isn’t “blight”. That’s one of the hottest areas of investment in the city right now. Your argument that 20,000 people using it 20 times a year is silly. There are far more opportunities to use that land in ways where more residents will benefit more than 20 times a year.
My hope is that Coleman plays hardball, because, let’s be serious, MinU ownership can afford whatever costs are necessary to put a stadium in place. Especially considering that the investment of an MLS franchise will continue to grow exponentially in the next 5-10 years to come.
Remember, McGuire doesn’t care about you. He just wants your money.
Minnesota was a good choice as far as expansion markets. The mistake was going against the Wylfs who have basically sabotaged any possibility of receiving any kind of public support. St. Paul would be a good choice as a site and that City probably would love to have another event space to compete with Minneapolis besides the Excell Energy center. Again the Wilfs will try and kill the deal but they have less influence at the city level (the state house will still be a problem for any ownership group not headed by the Wylfs).
Wrong. The Wilfs are carpetbagging sleazeballs. Best thing MLS ever did in that market was run away from them.
I would also not abandon the Minnesota bid. It’s sound; they went with the right group – the one that actually had the grassroots fan support – and the problem was the Wylfs used dirty politics to stall and try to sabotage the works.
Stand up to that crap; it’s strongarm BS by people who not only think the rules don’t apply to them, they also think their desires are the rules.
Somebody will play ball. If it ain’t Minneapolis, fine. St. Paul would work too.
Meanwhile in Sacramento….
……
….
seriously, WTH MLS!?
Nobody thought Minnesota was a bad selection in fact people were praising it. They had good turn out, good ownship, and a good brand in the community but this just shows no matter who you select there can be issues. That’s why allowing New York FC makes sense even though it has stadium issues because anywhere can have issues. I’d rather have New York be here then anyone else having the same issues. That said Sac town needs to ready if this doesn’t go threw.
i think it is fair to say mls screwed the pooch on this round of expansion.
I think they already been screwing around too much…
This is a no brainer. Put Minnesota on the back burner and award this slot to the Sacramento Republic. They have a stadium location, financing and existing fan base that sells out every game.
Lol. Why MLS? They don’t like you guys.. Lol
You can always come to NASL! It’s better for the club! And city!!
Man, not now that Ibarra is leaving.