After months of aggressive pursuit by city leaders, St. Paul will become home to Minnesota’s new Major League Soccer franchise.
Minnesota United owner Bill McGuire and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman on Friday announced the team’s — and the league’s — commitment to play at a new, privately built 18,000-seat stadium in St. Paul’s Midway area.
The team, which is essentially transforming from a lower-tier squad that plays in Blaine to a franchise in the country’s top professional league, is expected to begin play in St. Paul once the stadium is erected. The $120 million structure is slated to go up at a 10-acre site near Interstate 94 and Snelling avenues that was once home to a bus depot.
McGuire said the team hopes to break ground on the stadium in late May or early June of 2016.
“This is a very exciting opportunity to bring the world’s game to the state of Minnesota,” Coleman said to cheers from about 50 supporters of the team who had turned out with banners and scarves to celebrate the news. “I will guarantee you there will be no better place for soccer than the Twin Cities [and] on this site.”
While Minnesota United is paying to build the stadium, which will be on land still owned by the Metropolitan Council and leased to the team, team officials will seek property tax relief from the Legislature next spring. City and team officials have expressed confidence in legislative approval.
Coleman and McGuire made the official announcement at a 1 p.m. news conference at the Midpoint Event Center, near the proposed stadium site.
McGuire, visibly excited, called the stadium site — roughly bounded by I-94, Snelling and University avenues — a “super block” that is centrally located between downtown St. Paul Minneapolis.
Coleman added that the site’s proximity to the nearby Green Line and bus rapid transit system makes it “the ideal location for soccer in this region.”
“This isn’t a far fetched dream anymore,” said St. Paul City Councilmember Dai Thao, whose ward contains the stadium site.
The announcement came on the heels of the city’s monthslong courtship of the MLS and Minnesota United, which was awarded an MLS expansion franchise last spring.
An e-mail sent Thursday by St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Kramer to board members flagged them to Friday’s news. It read:
“Board members,
“I hope you have been thinking ‘GOAAAAL,’ ‘Corner Kick’ and ‘Extra Time’ because tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Bill McGuire and Mayor Coleman will be announcing that Major League Soccer is coming to Minnesota. The stadium will be built on the University and Snelling site (the Bus Barn Site) that we have been pitching and talking about for the last six months!”
The long-anticipated announcement comes a week after the St. Paul City Council, the city’s Port Authority and the Metropolitan Council agreed to fashion a long-term lease aimed at putting a privately funded soccer stadium at the publicly held Midway site.
The joint powers agreement made official the parties’ negotiations and sent a message to team owners and the MLS that St. Paul was serious about its bid.
St. Paul’s hard sell
Friday’s news counts as something of a coup for St. Paul.
In March, the MLS announced that it had awarded an expansion franchise to a group led by McGuire, and talks immediately centered on putting the team in Minneapolis, with a potential stadium to be built near the Minneapolis Farmers Market and Target Field.
But, after a July 1 deadline for a stadium plan with Minneapolis came and went, Coleman started to aggressively sell McGuire and MLS officials on the Midway site, which was once home to a bus storage facility and had been off the tax rolls for decades.
Coleman touted the development potential of an even larger site around what is known as the “Bus Barn” property, and pointed to what has happened around the new CHS Field, home of baseball’s St. Paul Saints in the Lowertown neighborhood, as proof that a stadium could spur broader development.
In fact, McGuire had inquired about the Midway site and surrounding property in 2013.
Early last month, sources close to the deal said that the Midway site had become the choice of Minnesota United officials as home for a new MLS team.
The $120 million venue would be paid for by an ownership group led by McGuire and including the Pohlad family, owners of the Minnesota Twins, and Glen Taylor, owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Star Tribune.
The St. Paul City Council had already approved a resolution backing a property tax exemption for the site if a privately built stadium went up there, and a short time later, Gov. Mark Dayton said he would support legislative action to enact the tax break.
The Midway site’s transit-friendly location also impressed team investors.
The MLS deal is expected to include establishing a practice facility at the National Sports Center in Blaine, where Minnesota United currently plays in the North American Soccer League, the second tier of U.S. professional soccer.
Staff Writer Nicole Norfleet contributed to this report
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