Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

[Wedgeguy]

They need to be ready with plans if the St. Paul option does not work out.

[mplsjaromir]

I predict that Saint Paul is going to ask the state for money to build parking for the proposed soccer stadium.

[VAStationDude]

Have The MLS and McGuire indicated how much parking, if any, they would require in exchange for building a The MLS soccer arena in the Midway?

The 1200 spot mfsa ramp cost $50 million. Cleary tif on redevelopment of surrounding parcels and The MLS parking revenue, absent some kind of out of the blue corporate office tower, wouldn't generate revenues to cover the entirety of construction costs.

[MNdible]

Parking, and the other major infrastructure elements that will be required.

[mattaudio]

Parking is not public infrastructure any more than a stadium seat is public infrastructure.

[Silophant]

Looks like we'll find out tomorrow.

[acs]

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... htest.html

I think this says a lot about what we should expect to see in the redevelopment of Midway, offices. The north loop is the tightest office submarket, but surprisingly Midway is second at 10.9% vacancy.

[seanrichardryan]

Hint. hint.

[Nathan]

It's saint paul!

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/23/mls-stadium

[SteveXC500]

Of course, I had hoped for MPLS, but as a United Season Ticket holder, I don't really care. Good news!

[acs]

Yep, United wants to start with offices:

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... -site.html

[mplsjaromir]

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... htest.html

I think this says a lot about what we should expect to see in the redevelopment of Midway, offices. The north loop is the tightest office submarket, but surprisingly Midway is second at 10.9% vacancy.

How large is the Midway submatket? It would be interesting to see how much could realistically be absorbed.

[at40man]

I'm glad this wound up in St. Paul! Can't wait to see some games.... and do some armchair imagineering of how this might look.

[Nathan]

New stadium website!

http://www.newstpaulstadium.com/

no renderings or anything yet, but sounds like 20k seats.

[Minnehahaha]

So does this announcement make it official enough to move this conversation to the Saint Paul board? It would be nice to keep the crickets from chirping over there.

[Mikey]

A few thoughts...

I wonder if it's possible to do a land swap - as long as the Met Council still "owns" 10 acres, possibly including some of the original site, can the stadium "slide" towards University and/or Pascal?

With no "iconic skyline" view, will the stadium wrap 360º or will there still be an open / different end?

Will Hamline and/or Concordia abandon their football stadiums to share in the use of this one?

Any chance / reason to move the I-94 east Snelling ramps to Pascal or even Hamline?

[Wedgeguy]

Great "what ifs" or questions you've asked. I'm going to be waiting on the master plan and what is going to happen with that strip mall in front of it facing University. Once we know if United buys the land then we will know how much they can change the landscape of the Midway.

[VAStationDude]

The Rachel Strassen Burger on the Twitter machine has the most detailed response on parking given by Coleman or The MLS franchise.

https://twitter.com/RachelSB/status/657 ... 27136?s=09

If big Mac and Saint Paul are okay with minimal on site parking that's fine by me!

[BigIdeasGuy]

I would guess a land swap would be possible but would really difficult to pull off. I'm guessing there would be so many moving parts, legal complexities, and time spent the end result wouldn't be worth it. Even if the stadium would be in a marginally better location.

I'm guessing the seating bowl will basically wrap around all 4 sides of the pitch but I'm hoping there is some sort of break/gap in the bowl or something visually interesting so we don't end up with a smaller version of FedEx Field.

With Hamline recent history of moving sports teams off campus locations (baseball at CHS, hockey at the Wild practice facility) they would be a logical candidate but in 2004 they invested $7.4 million in a joint football/track facility so I would guess they would like to use it as much as they can. The other side of it is soccer players/fans/managers/etc. demand perfection out of pitches and hosting a college football on a regular basis would make that really difficult.

I don't know enough to comment on moving the ramps off of 94.

The one thought I do have about the stadium is that there should be some sort of lighted, vertical element at the corner Snelling and St. Anthony. Not something massive and overbearing but some sort of beacon visible from the interstate.

During the announcement McGuire said the stadium will seat about 20,000 which is larger than previous talked about. Another interesting nugget he dropped is that the stadium will be expandable. He didn't say to how many but simply that they would be able to add seats in the future.

[SteveXC500]

The Rachel Strassen Burger on the Twitter machine has the most detailed response on parking given by Coleman or The MLS franchise.

https://twitter.com/RachelSB/status/657 ... 27136?s=09

If big Mac and Saint Paul are okay with minimal on site parking that's fine by me!

Since the team plays in Blaine today, obviously everyone drives. But so many also tailgate. That same faction will likely continue to do so. Hopefully there is an area for that. Additionally, I would consider, for my personal sanity, only driving to MPLS and taking the Green Line from Target Field station to Midway. Avoid the mess that is 94/Snelling.