urbanMSP

It was the first domed stadium, that's one reason why it didn't work. Forsyth Barrr is less that 10 years old. Technology has changed a bit.

Many of the European stadiums for soccer are on par with the seating capacity of NFL football stadiums. We would be like a minor league team in the European soccer league for size if not a bit smaller to start with.

Actually very few European stadiums are as big or even close to as modern as the average NFL stadium. Most are old and retrofitted and in the ballpark of 30-40,000 seats.

I recently went to a soccer game in Granda Spain. Granada is a first division professional team in the Liga Española. Their stadium holds 22,500 which was surprising to me because it felt much bigger. There was of plenty of noise, and great energy. An 18,000 seat stadium has the potential to be a great fan experience. I assume these days that they can engineer a new stadium to be expanded down the road if the demand increases.

I want to say that the night I went they announced 19,000 in attendance. A link to the picture below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Aup0 ... sp=sharing

People have the perception that professional soccer is huge everywhere but here, but really outside of the top five or so European leagues and the handful of other really popular teams, MLS isn't that far behind as far as stadiums and attendance. Brazil, for example, is a mess.

More like a high school football stadium in Texas then? ;P

http://yestotexas.com/biggest-high-scho ... n-texas/5/

I just looked at attendance figures for leagues across the world I didn't realize how well the Chinese and Indian leagues drew. I'm not an elite enough soccer mind to know what the quality of the play is but I doubt it would be any better than MLS.

Also fun fact I guess figured out, the College Football Bowl Subdivision is the 3rd best attended league in the world 43,483 per game right behind the Bundesliga in Germany at 43,527. If you just look at the Power 5 conferences(SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12, ACC) they all beat the Bundesliga ranging for 78,018 fans to 50,016 fans per game. It goes to show you how popular and dominate football is in American culture.

So, there was a guy at the Granada soccer game who was a soccer wonk, and he stated that some of the current MLS teams are good enough to be competitive in the Spanish league. When I asked him to clarify he said that they could beat some of the under performing teams (like Granada).
I guess that goes to show you that every sport and every league has it's own version of the T- Wolves.

Fred Melo just tweeted this info on a meeting this evening for residents of Midway neighborhood and stadium plans...

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_29183144

Attended tonight's meeting. Nothing new really. Lots of city representation, Mayor Coleman, council members, heads of staff and departments etc. There was a brief presentation on implementation, funding, and schedule. Still hoping to break ground this coming June. No clear funding identified for infrastructure improvements. Stadium building costs is still solely on the team, as well as operations, overruns, & improvements. Team will keep all stadium derived revenue. Presentation was followed by a 1 hour breakout sessions with tables focusing on sustainability, site visioning, transportation, youth sports, ticketing/cost, jobs, & childrens' engagement. Lots of exciting post-its and dot surveys!

They hope to have a few more open houses in the next few months. The CAC has its first meeting Thursday. Expect some type of online engagement tool soon. Aggressive timeline means we've got a very short window to shape the project!

No clear funding identified for infrastructure improvements.

You could knock me over with a feather.

Mortenson chosen to build the stadium. And yet we still don't have a single rendering in the public.

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

Well they just announced this today. Mortenson doesn't usually take long to produce renderings once they have been awarded a contract.

Well they just announced this today. Mortenson doesn't usually take long to produce renderings once they have been awarded a contract.

Mortensen would not be producing the designs/renderings, those will come from KC Populous and the United Group when they are ready. I know patience is not a virtue here on these development boards. But when they are ready they will get them out to keep up the fever pitch of enthusiasm.

KSTP had a report tonight that Hennepin County is making a renewed push to get the stadium in Minneapolis.

I feel like that's rediculous. The more I see/hear about the plans for the midway, I think this is where it should be. It will be transformative.

Egh. Sore losers (winners)! http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3998789.shtml?cat=1

Someone should tell Hennepin County to stop, before they pull MLS back over the river by offering them $400 million in stadiumbux. #SarcasmNotSarcasm

This is pretty rich coming from Opat. Last week he was stomping his feet over one time park dedication fees on county lead projects while working to saddle Minneapolis with a terrible stadium deal.

Really what this story is saying is that Hennepin County is planning some sort of fallback plan in case St. Paul is unable to secure funding, which isn't that surprising. But as long as the legislature follows through with the plan, there's pretty much no chance that the team bails on St. Paul.

Really what this story is saying is that Hennepin County is planning some sort of fallback plan in case St. Paul is unable to secure funding, which isn't that surprising. But as long as the legislature follows through with the plan, there's pretty much no chance that the team bails on St. Paul.

Don't both sites need the legislatures approvals to get the tax breaks and all.