Soccer Stadium in Minneapolis (cancelled)

[mullen]

i'm going to both the man city soccer match and the mccartney concert. thank you green line lrt. and i think over 30 thousand tickets sold is pretty good.

[Didier]

Momentum?

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3522298.shtml?cat=1

[grant1simons2]

No. Please. Enough stadiums

[David Greene]

If it's privately financed, I don't care.

[HuskyGrad]

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3522298.shtml?cat=1

Previously, Bagley has made it clear the Vikings think their new stadium is the place for an MLS team, but sources say McGuire and Pohlad want to build an outdoor soccer stadium next to Target Field in what's known as the farmer's market site. It wouldn't replace the farmer's market; it would be nearby.

[grant1simons2]

I'm more worried about where they want to put it

[David Greene]

I'm more worried about where they want to put it

Why? Seems like an ideal place to me.

[grant1simons2]

How much room are they going to take? Will they want their own parking ramp? Will it take up some of Mary's place? Those are really my main questions, it would be a good spot but I just don't know where these current businesses will go

[go4guy]

I dont think they would need a parking ramp since it is so close to the A Ramp. And if I remember correctly, the plan would be to make the space between this stadium and Target Field basically one big plaza. Very ped freindly to get to the stadium from the ramps.

[grant1simons2]

I guess that makes me feel a bit better that they would add a plaza. I still worry about Mary's Place

[nfschauer]

I'm all for this, because it has been stated that it would be paid in full without any of the taxpayers spending a dime on it. Also, MLS teams now have soccer specific stadiums aside from the Sounders and a few others. Sure the Vikings Stadium is going to be cool, but MLS teams never get close to filling up stadiums of that size, while they alwayss fill up the soccer specific stadiums. It would also help clean up the farmers market area in the North Loop. I work right by where the proposed site is, and a MLS Stadium would really take a way a lot of the eye sores and old abandoned structures, and clean up the area a bit.

[seanrichardryan]

How many jobs are housed in those 'abandoned buildings'?

[Rich]

If I’m counting correctly, there are 14 soccer-specific MLS stadiums, and only 3 are located near a downtown, and all of those required fairly significant public contributions in order to be built. An entirely private, downtown, soccer-specific stadium would be unprecedented.

[HuskyGrad]

If I’m counting correctly, there are 14 soccer-specific MLS stadiums, and only 3 are located near a downtown, and all of those required fairly significant public contributions in order to be built. An entirely private, downtown, soccer-specific stadium would be unprecedented.

My guess is you'll see an application for a site cleanup grant.

[twincitizen]

If this were to happen, I'd want to see a pretty substantial plan for redeveloping the entire Farmers Market / West Loop / Royalston Station area, including relocation of the Farmers Market to the Yard/Armory.

That said, can the soccer team really not play at any of our existing stadiums? (TCF, Vikings, Target Field??) I don't care if it's ideal...just can it be done? We are really, embarrassingly bad at this stadium stuff. Huge mistake #1 was approving gobs of state money for TCF Bank Stadium without any discussion of the Vikings stadium needs. That's as shortsighted as it gets. Huge mistake #2 was not moving the T-Wolves to St. Paul, and instead spending $100MM to renovate Target Center when it should have been torn down. The second one is obviously debatable (since the T-Wolves may not have wanted to go to St. Paul and who could blame them), but the Vikings and Gophers not sharing a football stadium is just insane. The metrodome site is literally adjacent to campus, and now directly linked by rail. A separate on-campus stadium is not worth the several hundred millions of dollars in public and student funds.

[nate]

Yes, ideal or not, I'd rather see the MLS team in the Vikings stadium. If nothing else it adds another 20 days of activity per year to that end of downtown.

[mattaudio]

Mistake #2 was preceded by Mistake #2a, which is when the Minneapolis City Council spurned discussions with the NHL expansion team organization back in the late 90s. Apparently they gave up a very easy opportunity to land the NHL expansion team in Mpls, and so instead we ended up with the Xcel hosting the Wild. I've heard a fascinating history about Minneapolis City Council incompetence during that time. Also the time when they decided to instead spend money building Block E and expanding the Convention Center (which hurt its cash flow performance rather than helping it) so it shows you the mentality of that time.

[Nathan]

I guess that makes me feel a bit better that they would add a plaza. I still worry about Mary's Place

Mary's place wouldn't be going anywhere without also getting a huge chunk of money... their current set up isn't exactly urban either so it would be nice if they could re format for free too. it's too easy to associate a business with a specific location and they aren't co dependent

[HuskyGrad]

The Farmer's Market site could serve as a venue to expand the Basilica Block Party and a possible venue to move Soundset back into the city.

[nfschauer]

I stand corrected with the whole 'abandoned buildings and empty lots' thing. I thought if it were built it would be in a location with just concrete parking lots, but looks like it would be here:

http://www.mls4mn.com/wp-content/upload ... age_29.jpg