A Major League Soccer stadium at Snelling, University and Pascal? A professional hockey practice facility at Macy’s in downtown St. Paul? Rule neither out, dear Scoop reader.
On Wednesday, Zygi Wilf, Jim Pohlad, Craig Leipold and Dr. Bill McGuire walked into a St. Paul wedding hall for breakfast.
Is stadium fatigue fatal?
No, not the set-up of an off-color joke. Yes, the owners of the Minnesota Vikings, Twins, the Wild and the Minnesota United FC got together for a breakfast discussion at the A’Bulae event center, down the street from St. Paul’s new regional ballpark, the home of yet another pro-sports franchise -- St. Paul Saints baseball.
The sold-out “Business of Sports” event was moderated by Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal Reporter Nick Halter and sponsored by Northern Tier (SuperAmerica, Northern Tier Energy, etc), Mortenson Construction and Briggs and Morgan.
It was also live-tweeted by St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Kramer, whose Tweets read like manna to St. Paul sports fans hungry to see the capital city live up to its slogan as the most Livable City in America.
When "Doc" McGuire mentioned that he's focused on bringing professional soccer to a proposed soccer stadium in Minneapolis and that Blaine is full, Kramer made it known that St. Paul is wide open:
Dr. McGuire of @MNUnitedFC says Blaine stadium is full, fans packed in. Looking forward to a new city location. Maybe @cityofsaintpaul ?
— Matt Kramer (@SPACC_Kramer) June 10, 2015
How open is open? In an interview, Kramer clarified later that the long-dormant Metro Transit bus barn site bordering Interstate 94 off Snelling and University avenues in St. Paul's Midway would make a perfect location for a professional soccer stadium, as would the Sears mall near the Minnesota State Capitol. Both sites have been bandied about for years by their owners and city leaders as major redevelopment opportunities, with no recent movement.
Some urban planners are already blogging up the idea of a Hamline-Midway-Snelling MLS stadium. And that's not MLS as in minor league soccer. That's MLS as in Major League Soccer. (And that's a professional soccer stadium as in $150 million - $200 million that someone will have to pay for...)
Both sites sit on the Green Line corridor and major traffic routes. "We'd be very excited to see Major League Soccer, whether it's at the bus barn site or the Sears site," Kramer said. "They're both on light rail."
The St. Paul Saints' rendering of the city-owned ballpark in Lowertown, which opened in May 2015.
There's a small minefield of "ifs" that would have to come together to make either site work for a stadium. (Okay, okay it's a major minefield of ifs....) Among them: St. Paul doesn't own the Metropolitan Council's bus barn site or the neighboring R.K. Midway shopping mall, and it doesn't own the Sears site. Getting either owner to entertain the motion of a stadium is a big if.
What's more, says Kramer, there's little chance St. Paul would go it alone to build a professional soccer stadium, no matter how much money the team is willing to pitch in. The funding discussion now rests with state lawmakers, who have mostly rolled their eyes from stadium fatigue. Minneapolis isn't exactly 100 percent on board, either. Until Minneapolis is done talking, St. Paul isn't interested in publicly interrupting discussions.
"You want to put another professional sports stadium where?!"
Remember, if you will, when the Minnesota Vikings announced they planned to leave Minneapolis and open a new football stadium in Arden Hills? Skeptics said Wilf was bluffing, and using his new dance partners on the Ramsey County board to get a sweeter deal from his longtime love interest: Minneapolis. (Skeptics would say Wilf's strategy worked).
No one at St. Paul City Hall wants to see a race to the bottom between the two cities to see which can give away more tax breaks, tax increment financing, public subsidy and the like. "The challenge is Minneapolis is first in line, and it is counterproductive to the Twin Cities (to compete). ... Let's let this play out," Kramer said.
The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce president elaborated by email about the possibility of wooing MLS to STP, thusly:
It's a great idea, but....
1) Clearly the team is looking for some element of state support. And in many cases changes made to accommodate any team (or for that matter any business) have to be approved the legislature (think TIF districts, for example). So until they understand what level of state engagement there will be, it is hard to contemplate what local support there can be. Yes they are running in parallel, but at the same time you do need to have some measure of "what will the state do" to have a local conversation.
2) We are very interested, but we also know that Minneapolis was the original choice. It does not make sense to "compete" against Minneapolis (poor use of the taxpayers time and money) and we support a position of wanting this to happen, but we need to let it play out in Minneapolis first and if/when they decide it won't work, we make our case.
In the meantime we can keep reminding them of at least two great sites (Sears and Bus Barn) that are right on light rail and have great visibility. I do think the key here is to think regionally, not locally.
I very much want this in Saint Paul, but I also know that getting this closer to the market center is a good thing. So if Minneapolis ultimately is the right site, the win for all of us is that we get to the site by the Green Line or your car in a matter of minutes.
--Matt
Those are, indeed, a lot of "ifs." But what about the possibility of a professional hockey facility at the now-vacant, block-length, could-be-big, mostly-still-a-windowless-eyesore Macy's off Wabasha, 5th and Cedar? The Port Authority and the Minnesota Wild have been in talks, which remain ongoing:
Leipold says Macy's building for practice facility would add vibrancy to downtown @cityofsaintpaul and leverage proximity to @XcelEnergyCtr — Matt Kramer (@SPACC_Kramer) June 10, 2015
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