Minnesota United FC executives visited state officials in St. Paul this week to present their plan for a privately-funded, downtown, soccer-specific stadium for the club as it prepares to join MLS in 2017 or 2018.
Club owner Bill McGuire met with Minnesota governor Mark Dayton and state legislators on Tuesday to explain his group's vision for an 18,500-capacity outdoor soccer stadium in an area of Minneapolis known as West Loop, near the Minneapolis Farmers Market and the Minnesota Twins' Target Field home.
Under the plan, stadium construction would cost $120 million and about $30 million would be allotted for land acquisition, all of which would be underwritten by United's ownership. The only public funds proposed would come in the form of exemptions on local property taxes and sales taxes on construction materials. Similar tax breaks were provided to previous stadium projects for the Twins and the Vikings of the NFL.
“What we are not doing is asking for public subsidy for the stadium,” McGuire said.
“We think these [tax exemptions] are appropriate things for the economic development effort of this magnitude and we're putting in $250 million dollars of private money.”
The soccer stadium is envisioned as an anchor of redevelopment efforts in an area currently dominated by warehouse buildings and surface parking. A light-rail station set to open in 2019 would help link the facility and its neighborhood to the rest of the metropolis.
