St. Paul city officials and Minnesota United execs made their stadium announcement on Friday as expected, and here’s what they’ve agreed on:
In front of dozens of soccer fans and business boosters, Coleman and McGuire announced a deal in principle to build a privately funded, $120 million, 19,000-seat stadium on 10 acres of vacant asphalt in St. Paul’s Midway area.
Some hoops remain, including discussions with state lawmakers over a series of proposed tax exemptions. The mayor said he had yet to pin down costs for public infrastructure improvements such as green space, parking and sidewalks.
In other words, pretty much exactly where we were in early September, only this time the two parties have held a press conference announcing where they are in negotiations. The state legislation still needs to sign off on a property tax break for the team, a lease still needs to be written, and while no one mentioned anything on Friday about kicking back property taxes from surrounding development to pay for new infrastructure, there’s been no indication that’s off the table, either.
There’s been lots of media talk about how this is a “coup” for St. Paul; honestly it’s hard to say, without knowing the details of what it’s likely to cost the city or how long United can go before threatening to move and/or demand stadium improvements. Minneapolis may not get to have the team within its city limits, but residents can still go see games across the river, and the land that would have gone to a soccer stadium is still available for another redevelopment that might be open more than a few dozen days a year, and actually pay its property taxes as Mayor Betsy Hodges has insisted. There’s even the possibility — depending on the details of what St. Paul works out with United, whenever that happens — of a win-win here, where the city with the land that’s harder to develop gets a stadium at a price it can afford, while the city where tax breaks for soccer would make no sense at all gets to let United be somebody else’s problem.
That’s assuming a soccer stadium actually helps promote other surrounding development, of course, which is an extremely dubious notion, given that it’s never happened before anywhere ever. But it’s easy to call a glass half-full when you still can’t see inside it.
Overwhelmingly local news media has been going with the idea that St. Paul simply out-played Minneapolis, which is an extremely facile reading of the situation. The reality is that Minneapolis is far more likely to redevelop that plot of land into actual taxable property than it was to ever see any sort of “boost” by an MLS team, and more importantly, with the House that Wilf (did not really) build still going up, I believe the appetite for sports development is basically nil here in Minneapolis.
My question is, with all this sports development, what are the odds that some goofball gets the idea to submit the Twin Cities as a potential Olympics option?
Not that I’m an MLS booster by any means, but it appears that some retail has sprouted up around the San Jose stadium. I certainly don’t recall seeing it before the stadium was built.
My sense from my time in the South Bay was that–beyond zoning approval–land had to have either live unexploded ammunition or actual flowing sewage to not be a development target. Soccer stadiums don’t really do much.
Neil, Neil, Neil, you’re letting your opposition to-public support of sports facilities interfer with your think and the accuracy of your rpeorting.
No, St. Paul isn’t exactly where it was before.
What is certain now is that the MLS approves of, and wants to put the MN team in St. Paul at that site. That was not certain before. It also means that the owners group–McGuire et al.–do intend to put the team and stadium in St. Paul. That was not certain previously as some thought they were stringing St. Paul along to get a better deal in Minneapolis. What’s also known now is that the plan will have McGuire et al. give the stadium to the Met Council–or city, as was only hinted at previously.
You can be pedantic if you wish about a detailed plan not having been signed, but this kind of announcement ends plenty of speculation and makes for a very different status than previously.There are uncertainties on specific details, but this now a very different situation.
Before: MLS and MN United say that they’d prefer St Paul if a deal can be worked out.
Now: MLS and MN United say that they’d prefer St Paul if a deal can be worked out.
Plus now they have a diploma. Er, a press conference. Sorry, always forget which gifts the wizard gave to whom.
And while this haggling occurs, the Sacramento Republic’s privately financed soccer stadium project is ready to go.
Gotta keep those “dozens of fans” in the Twin Cities happy, youbetcha.
It’s worth pointing out that the land where this stadium will be built hasn’t been on the tax rolls in over 50 years and this is the best chance it’s ever had of becoming not a giant slab of asphalt generating no money or economic activity whatsoever. You really have to dig deep to find the negatives in this deal, which is frankly a much better one for St. Paul than the last deal was for Minneapolis. Not every stadium plan is a secret conspiracy by the rich to swindle taxpayers. If you find this deal mockable, then every stadium deal in history would be considered mockable. I wish all sports development worked this way.
I would rather they just cut them a check instead of giving them tax breaks, but people never like the optics of that, makes it too clear what is going on. Additionally, I think having the Met Council own the stadium could be okay, depending on if they actually get use of it when the team is not using it and or the team plays rent.
If it is an actual public facility, than having a a unit of government own it is fine.
“… and this is the best chance it’s ever had of becoming not a giant slab of asphalt generating no money or economic activity whatsoever.”
That’s rather hard to believe. Looked up the location on Google Maps. In the middle of a residential/commercial neighborhood, surrounded by homes and shopping centers. On a transit line – like those things never drive development.
In case anybody’s interested:
https://goo.gl/maps/CW7W3Y1SYUu
Appears to be the only unoccupied chunk of land for miles.