I’m stating this as a firm opinion, Star Tribune columnist Pat Reusse wrote after word last week that pro soccer is destined for St. Paul: “There were more people in Wayzata who had been to Paris than to downtown St. Paul before the X opened and the Wild started playing hockey.”
The same good-for-St. Paul development happened this summer across downtown in Lowertown, with the opening of CHS Field, a fan favorite and vibrant new draw for the neighborhood’s thriving bars and restaurants.
If all goes well, another sports venue will help transform another part of St. Paul, the Midway area around a new soccer stadium that could open in 2018.
Those supporting the deal here “were really excited about continuing the momentum,” Mayor Chris Coleman told us. “They love what’s going on in Lowertown and across the city. It’s about time that the Midway shares in that prosperity.”
Announcement Friday of the $120 million, nearly 20,000-seat stadium is a moment to savor.
St. Paul does so in a new era of regionalism: “If you’re going to talk regionalism, you have to act regionally. This is a regional victory,” Coleman told us, bringing another major league sport — and one with broad appeal to young and diverse audiences — to the metro area.
From an objective standpoint, if you were to ask about the best place to put a facility like this, the mayor said, “I think you would land in the Midway district.”
St. Paul made its case — and won — stressing the heart-of-the-Twin Cities location between both downtowns with the advantage of transportation access via the Green Line, I-94 and Snelling Avenue bus rapid-transit.
And when it comes to this fast-growing international game, St. Paul — with many college campuses not far from the site — also is poised to deliver the young and diverse group that will help the team build its fan base for the future.
Yes, the stadium gets a tax break, but St. Paul gets a new public asset. The team reiterated in a news release that it will finance the stadium, and that it will be publicly owned once construction is complete. The St. Paul City Council and Ramsey County have passed resolutions supporting a continuation of tax-exempt status for the site, a measure that will require legislative approval.
The publicly owned site of the former Metro Transit “bus barn” near Snelling and University avenues has been off the tax rolls for about 50 years.
When it comes to such development, we buy the “best-use” argument, the opportunity to transform idle land to drive new growth — that is, new tax-revenue-producing business growth.
The work St. Paul leaders have done over the last few years “set us up to work together to move this decision on soccer to where we are today,” said Louis Jambois, president of the St. Paul Port Authority. Now, we need “to take everyone’s good intentions and the alignment of goals and execute on those good intentions.”
That will involve a “ground lease” that meets the needs of the parties, he told us, as well as construction of a stadium “that will make the club proud, the city proud and the neighborhood proud.”
Then, “we have to make sure that that alignment of interests follows through with the great redevelopment prospects” around the new facility, Jambois said.
The mayor also credits St. Paul’s success to the strong involvement of the city’s business community, including efforts by the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce and calls from top executives to key decision-makers.
“These are complex deals to put together, and there’s still a lot of work to be done,” the mayor reminds us, noting that the process will include public involvement to make it “the best possible site.”
Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber said in a statement that the Midway site will be “a tremendous home” for Minnesota’s new MLS club.
We agree. Welcome to St. Paul, Minnesota United.
