Minnesota stadium to reflect soccer’s growth in U.S.

The process has not been without obstacles. The team’s initial stadium plan targeted a site in downtown Minneapolis; it was one of the reasons cited by MLS for choosing McGuire’s group over a bid from the Wilf family, owners of the Minnesota Vikings. But when a deal that would have provided tax breaks to supplement the project could not be reached, the club — which currently plays at the National Sports Center in suburban Blaine, Minn. — shifted its focus toward a welcoming St. Paul and a city-owned former bus depot. Team and St. Paul city officials jointly announced their plans to build at the site in October, with the team later hiring Populous to design the facility and Minnesota-based Mortenson to build it.

Bill McGuire said a decision will be made soon on when Minnesota United FC will join MLS. Photo by: NANCY KUEHN / MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL BUSINESS JOURNAL

McGuire spoke recently about the stadium’s design and what’s ahead for the team as it builds toward MLS play.

■ What went into the thinking for the stadium design?

McGUIRE: In no particular order: a beautiful aesthetic; a facility that people can just look at and say, ‘Wow that’s good architecture’; good design; something that fits into the site so that it doesn’t overpower it or feel like it’s big. If we want to talk about being at the top tier of the international game, then we have to have facilities that reflect something more than that. We wanted to make sure that we accomplished that and bring the idea that if we’re going to build this for the future, let’s build something that reflects the growth of this sport.

■ There is a very modern slant to the design. Was that intended?

McGUIRE: If you go and look around and look what’s being built in soccer, and you see these great designs in Lyon or for Chelsea, you notice certain characteristics: very forward-looking architectural design. That’s why you see firms like Herzog & de Meuron designing [Allianz Arena in Munich]. We realized that a lot of the future of this sport is with millennials and younger people growing up with soccer in America, so we wanted something that would appeal to them.

We didn’t need to do the nostalgic old baseball field, because there’s no nostalgia around this. It’s a relatively new sport here in the U.S.; we don’t have to look back. We have a great Populous-designed baseball field here in Minneapolis with Target Field, but it harks on a different era and different things.

■ Both Orlando and New York City FC had massive first years in MLS. How do you view their success as it relates to your club, especially Orlando’s given their smaller market size?

McGUIRE: We’re all pleased to see the great response Orlando has had, and they’ve done a great job in bringing people to the game. Our market is different, though. Orlando has soccer and basketball; we’ve got professional-level teams in NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and a D-I college sitting right here amongst others, so we have to measure our situation a little bit differently than others.

McGuire said the design of the 25,000-seat stadium in St. Paul is meant to appeal to millennials and fans new to soccer. Photo by: POPULOUS (2)

■ You were able to bring both the Pohlad family, owners of the Twins, and Glen Taylor,

McGUIRE: From the standpoint of us locally, and I think for the league as well, to have an ownership group of the capability, experience and presence we have is an exceptional thing. It just has so many elements to it. It’s just people who have invested so much into our city, community and state, and they look at these things with a view towards generations into the future, and I think that parallels what is going on with soccer in general.

Who knows where it will pay dividends most. Certainly they’ve all gone through experiences both good and bad, and any time you have someone on board that can both explain things to you and help you see the hazards and the opportunities is great. Both Chris Wright from the Timberwolves and Dave St. Peter [from the Twins], both presidents of their respective organizations, have been huge for us.

■ What things are on your to-do list as the club prepares to make the shift to MLS? (The team’s move is scheduled for 2018 but could happen in 2017, in which case the team would play in a temporary home for a year before construction on the new stadium is complete.)

McGUIRE: The first thing is to have the timetable laid out so we know what happens when, and in the near future I expect some final decisions whether it’s 2018 or 2017, which clearly there is a lot of interest for 2017 where we would play. We have a couple other facilities here in town that could accommodate soccer and we’re working with them regarding a situation not too different than what Orlando did [playing in a home temporarily]. There’s a lot of focus on that kind of thinking.

We’re also looking at growing our organization up a little bit more, making sure we have the appropriate skill sets on board to make the transition into a bigger enterprise and a bigger league with a lot more attention than we’ve been accustomed to. On the other hand, these things are the same. We play in a very good league, and people still need to focus on the product we’re putting on the field and the services we provide to those who come to the games, and we’ve been pretty successful in the last couple of years.

On the actual team side, decisions we make right now are perhaps a little different because of the potential in playing in MLS: Who we sign, how we sign them, making sure we’re investing in players that have a good chance in making that transition.

■ How has this process been for you personally?

McGUIRE: When we started this just a few years ago, our initiative was to keep professional soccer in the state, because it was on the cusp of folding after a history going back to the 1970s where we used to have 40,000 people at the Metropolitan Stadium for the [NASL Minnesota] Kicks. So we had this long history through a number of teams, so first thing was to preserve pro soccer and what it could be, and help promote that and expand.

Now, standing here looking at playing at the very top level in a new facility that is a soccer stadium built for soccer and the soccer fans, but it is also a very beautiful thing to look at, just a beautiful piece of architecture to help drive the community in other ways: What can you say? It’s humbling, it’s exciting, it’s wonderful. Sometimes it feels exhausting, but I think we feel very privileged, at least I do, to work with a group of other people who are stepping forward to make this happen.