The Minnesota State Legislature will soon decide the fate of a Minnesota United soccer-specific stadium at the Midway bus barn site in St. Paul, Minnesota. Just this weekend the Star Tribune editorial staff wrote a piece that warned legislatures not to squander the opportunity to bring MLS to our state. They correctly pointed out there are many other cities in the U.S. currently on a waiting list to claim the next MLS franchise. Not voting on a bill this session could very well mean a lost opportunity to gain another major league sport here and build a stadium, paid and maintained by Minnesota United themselves, which will spur development at the outdated 70s strip mall called Midway Center. Currently the bus barn site—where the stadium would be built—has sat empty for 20-years as a polluted brownfield site, and has been off the tax rolls for over 50 years.
“If this is done right in this market, it’s an absolute no-brainer. And it’s also a no-brainer because it will challenge… wait for it: The Twins, the Wolves, and the Wild.” Talyor Twellman
There is one reoccurring question I often hear from those not familiar with the sport of soccer or any of the pro soccer teams we’ve had here in Minnesota for 23 consecutive years. The question? Can Professional soccer be successful in Minnesota?
To answer this I pulled out some old audio I had of former MLS and US International player, Taylor Twellman. He answers this exact question with an unequivocal, YES!
In late fall of 2014, both the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota United both made bids for a Major League Soccer team in the Twin Cities. We all know the outcome of that decision. But before MLS had made that choice, the Vikings held a media event to talk about their plans for soccer if they were awarded a franchise. They hired Minnesota-born US soccer legend and ESPN analyst, Taylor Twellman, not to speak on their behalf, but to speak about MLS coming to Minnesota. Twellman left little doubt about the success he believes a MLS team located in the Twin Cities, would have.
“It’s crazy how life goes full circle. February 29, 1980, I was born in Apple Valley Minnesota and 34 years later I’m here selling MLS to Minnesota and Minnesota to MLS.
I’m extremely lucky what this game has brought me. Brought me everything from growing up in an NASL family as an NASL kid in which I was very proud of that upbringing. I grew up in the hotbed of soccer in the US, St. Louis, representing the US National Team at the international level which is the pinnacle.
I’m asked constantly if you had to expand Major League Soccer where would you go? It takes me about two seconds to answer: Minneapolis and St. Louis.
For the last five years of my life, even before media, it was Minneapolis. The knowledge and enthusiasm of the fan base here is second to none. The impact that the NASL had on my family –what the Minnesota Kicks did in the NASL– what the USA Cup and the Blaine, National Sports Center has done for soccer here, it’s a no-brainer. My Maryland roommate was Leo Cullen who was an All-American here in the State of Minnesota.
I could sit here and tell you all about the 13th largest TV market, the geographic location being a rival for Chicago (Fire) and Sporting KC. The fortune 500 companies. The reality is this – In my time being at ESPN and seeing the cities: Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal, Toronto – all of them have succeeded because of that tie to the NASL. If this is done right in this market, it’s an absolute no-brainer. And it’s also a no-brainer because it will challenge… wait for it: The Twins, the Wolves, and the Wild. If you don’t read Sports Business Journal, then you are living under a rock. Soccer is here, from the youth participation to TV ratings.
Tony Sanneh, said something very interesting to me. You ask a child these days if they’ve ever played baseball and there are kids in the United States of America who have never owned a baseball glove. Ask that same kid if they’ve ever played soccer? This sport is here to stay.
And if Minnesota does it right, and treats it on the same level as the Vikings, Twins, Wolves and Wild and not as the ugly step child that we saw many examples of in the early days of Major League Soccer, I can promise you one thing: This will be one of the top five teams and cities for Major League Soccer.”
Later that night, Twellman told our own Jon Marthaler who was writing for the Star Tribune, “If you had told me ten years ago that there’d be two legitimate offers, two bids in Minnesota, I’d have told you that you were out of your mind. I don’t technically need to sell MLS on Minnesota. The fact that there were two bids with real money and stadiums… how many other markets have two real money groups going after the same thing?”
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