Brooklyn Park To Pitch Stadium Site For Minnesota United
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (WCCO) -- Now that we know major league soccer is coming to Minnesota, the question remains where will those games be played.
The owners of the Minnesota United team are looking at downtown Minneapolis for the stadium site. Today, we learned they're also talking to a Twin Cities suburb.
We're talking about Brooklyn Park, where there are about 400 acres of open land along Highway 610. City leaders say the ownership group for Minnesota United has agreed to meet with them to hear their proposal for building a major league soccer stadium here.
Soccer fans in Minnesota have enjoyed watching minor league games in Blaine, but now the state is poised to go big time with a major league team and a new soccer stadium.
"It is a long shot, and we know that. But you know as I've told others, if you don't make calls you don't make sales. If you don't take a shot, you don't know," Council Member John Jordan said.
On Monday, the Brooklyn Park City Council voted to offer up a stadium site in their city. The location is next to a Target corporate campus and a construction site where a luxury apartment complex is going up.
"They've agreed to sit down with us and talk about what this will look like. It's very preliminary but a very exciting opportunity to showcase and introduce people to Brooklyn Park and what it is today, and why they should consider coming here," Interim City Manager Mike Sable said.
Brooklyn Park wants us to remember that during the 1970s, it was a suburb that hosted major league sports in the Twin Cities. People went to Bloomington to see professional football, baseball and hockey.
"The Vikings were in the suburbs, the North Stars were in the suburbs, the Twins were in the suburbs and it worked great for a long time. We're 10 minutes from downtown. We are not far away," Jordan said.
Unlike the proposed downtown Minneapolis Farmer's Market site, Brooklyn Park has plenty of green space to build a stadium and parking lots or ramps.
"They have what I consider a tough location to build a stadium, very expensive. There is no need for us to sit back and wait. We have the opportunity. Let's present the opportunity," Jordan said.
Next Wednesday, July 1, is the deadline that franchise holders have been given to finalize their plans for a soccer stadium. But there may be some wiggle room there.
The next steps for Brooklyn Park, if there is continued interest from the owners, would be developing a detailed proposal. It would include schematics of what a soccer stadium would look like, and reaching a partnership agreement with Target Corporation, which owns most of this open land.