Skeptical Reception For Soccer Stadium Tax Breaks
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Plans for a new soccer stadium in St. Paul got a skeptical reception Thursday from a Minnesota House Committee.
Owners of Minnesota United are asking the state for a property tax exemption before they build it.
Some lawmakers, however, are wondering why they need it.
The privately-built $150 million open-air stadium will sit on what has been an empty lot for the last 20 years.
Minnesota United team owners say without a property tax exemption from the Legislature, it's doubtful the franchise can stay in Minnesota.
"Without the provisions that are involved, it would be very difficult, very difficult for us to make that commitment," said team owner Bill McGuire.
But skeptical lawmakers wonder why taxpayers should be involved at all. Some said the shiny new Vikings stadium is a better fit.
"We have a people's stadium that the people paid a lot of money for," said Rep. Bob Barret (R-Taylors Falls). "And I think, in my mind, at least, we should get the most use out of that stadium as we possibly can."
Soccer is the latest in a string of stadiums built in Minnesota using public subsidies.
The idea of another stadium is not popular with many lawmakers, who question whether it really generates economic activity or simply moves it from one city to another.
Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) said it seems that the case is always made that the stadiums will bring people in like it's a "little Disney World."
"But economists will tell you," he said, "you are not creating this new wealth."
But St. Paul says the stadium would bring an economic jumpstart for an inner city neighborhood that's been struggling for 50 years.
They are promising a renaissance around it.
"I don't think this is about attracting development from one part of the region to another part of the region," said St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. "This is about competing across the globe."