St. Paul Mayor Coleman pushes for MLS stadium at Snelling-University bus barn site

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - A soccer stadium could soon be rolling into St. Paul, and Mayor Chris Coleman is hoping to sway the league east of the Mississippi river.  On Tuesday, Coleman met with Deputy MLS Commissioner Mark Abbott to discuss using the old bus barn area.

Major League Soccer awarded the Minnesota United ownership group its newest franchise expansion back in March. Since then, team owners and the league have been trying to strike a deal to locate a new stadium.
Minneapolis has been reluctant to offer the tax breaks.  The team wants to build in the Farmer's Market area, but St. Paul wants the league to look at the old bus barn area at Snelling and Interstate 94 -- Fans would have access from both the freeway and the new green line light rail.

“We think that being on the intersection of two major transit lines, the Green Line LRT and the A Line bus rapid transit that will be completed later this year, that this will be a perfect site for people that want easy transportation to an MLS facility,” Mayor Coleman said.

The team is set to join the league in 2018, meaning stadium construction would have to start fairly soon.
Abbott said he likes the proposed site on paper -- “that has an opportunity I think to be tremendous for a new MLS stadium.”

On Tuesday night, area businesses and residents will meet to talk about the impacts of a soccer stadium in the old bus barn area, including what everyone expects will be traffic.