Yesterday the City of Minneapolis, the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority and the Minnesota Vikings jointly unveiled their new stadium plans.  As Minnesota residents, we hope that the new stadium is successful and will serve the community well for years to come.  And we will likely see ourselves attending various events there – especially if Adrian Peterson keeps wearing purple.  But as soccer fans, the stadium is largely irrelevant to advancing soccer in Minnesota, or to acquiring a MLS team.

The primary design goal for the new stadium is to deliver an exceptional NFL-viewing experience for their primary tenant, the Minnesota Vikings.  This has clearly been accomplished by HKS Architects and the Vikings.  The new stadium is a cathedral to football.  Other events will fit into the stadium but the Vikings will always come first.  As a result, the stadium will host soccer events but likely will not have the same intimacy and attractiveness of soccer-specific stadiums such as Sporting Park in Kansas City.

One potential issue may be the lack of a retractable roof. While half the roof will be sheathed in ETFE, a transparent polymer, it is still closed.  And that means artificial turf.  If Minnesota had an MLS team in the stadium don’t expect to see players like Thierry Henry playing on it.

Football players prefers a firmer, faster surface, and lacks the softness that soccer players want.

“For a football field the blend is different,” says Portland Timbers chief operating officer Mike Golub. “There’s clearly challenges to co-existing with NFL teams, because there’s compromises that are inherent when you’re trying to accommodate both sports.”

Like many soccer players who arrive in MLS from overseas, Henry is a well-known skeptic of artificial turf who often elects to sit out matches taking place on the surface. But he was full of praise for the pitch at Portland’s JELD-WEN Field.

“Their turf is good!” Henry said. “It’s different from any other turf you play in the league. That’s an amazing one.”

The lack of a grass field also means the odds will be against us for any meaningful United States National Team games.  The USMNT has historically avoided playing on artificial turf.  A side note to this will be Seattle on June 11, when CenturyLink Field in Seattle will welcome the USMNT for a CONCACAF Hexagonal match – though the Sounders’ home stadium will sport a temporary grass surface for the occasion.

“We want to keep on playing World Cup qualifiers on grass fields,” said Jurgen Klinsmann, the US National Team Coach. “But when there’s a moment like in the Gold Cup now, which is a huge competition too, and we have to move on to a turf field, no problem at all.” (That turf field being Portland’s JELD-WEN Field of course.)

“It’s no problem,” he added with a grin, before cracking a joke that might reflect his real feelings about artificial turf. “I don’t have to play!”

 And what about MLS expansion?

MLS fans who happened to be on Twitter recently had the chance to participate in an impromptu Q&A with MLS Commissioner Don Garber.

Of course, expansion was a popular theme and Garber provided a series of updates: There was:

• NYC2 – “we continue to make progress in Queens”  (a.k.a. Manchester City USA”)

• Miami -”there’s been more and more interest of late” (a.k.a. David Beckham and the Miami Dolphins)

• Orlando a.k.a. Phil Rawlins and Orlando City  won’t quit

• Sacramento – “interest in #Sacramento shows the increasing popularity of MLS”

• St. Louis – “hopefully the @MCFC match next month will rekindle interest in MLS”

But will MLS be at 30 teams one day? Here was Garber’s Twitter reply: “30 seems like too many.”

But the most important question.  How serious are the Wilfs about bringing in an MLS team to play in this new venue?

This is taken from Inside Minnesota Soccer:

Bagley: The Vikings made it clear during the legislative session that team ownership is interested in bringing Major League Soccer to this market, if it is feasible. The team has had conversations with MLS representatives, including Commissioner Don Garber, and we were serious enough about soccer to include a clause in the stadium legislation that gives Vikings ownership the opportunity to bring a soccer team to the new stadium during the first five years after the stadium opening. When we get the stadium development project moving forward, we will begin to research and explore a potential investment in a MLS team.

Inside Minnesota Soccer:  There was some interesting language in the MLS portion of the stadium bill mentioning 3% ownership. Can you explain that?

Bagley:  The Vikings ownership includes several limited partners. The purpose of the right of refusal language was to give the Wilfs and their ownership group the right to bring a MLS franchise to the new stadium given that they are guaranteeing nearly 50% of the facility’s cost.

When it comes to attracting MLS to Minnesota, the stadium likely will be irrelevant.  The MLS-exclusive language in the stadium legislation only means that an MLS team wanting to play games in the new stadium between 2016 and 2021 must have the Vikings permission (i.e., ownership or some sort of financial compensation) to play in the new stadium.  The Vikings have not expressed a meaningful interest in acquiring an MLS team, and they have no right to exclude others from seeking a team outside of the new stadium.  The decision to grant an MLS expansion team remains with MLS itself, and they consider the ownership group; existing competition, and fan support along with stadium plans.  And the preference all along has been for soccer-specific stadiums.

All in all, the new stadium might be pretty. And Vikings games may be fun.  But it doesn’t mean much for soccer in Minnesota.

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