Soccer team sticks with Populous for design

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Kansas City-based Populous, a prolific sports architecture firm known locally for its work on Target Field and TCF Bank Stadium, is Minnesota United FC’s choice to design the team’s new $120 million soccer stadium in St. Paul’s Midway area.

The Minnesota United ownership group, led by former UnitedHealth Group CEO Bill McGuire, said Tuesday that it has “formalized” an agreement with Populous as the lead architect for the 20,000-seat, privately financed stadium.

Minnesota United said last March that it was working with Populous on conceptual plans for a soccer venue near the Farmers Market in downtown Minneapolis. Though that project site fell through, the same design team has now followed Minnesota United across the river to St. Paul.

“We have been having conversations with [Populous senior architect] Bruce Miller and his team over the past two years and have every confidence that they are the right group to help us realize our vision of a world-class soccer stadium in the Twin Cities,” Nick Rogers, president of Minnesota United FC, said in a statement.

In an interview, Rogers said the team’s ownership wants an “iconic building, and I think that narrows down the field of choices quite a bit. We wanted someone who has been down that path before.”

In addition, the team was impressed with the work Populous has done in the local market, as well as the firm’s design work for the Major League Soccer franchise in Kansas City, he said.

Minnesota United was awarded a Major League Soccer franchise earlier this year.

Last month, the team and the city of St. Paul struck a deal to build the stadium on a 10-acre site at the northeast corner of Snelling Avenue and Interstate 94. Known as the “historic bus barn site,” the location was previously used for Metro Transit’s vehicle storage, according to the city of St. Paul.

Minnesota United said the stadium is scheduled for completion in early 2018. Rogers said the goal is to start construction in late spring or early summer next year, though no specific date has been set. A contractor hasn’t been selected.

No stranger to the Twin Cities, Populous led the design for the $545 million Target Field project, as well as the University of Minnesota’s $288.5 million TCF Bank Stadium. TCF Bank Stadium opened in fall 2009 and Target Field debuted in spring 2010.

Populous has also designed soccer venues worldwide such as the $200 million Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas, a 60,000-seat facility for the Olympique Lyonnais team in France and the Emirates Stadium in London.

“Major League Soccer has found a great home in St. Paul, and our design team is excited about the opportunities to create a mixed use entertainment destination that will thrive year-round,” Miller, the Populous architect, said in a statement. “The site’s central location, access to public transit and exposure on Interstate 94 make it a model site for a Major League Soccer venue. As a building block in growing the Minnesota United brand, the stadium will become the heart and soul of soccer in the northern Midwest.”

McGuire’s ownership group includes Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor; the Pohlad family, which owns the Minnesota Twins, and philanthropist Wendy Carlson Nelson of the Carlson hospitality empire.

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