Expansion club Minnesota United FC are eyeing 2017 for their inaugural season in MLS, and according a report in the Star Tribune are looking at Target Field and TCF Bank Stadium as temporary homes.
The newspaper reported – and an MLS spokesman confirmed – that a member of the league's operations department visited both venues, primarily to look at infrastructure. If the club joins MLS in 2017, it will need a place to play while its 20,000-seat stadium, currently proposed in St. Paul, is constructed.
“As a club, we would like to start in 2017 and I think MLS would like to start in 2017,” said United president Nick Rogers, according to the report. He offered no timetable for “finalizing a plan everyone feels good about.”
Both Target Field, the home to Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins, and TCF Bank Stadium, which has played host to the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings the past two seasons and is permanent home to University of Minnesota’s football team, are no stranger to hosting high-profile events – or soccer matches.
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Target Field was the site of the 2014 MLB All-Star Game, while TCF Bank Stadium played host to a 2014 friendly between Olympiacos and Manchester City that drew 34,047 fans.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber discussed the viability of Minnesota United potentially joining the league in 2017 at Thursday’s SuperDraft in Baltimore.
“It's a possibility,” he said. "Nothing's been determined yet, but it's a possibility and a decision will have to be made on that soon."
