How did St. Paul score pro soccer’s newest franchise? It wasn't by playing Minnesota nice

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https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2016/08/how-did-st-paul-score-pro-soccer-s-newest-franchise-it-wasnt-playing-minneso

How did St. Paul score pro soccer’s newest franchise? It wasn't by playing Minnesota nice
By Peter Callaghan | 11:23 am

On Friday, at St. Paul’s CHS Field, a few thousand soccer fans fought through rush hour traffic, light rail disruptions and the threat of rain to hear what they’d been waiting for for nearly two years. Not only would Major League Soccer finally award a franchise to the Twin Cities, but that the team would begin play in 2017.

Those fans also heard another bit of welcome news: that the league had relented and agreed to let the franchise keep the name it has been using in the lower-level North American Soccer League: Minnesota United. This came despite there already being two teams using the “United” name in MLS.

“We are United,” McGuire said to applause and chants from supporter groups.

Amid the announcements, what might be the biggest piece of news got somewhat lost. The team was moving ahead with stadium construction, and not waiting for the next session of Minnesota Legislature to adopt a property tax exemption. The failure of talks by Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders to agree to a special session this summer was not, it turned out, the disaster to the stadium plans that some had feared. Ownership thinks the tax breaks will come eventually, and have decided to move ahead on that belief.

The politicians who took the stage gave credit to one another for making the team — and the stadium project — come together.

But St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman also gave much of the credit to his senior city staff. “I could spend the rest of the evening naming people,” Coleman said. “But here’s what I want to say about that. A lot of people give bad raps to people who are public employees. But if you knew how hard the city of St. Paul worked to make this happen, they would never say a bad word about city employees ever again.”

Left unsaid, but revealed in a newly released set of documents, was how much of that hard work was done even as city officials were publicly pledging not to interfere with the team's first choice for a home: Minneapolis.