Bill McGuire is upping his behind-the-scenes maneuvering for a new soccer stadium in Minneapolis in hopes of landing a Major League Soccer franchise ahead of the Minnesota Vikings ownership.
The former UnitedHealth Group executive met in mid-February with Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, D-Cook, but was told there was "no appetite" at the State Capitol to help finance what McGuire told Bakk would be a $150 million soccer stadium with surrounding development.
The meeting between Bakk and McGuire came after Bakk phoned MLS Commissioner Don Garber to tell him that the Legislature had already addressed the professional soccer issue when it gave the owners of the Minnesota Vikings exclusive rights to try to bring an MLS franchise to the Vikings new $1 billion indoor football stadium.
The meeting with the highest-ranking DFLer in the Legislature came amid new signs that McGuire, who already owns the lower-level Minnesota United FC team, is emboldened as he privately takes the temperature of a range of public officials to help finance the project. Only last week Minnesota Twins president David St. Peter, representing the project, discussed a soccer stadium with Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson, who has already voiced concerns about building another stadium in the city.
In an interview Thursday, Bakk said he told Garber that he did not want a repeat of what MLS is facing in Miami, where the league wants to locate a team but does not have support from public officials to build a stadium. "They still haven't been able to figure out how to get the stadium built, and I don't want to put the league in that situation again in Minnesota," Bakk said.
McGuire has kept his stadium maneuvering out of the public eye, and had little comment when reached Wednesday. "I don't have anything to say about that," he said. "I'm working on other things."
But there are indications that McGuire's proposal may be finding traction.
With MLS officials having postponed a decision on expansion, and with the new Vikings stadium nearly half built, the delay has fueled speculation that MLS may be waiting to see whether McGuire can assemble the financing for a stadium.