NASL club Minnesota United Owner Bill McGuire on Thursday said that building a new MLS stadium in Minneapolis "will be 'very difficult' if requested tax breaks aren't secured this year," according to Eric Roper of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. But McGuire added that stadium backers "are flexible about how the property tax savings are achieved, including possible public ownership of the stadium." McGuire made the comments on Minnesota Public Radio in his "first extensive remarks since announcing the proposal earlier this month." Stadium backers also are "seeking tax exemptions on construction materials and ongoing breaks on property taxes for the facility, the latter of which faces opposition from Mayor Betsy Hodges." Asked why those tax breaks are needed -- after the investment group has paid so much for the stadium -- McGuire said that the facility "would be essentially 'non-economic'" at $25-30M a year in revenue. He added, "Each one of these things that cost money go against that and pretty quickly you run into the problem of financing this on an ongoing basis so you’re not asking people to -- above and beyond the money they’ve put in in the beginning -- to write a check every year. So that’s just one of the elements." McGuire said that Minneapolis and other communities "have a long history of offering tax relief to lure various businesses." He added, "Not everybody has agreed with those, but they have certainly occurred." He "somewhat dismissed a Senate vote earlier this month expressing opposition to subsidies for a soccer stadium." McGuire: "It is not necessarily indicative of a lack of interest or support" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 5/1). McGuire, when asked if he would walk away if he did not receive sales- and property-tax exemptions from government entities this year, responded, "I can't answer that. I think it would make it very difficult to build the stadium. ... We are not into threats" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 5/1).
