Grand opening of Minnesota United's Allianz Field
The sixth Minnesota pro or major college team since 2000 to get a new home, Minnesota United debuts $250 million Allianz Field as the first one dedicated to pro soccer. Its 19,400 capacity is closer to Target Center or Xcel Energy Center, but it opens to the sky and a summer breeze. Looming over Interstate 94 at busy Snelling Avenue, it glows every color at night. The seating is intimate — the grass nearly tickles the feet of front-row fans — and promises to take noisy to new levels, too. It's open in all four corners — with room to add another deck above the existing roof deck — and can be expanded to 25,000 if needed.
Canopy mesh and LED lights
About 88,000 square feet of translucent, synthetic laminate PTFE wraps the stadium and blocks wind. It also seems to transform with the changing natural light. On stormy days, it absorbs an angry sky, and on a blue-sky day it shimmers. At night, it glows with an LED light show.
Seating and Suites
Notice the stadium's four corners remain open. That leaves space to add permanent seats in all four as well as a new deck above the north end's roof deck, if needed. That'll boost capacity from 19,400 to 25,000 including standing room.
The pitch – a three-season playing field
The 'Wonderwall'
Sing along: Originally conceived by stadium designers to create a wall of people close behind one goal, the now-named Wonderwall — the British band Oasis' 1995 song that United fans sing after victory — is a single-tiered, standing-only, general-admission section with rails. It has a steep, 35-degree incline, a noise-inducing aluminum floor and no seats.
Wall of sound? It will hold more than 2,920 of the team's loudest, most devout fans, mostly, but not exclusively, from supporter groups the Dark Clouds and True North Elite. It might get loud. Fans in the supporters' section sing and chant from the opening kick to final whistle.
Brew hall, roof deck and scoreboad
The north-end pub — initially open four days a week and on game days — aims to become the metro's premier soccer bar, particularly during World Cup years. The ticketed roof deck soaks in the sun and is a nod to rooftop decks that bloom every summer in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. An analog clock/manual scoreboard pays homage to one formerly at the National Sports Center in Blaine.
If you build it …
Only one new metro sports venue — Target Center — opened in the Twin Cities in the 17 years after the Metrodome debuted in 1982. Now Allianz Field is the sixth new one since 2000, a spree during which new homes were built for the Vikings, Saints, Twins, Gophers football team and Wild, too.
Sources: MN United, Populous, Mortenson
Text by Jerry Zgoda • Graphics by Raymond Grumney, Mark Boswell and Billy Steve Clayton
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