Minnesota and new U of M TCF Stadium could host Olympic soccer in 2016

Steven Goff at Soccer Insider broke the news yesterday and I Twittered it as soon as I heard. Last night the Strib gave us more details in their report. I think most of us knew that Chicago was one of several bidders to host the 2016 Summer Olympics but we had no idea that Minnesota was in the plans to assist in the games.

Goff reported yesterday that as part of the 2016 bid, the US submitted a proposal to use 6 venues to host its soccer games for preliminary competition. Those fields are FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, the new football stadium being built at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and the new
U of M TCF stadium.

The Star Tribune gave us a few more details last night. Rachel Blount, staff writer, spoke to U of M athletic director, Joel Maturi who explained some of the behind-the-scene details.

Maturi said he wanted the Gophers’ new stadium to be suitable for soccer. Its designers ensured the field would meet dimensions required by FIFA, the international governing body for soccer.

“We did that at the beginning, before we had a decision on Chicago’s interest,” Maturi said. “We built the stadium with the thought that some day, we’d host an Olympic-style or world championship-style soccer game. It’s a chance to put our institution in a positive light.”

Maturi added that Big Ten and Chicago 2016 officials also have discussed the possibility of using Big Ten campuses as training sites for teams competing in the Olympics.

It’s quite pleasing to hear that Maturi had the foresight to see events like the Olympics as well as US Soccer events in the future of the TCF Stadium. I think it would be a fine venue to host Womens and Mens World Cup qualifiers in the future.

Two interesting notes on a personal level: Bruce McGuire, of duNord futbol, contacted US Soccer about the TCF Stadium when it was first being built. Bruce explained that the stadium was being built and it might be a great facility for US National team games in the future. At the time, US Soccer knew nothing about the stadium. I take it that has changed now and US Soccer is fully aware of TCF Stadium. Also, I made contact with some officials from the U of M about a year and half ago concerning the stadium and asked if they had considered any soccer events there. The response was that the U of M was adamant to keep the field an (American) football stadium for the first three years or so and they had no plans to host any other events in the stadium during that time frame. This could still be true as I’ve not heard of any monster truck events scheduled for the venue, but come on! World class soccer could fit perfectly into a venue like TCF Stadium and help put the facility on the map internationally. Fortunately, Maturi had the foresight to see that.

On a personal note, driving around the new stadium is a real treat. It’s hard not to get excited about the facility when you see the brick and glass, along with the arched entryways, each one headed by a sandstone placard marking a county of the state. The stadium is well designed with beautiful classic lines and fits perfectly into the spot it sits. The Stadium looms large and high and driving past the new gigantic scoreboard on the west side that will host a Jumbotron is truly exhilarating. It’s one classy stadium. I’m very excited for this facility to open next fall. I’m even more excited for the day I get to walk though those arches to see a world class soccer game.

Other Olympic finalists are Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tokyo, Japan, and Madrid, Spain. The winner will be announced on Oct. 2 in Copenhagen.