Twin Cities New Soccer Stadium

The Twin Cities may be stadium addicts with the classic “just one more” mentality as it sets the scene for its sixth stadium to be located in St. Paul, Minn., across from Minneapolis between the area’s two downtowns.

Photo: Populous

A rendering of the 20,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium in St. Paul, Minn. Architecture firm Populous is designing the venue, to be built by 2018.

The new Major League Soccer stadium, to be built by 2018, is estimated to cost $150 million and have a 20,000-seat capacity. The St. Paul City Council approved $18 million in spending on infrastructure with the rest of the stadium “to be constructed with private dollars” and “exempt from property taxes,” unlike the new Minnesota’s Vikings football stadium that “was aided with about $500 million of public dollars,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Architecture firm Populous designed the new venue as well as a proposed new arena in Milwaukee.

This has some economists concerned about the “rapid increase in stadiums and arenas in U.S. cities” thought to be economy boosters for the local areas surrounding the venous. While this typically happens at first, “critics say the cost to the public typically is far higher than with traditional economic-development programs,” WSJ reports.