The Major League Soccer season kicked off in St. Paul a few weeks ago, marking five years for Allianz Field, the shiny silver stadium in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood. For me, stadium history goes back a bit farther. I served on the city’s planning commission back in 2016 when the soccer stadium deal was being floated as a possibility, and I recall that parking was a big sticking point.
There were no dedicated parking ramps or lots for the new 20,000-seat building, and some neighbors predicted a parking apocalypse. In response, the team commissioned a traffic study intended to alleviate concerns. As MinnPost’s Peter Callaghan reported in 2016, the study’s results were surprising:
A just-released environmental assessment and traffic study predicts drivers who try to drive to and park near the proposed 20,000-seat soccer stadium will not only be unsuccessful — they will also add to game-day congestion, what with all that cruising for a space.
At an estimated average of 2.7 fans per car, that’s only 2,100 fans who can arrive by car, or a bit more than 10 percent of the attendees.
The rest likely will need to use transit or a yet-to-be-developed park-and-ride system that will shuttle fans from off-site parking — perhaps at the state fair grounds or downtown St. Paul.
Back then, the study sounded unconvincing, and in hindsight, the idea that a majority of fans would take shuttles to games was a fantasy. Anyone attending a match these days would be hard pressed to find a shuttle bus of any kind. Instead, as traffic study skeptics predicted, most people drive within a mile radius of the stadium and walk from their cars.
But the real twist to this story is that it’s not that big a deal.
When ‘absolutely packed’ is a good thing
Whether or not you view people parking on your street for a few hours as a big problem depends on perspective. I reached out on the Hamline-Midway neighborhood page, as well as to a few other friends in the area. (I live about a mile east of the stadium.) For many people living nearby, stadium parking is a minor nuisance, right up there with drive-thru noise, litter, and potholes.
“We wish they’d just put in parking,” wrote Marie Rickmyer, who lives on Charles and Hamline. “It’s hard to get parking, and the night games drive my dog crazy with folks walking back to their cars.”
One common complaint is litter and noise, and a few people reported drunken fans relieving themselves against back alley trees. Still, for a social media discussion, the results of my query were surprisingly positive.
“Living in this neighborhood, a five-minute walk to Allianz, I never feel safer than on game days,” wrote Kirsten England, sharing a common sentiment. “When we stop for a pint and food after the game, the places we go are absolutely packed. If it means I have to deal with more parking issues on game days to bring more business to our local shops, I’m all for it.”
In general, it seems like living near a soccer stadium is like sharing a block with a church. A few hours a week, parking is a challenge and the streets are full of people coming to your neighborhood from all over the city. The rest of the time, neighbors barely notice it. If you can get accustomed to patterns of disruption, the activity might even be pleasant. If not, you might find yourself shaking your fist and muttering on your lawn.
Address speeding, boost transit use
Apart from density existentialism, there are other lessons to learn from the parking status quo around Allianz Field. For one thing, neighbors often complain about people illegally parking close to corners or blocking curb ramps. For folks living with disabilities, scofflaw parking is a significant barrier, and it would be nice if the city did more enforcement during matches.
Another major consequence is problematic speeding. After a match, many drivers zip through neighborhoods to the nearest freeway, driving well above the 20 mph limit. It would be great to have more traffic calming elements, like bump-outs or neighborhood traffic circles, to slow post-game drivers. The city should prioritize these investments. (And to be fair, speeding in my neighborhood streets nearby is a problem year-round.)
Third, the share of fans taking transit to the game is not as high as it could be. According to Council Member Mitra Jalali, who represents the Midway, both Metro Transit and Minnesota United used to try harder to encourage transit in the early years, using dedicated transit ambassadors or marketing to transit to fans. Perhaps the COVID pandemic disrupted that work, but I’ve not noticed much concerted efforts to help folks ride the A or Green Lines to Allianz Field. Why not work out a deal with Metro Transit to have game-day tickets work for a free fare? I’d bet the agency would take that call.
When life gives you lemons, sell some lemonade
All in all, the best response to the Midway parking situation came from a 12-year-old boy on Charles Avenue named Asa Korsberg Fernandez. Along with one of his friends, he’s taken the opportunity to sell cookies to passers-by during game days, turning a tidy profit along the way.
I’m a skeptic when it comes to the economic benefits of sports stadium subsidies — the studies of these things are almost always worthless. Almost always, entertainment dollars are simply moved around regions from one destination to another.
That said, occasionally a concrete anecdote of local entrepreneurialism sways me. Such is the case with Asa, who dug into his parents’ copy of “Joy of Cooking” to find a chocolate chip cookie recipe last year.
“There’s this corner where people from all three blocks come, and we get a lot of customers,” said Asa, explaining his business. “We bake cookies the day before, we get out there maybe an hour and half before the game starts, and that’s when we sell cookies, like $1 a cookie.”
Calling out “chocolate chip cookies, fresh baked, one dollar!” the corner enterprise has allowed the Korsberg Fernandez siblings to acquire a coveted Nintendo Switch using their own money, no small feat in the age of high inflation. It’s even got him a few cookie regulars.
“Sometimes there’s people who come to multiple games and they know my cookies are good,” Asa admitted.
Next time you’re walking to the game, pick up some litter, and get a cookie while you’re at it.
Bill Lindeke is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Geography, Environment and Society. He is the author of multiple books on Twin Cities culture and history, most recently St. Paul: an Urban Biography. Follow Bill on Twitter: @BillLindeke.
