Business View Magazine | August 2019

176 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019 A llianz Field is a soccer-specific stadium in Saint Paul, Minnesota, home to the Minnesota United FC of Major League Soccer (MLS). The stadium opened on April 13, 2019, during the club’s third MLS season, at a total cost of $250 million. Allianz Field is a ring-shaped stadium, with seating for approximately 19,400 in the first phase and 24,474 in a future expansion that would fill the four corners. It has a safe, standing terrace for 2,920 supporters, named the “Wonderwall” after the club’s unofficial anthem, located behind the south-end goal. The single-tier Wonderwall terrace was designed with a 34.9 percent incline and has no seats. The north end has a brewpub, named Brew Hall, and a manual scoreboard and ninety-minute clock that were designed to resemble fixtures at the team’s former home, the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minnesota, the state’s largest soccer facility. The stadium was designed by Populous with deliberate sightlines and an “intimate atmosphere” in mind. The pitch sits 16 inches above the first row of seats and is composed of 97,000 square feet of Kentucky bluegrass that was grown in Colorado before being installed in late 2018. A glass-like, polymer mesh oval exterior provides the stadium with a sleek facade. It is clad in polytetrafluoroethylene, which covers the steel structure that holds the roof in place. Color-changing LEDs light the exterior mesh in the same manner as Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. For the fans ALLIANZ FIELD