Minnesota Thunder moving from St. Paul back to National Sports ...

If they can serve beer, good, if not, I'm not driving out to Blaine for the Thunder. I love how they can't get away from the fact of playing at a high school, meanwhile they go to the ugly, dumpy looking blaine sports complex on the field that looks like it's been under construction for the last 20 years. Ever going to close that bowl?

The city of St. Paul needs to turn the downtown Gillette building into a AAA Baseball park and then the twins need to move their AAA team to St Paul.

I thought there was talk about building a soccer facility near lowertown?

This is good news for the NSC. I don't know if it is good news for Soccer. The National Sports Center is supposed to be the crown jewel of Minnesota amateur sports and yet the stadium has deteriorated to the point where track events can't safely be run there. Does this mean that the State of Minnesota will actually maintain the facility better than it does its bridges?

they prob will tax the heck out of the city of Blaine so they can use a small bit of that money to maybe go towards the field

Pretty funny how they can't get beyond a high school facility, but if you look in the background of the picture they don't even have a high school crowd.

It may have been easier to go to a game if the SPPS did not have signs threatening to tow cars in the lot.

I say blame SPPS, they have no loyalty to their own city.

And Coleman - did you know, or did you read it in the paper?

With the price of gas I doubt I will be heading up to watch a game anytime soon. I sure am glad I didn't buy season tickets. Good thing I saw the season opener! I enjoyed being able to watch the Thunder in Saint Paul. I didn't care that it was a high school stadium. There was plenty of free parking within a few blocks and the concessions supported local sports groups. I think the fee to park in the school lots did too. I hope they can draw the same crowd. I also hope they get the renovations done to the stadium soon, the field is way too far from the seating.

They had plans to build the saints a new park or at least renovate the midway and they were going to put in a small stadium for the thunder which could be expanded if we ever got an MLS team. there was also going to be a mini soccer complex so St. Paul could host tournaments and make some money. Good ol' Pawlenty nixed those plans. How much longer do we have to look at that guy?

One of the things in the STRIB article about this move is that the track is called "underutilized" and will be torn out to move seats closer to the field for soccer.

Of course it was underutilized because the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission refused to spend the money to maintain it and it became unsafe for athletics. I have good memories of officiating the state meet and various section meets there.

My best memory was officiating an invitational meet there involving international track and field athletes. Some of you may remember that the Santa Monica Track Club 4x100 men's team was brought in to highlight the meet and then dropped the baton on the first pass.

The athletes that were there, Leroy Burrell, Michael Johnson, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, etc., really liked the fact that the track was more of a "four sided" track--more of an international feel to it.

For several years I have been fighting a lonely battle, contacting the NSC, my legislators, the governor's office, and the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission to try to get them to maintain the track at NSC. Looks like I lost the battle.

Flash Gordon wrote:

For several years I have been fighting a lonely battle, contacting the NSC, my legislators, the governor's office, and the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission to try to get them to maintain the track at NSC. Looks like I lost the battle.

Well...of course you lost. You were trying to work with the government.

While I enjoyed the games at 'the Jimmy' and the corps of supporters grew, the big picture is that the venue was not up to standards, the new ownership are putting up their own money for half the cost of the NSC improvements, and these efforts will benefit the players and in turn the club as they will now be able to showcase the massive number of new players. These new players have the ability to return the Thunder to the glory that has been missing these last three years.
I applaude the new Thunder ownership, Henk, Dean, and Manny for their active decision making. All those who were at the Thunder opener in St. Paul two weeks ago, saw the vision that the club has.
Bring on any destructive comments from those who may disagree, but you should be sure that you know what you are talking about. If the sports commission is really interested in making this venue a top notch athletics facility it had the chance to do so. I do not mean to disparage anyones memories of historical track and field events (I was an 800 meter runner in my H.S. days).
Peace and futbol.

TC Teacher wrote:

With the price of gas I doubt I will be heading up to watch a game anytime soon. I sure am glad I didn't buy season tickets. Good thing I saw the season opener! I enjoyed being able to watch the Thunder in Saint Paul. I didn't care that it was a high school stadium. There was plenty of free parking within a few blocks and the concessions supported local sports groups. I think the fee to park in the school lots did too. I hope they can draw the same crowd. I also hope they get the renovations done to the stadium soon, the field is way too far from the seating.

You must be kidding. "With the price of gas"....
Where do you live? Rochester? So, since gas is about a buck more per gallon than last year that you don't want to spend the extra 5-6 dollars to come up from St. Paul to Blaine to a Thunder game? Not a good excuse.

"Mr. Gordon", to characterize the reason for the track being underutilized was it's poor condition is a bit simplistic and misleading.

According to listings found on the internet, it was still hosting High School T&F championships through 2006. The problem is that it was hosting little else in T&F.

It was built as the NATIONAL Sports Center. According to the NSC's History page:

http://www.nscsports.org/news-info/about_nscf...

there hasn't been a T&F meet of national import since 1990. The same cannot be said for soccer.

Hosting soccer has been one of the prime functions of the NSC since it's inception and has remained so. Soccer has, through it's tournaments and hosting of national and international matches, brought a lot of revenue to the NSC. It appears that the same cannot be said for Track and Field.

I sympathise with your loss of a quality venue for the sport you love. Perhaps, if you could have found people willing to contribute funding to the NSC as the Thunder are doing or have found promoters who could have arranged for more T&F meets of national and international import to be held there, again providing revenue, perhaps the MASC would have come to a different conclusion