St. Thomas Looking to Buy T&C for New Arena

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LesBolstad

LesBolstad

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My sources say STU offering 63 million for Town & Country Club for new hoops arena and other facilities. Makes sense with their move to D1. Would hate to see that happen. T&C is the second oldest course in the country on its original real estate.
 

That land looks bigger than both of UST's campuses/areas put together.

Would think they could sell a good chunk to be developed, assuming the city allows it?
 

Google maps overhead shot. They have the southern campus area at the bottom left in addition to the main part.

riDikfO.png
 

It's going to take awhile for St Thomas basketball to compete. Of their top 7 scorers, 6, yes, six are seniors. The other is a junior scoring 6.7 ppg They are 2 and 11 in conference play to date.

Be a great move for St Thomas if they can close the deal.
 

60's Guy said:
It's going to take awhile for St Thomas basketball to compete. Of their top 7 scorers, 6, yes, six are seniors. The other is a junior scoring 6.7 ppg They are 2 and 11 in conference play to date.

Be a great move for St Thomas if they can close the deal.
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Not long to compete with the U.
 



T&C has been approached for their land for decades.

It‘s not only about the selling price, they are not going to fold, so they also need to find enough land to build a new course and continue as a country club.

Even if they eventually sell, they will demand a reasonable time period to acquire the new land and get very far down the road to completion before they vacate.
 

If they reach the highest possible status, I feel it's comparable to some of the Big East schools. Play your home games at Target Center or figure a way to make a place like The Armory "your" arena.
 

60's Guy said:
It's going to take awhile for St Thomas basketball to compete. Of their top 7 scorers, 6, yes, six are seniors. The other is a junior scoring 6.7 ppg They are 2 and 11 in conference play to date.

Be a great move for St Thomas if they can close the deal.
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Well, yeah - every single one of those guys was recruited by a D3 school to play D3 basketball. They will have an inexperienced roster for a while, but at least on paper, guys like Ahjany Lee, Kendall Blue, and Carter Bjerke are vastly better than their current players.
 




Depending on how long the T&C thing could take, sounds like at least several years based on what UE says above, I still think the following could make more sense for UST:

build a new, larger indoor arena & bball practice center on top of their current football stadium and track. Then rent out space for the football team and track teams to play and practice elsewhere, until new stadiums for those could be built on the T&C land. Or if the new football home works out well, maybe consider staying there permanently.


This is basically what Pitt did, with their current arena being where the old football stadium was.
 

LesBolstad said:
My sources say STU offering 63 million for Town & Country Club for new hoops arena and other facilities. Makes sense with their move to D1. Would hate to see that happen. T&C is the second oldest course in the country on its original real estate.
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Sad, that would be a huge blow to one of the great neighborhoods in the twin cities. St Thomas's expansion over the years has really degraded the quality of life in the area.
 

Are all the members of the T&C going to transfer membership to the Somerset Golf Club in West St Paul/Mendota?

Many decades back, people who couldn't get in to the T&C bought land and created Somerset. That place is immaculate, but has few members, mainly due to high fees and exclusivity. Somerset one denied Bob Hope the opportunity to golf there.

In any case, I hope T&C gouges St Thomas for the land,if they sell.
 



Site would be big enough to build a 15-25k football stadium and a 6-8K basketball/hockey arena?

I don’t know the site well enough.
 

Even if it was just that lower portion of it (like the bottom 4-ish holes), to the East of the clubhouse area and south of that little road inwards .... that would be plenty to build a new stadium and arena and practice facilities.

Are we sure they aren't just asking for a portion of the overall parcel?
 

Gophers_4life said:
Even if it was just that lower portion of it (like the bottom 4-ish holes), to the East of the clubhouse area and south of that little road inwards .... that would be plenty to build a new stadium and arena and practice facilities.

Are we sure they aren't just asking for a portion of the overall parcel?
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Well it’s all a message board rumor so they could be asking for nothing
 



Some guy said:
Site would be big enough to build a 15-25k football stadium and a 6-8K basketball/hockey arena?

I don’t know the site well enough.
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Well, an average 18 hole golf course is 150 acres and an average arena or stadium is 4 to 6 acres so they could keep 9 holes and still very easily make it fit if all they did was build two arenas with parking.
 

tjgopher said:
To compete for what? A Summit League title? That is coming fast.

They have a Top 70 incoming recruiting class (by far the best in the Summit), ranked just ahead of St. John's of the Big East.
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Yes, compete in the Summit. With the recruiting class, that I didn't research, they'll move up.
 




LesBolstad said:
My sources say STU offering 63 million for Town & Country Club for new hoops arena and other facilities. Makes sense with their move to D1. Would hate to see that happen. T&C is the second oldest course in the country on its original real estate.
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Well what do you know…our own LesBolstad is one of Shooter’s Little Birdies!

A little birdie says the University of St. Thomas is in hot pursuit of the nearby Town and Country Club property in St. Paul to upgrade its Division I athletics program and other academic facilities. An offer of $61.4 million is said to be under consideration. St. Thomas, which needs a hockey arena, is also exploring the Highland Park bridge site.

www.twincities.com

Charley Walters: New coach Kevin O’Connell ushers in Vikings defense not seen since 1985

Perhaps the biggest news out of new coach Kevin O’Connell’s introductory news conference on Thursday was that the Vikings plan to run a 3-4 base defense. That hasn’t occurred in Minnesota since 198…
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Well what do you know…our own LesBolstad is one of Shooter’s Little Birdies!

A little birdie says the University of St. Thomas is in hot pursuit of the nearby Town and Country Club property in St. Paul to upgrade its Division I athletics program and other academic facilities. An offer of $61.4 million is said to be under consideration. St. Thomas, which needs a hockey arena, is also exploring the Highland Park bridge site.

www.twincities.com

Charley Walters: New coach Kevin O’Connell ushers in Vikings defense not seen since 1985

Perhaps the biggest news out of new coach Kevin O’Connell’s introductory news conference on Thursday was that the Vikings plan to run a 3-4 base defense. That hasn’t occurred in Minnesota since 198…
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Nice to know his source is gopher hole



I have actually heard they might buy part of the old Ford plant for this purpose. (We will see if this shows up in a column later)
 

Some guy said:
Nice to know his source is gopher hole



I have actually heard they might buy part of the old Ford plant for this purpose. (We will see if this shows up in a column later)
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I think that's what the "Highland Park bridge site" reference is.

I thought that has been slated to be redeveloped into a huge new residential/retail area?
 

60's Guy said:
Well, an average 18 hole golf course is 150 acres and an average arena or stadium is 4 to 6 acres so they could keep 9 holes and still very easily make it fit if all they did was build two arenas with parking.
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Right, so again eyeballing it by that picture ... the T&C total site looks significantly bigger than both their current campus areas put together.

Are they actually trying to double their footprint? Or would they just use part of it and maybe sell another part off to be deveoped?
 


BleedGopher said:
Well what do you know…our own LesBolstad is one of Shooter’s Little Birdies!

A little birdie says the University of St. Thomas is in hot pursuit of the nearby Town and Country Club property in St. Paul to upgrade its Division I athletics program and other academic facilities. An offer of $61.4 million is said to be under consideration. St. Thomas, which needs a hockey arena, is also exploring the Highland Park bridge site.

www.twincities.com

Charley Walters: New coach Kevin O’Connell ushers in Vikings defense not seen since 1985

Perhaps the biggest news out of new coach Kevin O’Connell’s introductory news conference on Thursday was that the Vikings plan to run a 3-4 base defense. That hasn’t occurred in Minnesota since 198…
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
Has anyone ever seen Les and Shooter at the same time?
 


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