Former U.S. national team and English Premier League goalkeeper Tim Howard met with Tennessee lawmakers this week to make the pitch for state funding to build a new soccer-specific stadium in Shelby County. Howard is a part-owner of Memphis 901 FC, which plays in the second-tier United Soccer League. The club currently plays its home games at AutoZone Park, the minor league baseball stadium of the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds. As part of a “big ask” to state lawmakers, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland has proposed replacing the moribund Mid-South Coliseum with a new soccer stadium.

Here is what Howard had to say about what he was up at the Cordell Hull Building and the plans for a now field for the Memphis team:

TNJ: So what’s the sell to state lawmakers?

Howard: You know, the fact that we have private funds going into it is a big deal. And Memphis needs a soccer stadium, we can no longer coexist with the Redbirds. We’ve done that, but the team needs its own space. With all the business coming in and the workers that are coming into the city — Memphis and Shelby County — this is what soccer’s future is for them. It’s important.

TNJ: How big does the stadium need to be to fit the team’s needs now and moving forward?

Howard: It’s going to be about 7,500 seats with a total capacity of 10,000. But there’s room to grow. We would be remiss and silly to not create a building that has the opportunity for expansion. From a construction standpoint, we’ll make sure that we have that so that we can get to a level that MLS requires in the future, if that’s what we want to do.

TNJ: Is Major League Soccer a prospect, or is that just too far down the road to contemplate?

Howard: Right now, baby steps. We’ve got to get this thing moving back in the right direction. Pre-pandemic, we felt really good about what we’d done from a marketing and ticketing standpoint. Post-pandemic, what we’ve done on the pitch has been brilliant. And now we’re trying to marry those two together. So MLS is not even something we can really contemplate at this point. But it is something where we’ve seen that if you make enough noise and you create the product that gets enough attention, then there’s going to be that possibility.

TNJ: What’s the estimated price tag for the whole project?

Howard: It’s, give or take, $80 million to build. We’re asking for half of that from the state, and the rest will be the taxes and private funding.

TNJ; Compared with the $2.2 billion NFL stadium they’re talking about building down the street from the state Capitol, that’s almost a drop in the bucket. But do people just get skittish when the talk turns to soccer?

Howard: There’s a lot more to it. We see outdoor concerts that we could have going to Mississippi, unfortunately. Anything over 10,000 people is going to the FedExForum. But there’s an opportunity for concerts under that size in Memphis.

TNJ: People in Memphis have an emotional attachment to the Mid-South Coliseum, even if it’s been closed for more than 15 years. How do you get over that?

Howard: What we’re proposing is going to help revitalize that portion of the city. And currently there is no work that can be done on the Coliseum. It’s a difficult hurdle for people to get over, because when you talk about what it’s meant to the city, you know it’s a big deal. There’s a lot of history there. But we are trying to honor that history and pay homage to that with the new stadium.

TNJ: A new minor league baseball stadium under construction in Knoxville is also being billed as the home to a new professional soccer team. How rigid is the rule against baseball and soccer sharing a facility?

Howard: When we talk to USL – and we have a great relationship with them, as they do with most of the clubs — the idea is that it’s a nudge in the direction that most teams should have their own stadium. Soccer should be played in a soccer-specific stadium. That is obviously the best way to view the game. That’s where clubs have seen the biggest growth . . . AutoZone Park made sense for a few years. It just no longer does. A soccer-specific stadium is a completely different gameday experience. The game is meant to be experienced in tight confines. [A representative later added the Knoxville team is slated to play in the lower USL division, which has different stadium guidelines.]