There is no active plan to maneuver professional soccer past St. Paul, according to a Hennepin County official who previously tried to land Minnesota United in Minneapolis.

Still, west metro officials would be ready with an offer should St. Paul fail to finalize a plan for a stadium at the city’s Midway site.

“We understand there is a plan forthcoming from St. Paul and United,” Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat said Tuesday. “If that plan doesn’t come together, we certainly are interested in talking with United again.”

Even Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, who balked at United’s request for property tax relief, has acknowledged a willingness to revisit a soccer stadium in her city if the St. Paul deal falls through.

Opat is a stadium proponent who, with fellow commissioner Peter McLaughlin, devised a plan to set United up in a downtown Minneapolis stadium near Target Field.

The Midway site hasn’t been on tax rolls for decades, so St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman is confident that keeping it that way won’t be difficult. St. Paul needs lawmakers to sign off on two key exemptions — to spare a future stadium from property taxes and construction taxes.

“We need to go up there (to the Legislature) and make the case, but we feel really confident,” said Tonya Tennessen, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office. “We feel like we’ve gotten really great response so far from legislative leaders, even from the governor. It’s just those two asks.”

But how the team and city will address issues such as parking and infrastructure upgrades — and who will pay for them — has yet to be laid out to the public.

Opat’s Hennepin County plan, by contrast, would pay for infrastructure upgrades by tapping into the bonds that helped pay for the Twins’ Target Field.

Until St. Paul’s plans are made public and ultimately approved, Minneapolis stadium proponents remain open to the possibility of MLS soccer.

“Since the announcement that St. Paul is the preferred location, the dial has not moved,” said Minneapolis City Council member Jacob Frey. “Nevertheless, if St. Paul’s deal has too much hair on it, several of us will be crouched in the starting blocks.”

St. Paul City Council President Russ Stark said Tuesday that he did not foresee St. Paul’s stadium plan facing much opposition at the Legislature.

But council member Dan Bostrom was skeptical.

“A lot of funny things could happen up there,” Bostrom said. “Deals can come out of nowhere, and they can fall apart out of nowhere.”

The proposed stadium would sit on a 10-acre parcel of land off Snelling and University avenues, the former home of the Metro Transit “bus barn” storage facility.

The land, which is owned by the Metropolitan Council, is currently tax exempt.

The St. Paul City Council recently gave the mayor’s office permission to hire lobbying firm Messerli and Kramer to help the city make its case when the Legislature convenes in March. The firm previously represented Minnesota United and played a similar role in getting the Minnesota Twins stadium approved.

While the state has not been asked to contribute any funds to the $120 million stadium, which would be privately financed, St. Paul officials have yet to unveil infrastructure costs such as parking, lighting or storm water improvements.

City planners have said new streets would likely connect the stadium parcel to Interstate 94, including a new east-west connection between Lexington Parkway and Snelling Avenue.

It’s unclear what funding sources the city will tap once those costs come together. The city’s recent experience with the new home of the St. Paul Saints — CHS Field in Lowertown — may offer clues. For that and other projects, support for environmental cleanup came from the Metropolitan Council, Ramsey County and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, among other sources.

“With all that stuff coming together right there at Snelling and 94, if you’re putting a crowd of 12,000 to 20,000 people there, boy, that’s dumping a lot of people in there in a very short period of time,” Bostrom said. “There’s a lot of congestion out there. I’m not trying to put it down or anything. I’m just trying to be a realist.”

The mayor’s office has set a goal of getting up to half of all game patrons to walk, bike or take public transit, such as light rail, to the stadium.

Metro Transit will unveil the “A Line” bus rapid transit service down Snelling Avenue in 2016.

The Federal Transit Administration, which helped finance the former Metro Transit “bus barn” site decades ago, will need to sign off on the new use for the 10-acre parcel. The St. Paul Port Authority, the city and the Met Council are negotiating a three-way land lease.

Though lease details are not final, the stadium would be constructed by Minnesota United and most likely conveyed to the city or Port Authority, leaving the land it sits on owned by the Met Council.

A development and use agreement will likely go before the St. Paul City Council in January.