For some expansion teams, the journey to opening day is often a marathon, marked by slow and steady progress over months or even years. For Minnesota United, that journey has been a sprint.
Though it was awarded a franchise in 2015, the deal to make 2017 its inaugural season in MLS was only finalized in August.
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Work begins this spring on the club’s $150 million stadium in St. Paul, with completion slated for 2018.
Photo by: POPULOUS |
“For us, we’ve had just about a total of seven months to do everything,” said Minnesota United President Nick Rogers. “When you look at our runway in comparison [to others], it’s a lot shorter — but I think we’re going to get to cruising altitude just as quickly.”
That liftoff won’t come soon enough for Minnesota fans, whose love of soccer can be traced back to the Minnesota Kicks, the short-lived but popular NASL team of the late 1970s, and the first professional soccer team in the state. Attendance topped 23,000 in each of its first four seasons, before the team was sold and later fell into financial disrepair.
The city’s return to top-tier soccer has once again come through NASL, as former UnitedHealth Group CEO Bill McGuire in 2012 acquired the team, which launched alongside the reborn league in 2011. It has ranked near the top of NASL in both performance and attendance in each of its six seasons.
It’s that success and chemistry shown in the lower league that has Rogers hopeful for success on the field, even as some have predicted otherwise. Recently, Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl said that Minnesota United may be the worst expansion team performance-wise in MLS history, something Rogers said has probably been used as motivation by coach Adrian Heath.
Minnesota United’s roster is largely the same as it was when the team played in the NASL, and it has not signed any designated players. Clubs are allowed to sign up to three designated players, who are often viewed as the stars of their respective teams. “I don’t think that the number of DPs on your club is a proxy for your ambition, and we want to figure out where we are strong and where we are weak before we spend millions of dollars on players,” Rogers said.
But while the on-field transition to MLS is expected to be relatively smooth, it’s off the field that has required the most attention these last few months.
While the club played at the National Sports Center in Blaine as an NASL club, McGuire’s plan for a soccer-specific stadium was key to the group — which had been joined by other Minnesota sports team owners including the Twins’ Jim Pohlad and the Timberwolves’ Glen Taylor — beating out a competing MLS bid by the Vikings owners the Wilf family, who sought a team to play at U.S. Bank Stadium.
However, due to a delay while the team awaited a tax exemption from the state, groundbreaking was pushed from June 2016 to December. Construction on the $150 million, 20,000-seat stadium in the Midway neighborhood of St. Paul is scheduled to begin this spring, with the stadium being finished during 2018.
Part of the uncertainty regarding its launch date was finding a temporary home. In its inaugural season, the team will play at the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium, where Rogers said the club has a two-year deal.
While the stadium project is the biggest thing on Rogers’ to-do list in 2017, he said perhaps one of the club’s biggest challenges this year will be cementing its brand as major-league in the market.
“These last few years, we’ve had a lot of things going for us — perhaps most importantly how popular the visual identity of the club is,” he said. “Now our job is to showcase to the market how much more valuable the property is now that we’re in MLS, and turn a minor league curiosity into a major league one.”
Target, which recently became an MLS league-level partner, also signed on with Minnesota, becoming its jersey sponsor and the presenting sponsor of its season.
“For them to jump in the deep end with us, that has jump-started a number of conversations with others who realize they could swim here too,” Rogers said. The club is working on adding several partners ahead of the start of the season, he said.
Minnesota has also had a slow build on its season-ticket sales. The club does not disclose exact figures, but Rogers said it is in line with other MLS clubs. It is estimated that the club has around 11,000 season-ticket holders. Tickets are also priced competitively compared to other teams in the market. More than 80 percent of its season tickets for the inaugural season are available for less than $30 per game, according to the club.
