MINNEAPOLIS – Wednesday’s expansion announcement, welcoming Minnesota United FC into Major League Soccer, felt a little bit different.
Unlike MLS’ past three expansion announcements in Miami, LA and Atlanta, Wednesday’s event brought an already existing team into the league. A club doesn’t need to be created in the Twin Cities. Minnesota United is a living, breathing organization, with players, coaches, staffers, its own history and – most notably – fans.
Led by the Dark Clouds supporters’ group, United fans rocked Wednesday’s event at the Minnesota Twins’ Target Field.
They kicked things off by marching in to one of their old standards – a tune titled “We All Believe in a Scottish Lake Monster,” a nod to the club’s current home at NSC (think “Nessie”) Stadium – and remained loud throughout the event, flanking the dais during MLS Commissioner Don Garber’s and club owner Dr. Bill McGuire’s press conference.
Their display was loud, entertaining and emotional, and left the impression that Minnesota fans are more than ready to make the jump to MLS.
“I have no doubt this will be a monster of a soccer market,” Garber told reporters after making his remarks. “This is one of the best [expansion events] we’ve had, this might be the biggest launch event we’ve had, ever.”
The announcement marked the return of top-flight soccer to Minnesota for the first time since the 1980s, when two different NASL clubs – first the Minnesota Kicks, then the relocated Ft. Lauderdale Strikers – folded.
Professional soccer wouldn’t return to the state until 1995, when the Minnesota Thunder turned pro after five years of operating as an amateur side. The game has been in the Twin Cities ever since, though never at the highest level, with the Thunder – who subsequently became NSC Minnesota, then Minnesota Stars FC and finally Minnesota United FC – playing in both the USL and NASL over the course of their history.
The public responded tremendously to the club’s MLS news, with team president Nick Rogers telling MLSsoccer.com on Wednesday that the team has seen a marked increase in ticket sales, web traffic and social media engagement since news of the expansion announcement began to heat up a couple of weeks ago.
“It’s been fantastic, it’s been overwhelming. We’re so thrilled with the event,” Rogers said. “I think we’ve woken up some people about what’s already going on in the community, and woken some people up about what’s to come.”
For Minnesota soccer lifers like United head coach and three-time MLS Cup champion Manny Lagos – whose father, Buzz, co-founded the Thunder in 1990 – Wednesday’s announcement was a long time coming.
“The sentiment is special,” he said. “I think about the fabric of this community, and soccer should be a part of it. We’ve got such a great town, we’ve got such a great group of people that make this a special place and today that was the sentiment.
“I’m biased because I’m from here, but it’s true. There is a special feeling that we have in this place. To have Major League Soccer be a part of it is so exciting. There’s so many people who have been a part of it for the last 40 years on all levels, from youth to inner city, to the pro level, to college, to high school who have put in so much time and effort. To have this type of exposure and this type of belief is just amazing.”
The feeling is similar for Minnesota soccer fans like Bruce McGuire, a Dark Clouds co-founder and longtime curator of soccer news in the North Star State. McGuire – no relation to United’s owner, Bill – feels that Minnesota, with its long, brutal winters and relative isolation from other population centers, creates a unique sort of person, the kind he thinks will flock to MLS in droves.
“We have such a long winter here that soccer is almost a part-time sport in Minnesota, but as soon as that snow is gone, people go crazy for it,” he said.
“Minneapolis is one of those rare cities where we have all the music, all the art, all the culture you could ever want. We have all the major sports teams, but we have some isolation, too. That breeds a certain type of person. It’s almost like a secret. The winter keeps people away, but the ones who are here, they’re all in.”
