Soccer Stadium in Minneapolis (cancelled)

[MN Fats]

This Minnesota vs. Minneapolis topic is an interesting one, and it's all about brand recognition. You would think Minneapolis would push harder, as mentioned earlier, to have their name plastered on its pro teams. Miami had it as a condition on its stadium deal with the Marlins baseball team. Many times a place's sports teams are the first (or only) thing non-locals recognize about a city. I know for a fact that many people think "Tampa Bay" is a city in Florida where the Rays and Buccaneers play.

Since none of our major teams have a city name, I think Minneapolis is really missing out on that exposure. Think about it, companies pay tens of millions of dollars to have their name on just the stadium. And has the city even fought one bit for having their name on the dang team? Just because it's tradition it has to be named for the state? As a St Paul guy I wouldn't be any less likely to go if it were named for Minneapolis instead of Minnesota. Just my two cents.

[VAStationDude]

It was suggested earlier in this thread the city of Minneapolis should have insisted one team adopt a Minneapolis name. Personally I prefer Minnesota to Minneapolis. I love Minneapolis and wouldn't consider moving anywhere in the state outside Minneapolis Saint Paul and a couple inner suburbs but I tell people I'm from Minnesota. I really do take a lot of pride in the whole state despite not really wanting to live in 98% of its land mass.

Bakk has said the legislature has no interest in funding a new stadium (good The MLS is boring and we have TWO new stadiums that could host soccer). I'm sure a well orchestrated push to use a Minneapolis name could convince him to come around.

[mplsjaromir]

Bakk and Daudt are gonna team up to ensure that North Loop hipsters have a soccer stadium.

[David Greene]

Another reason to prefer "Minnesota" is that our teams are regional assets. The fanbase extends far beyond Minnesota, into Iowa, the Dakotas and Nebraska at least. I'm not sure that will be true with an MLS team but it has been a consideration for our other teams.

[MNdible]

Also, if they're sticking with "United" as the name, that really only makes sense if you use Minnesota with it. Or Twin Cities, but that's apparently dead to all of us.

[grant1simons2]

Colorado pulls in a lot of the mountain states as a fan base.. They're still the Denver Broncos and the Denver Broncos, but also the Colorado Rockies, Colorado Rapids (MLS), and Colorado Avalanche. Minneapolis just needs at least one team.

[David Greene]

Also, if they're sticking with "United" as the name, that really only makes sense if you use Minnesota with it. Or Twin Cities, but that's apparently dead to all of us.

Well, "United" doesn't mean what you think it means. I'm no football expert but my understanding is that "United" indicates a unified player development structure from lower-level clubs up to the top-end team, akin to baseball's farm system. Yes, MN United uses it wrong.

[talindsay]

So I've aired this gripe before but I'll do it again: a "united" football club is actually a specific thing, which "Minnesota United" is not: it's a united club that fields teams at various levels from low development levels on up. It's a club, not just a team; the ones that have professional teams obviously field plenty of professionals who didn't grow up through that club, but that's just the top team of a whole club network.

We actually already have a *real* Minneapolis United soccer club: http://www.minneapolisunited.org/. It's a full club that fields teams from the littlest kids up to seriously competitive traveling U18 and U19 teams. From the start I'd hoped our professional team would negotiate to sponsor/fund/merge Minneapolis United and then play as its top-level professional team.

Using the name "United" when all you have is a team of professionals is disingenuous and inaccurate. Calling that team "Minneapolis United" would be an insult to the hundreds of volunteers who've put in countless hours building up Minneapolis United, unless the team decided to become part of that - and of course only if Minneapolis United agreed.

For clarity, I've never had anything to do with Minneapolis United and have never even seen one of their games. I just think it's odd that all this discussion completely ignores the realities of club soccer and the way it works. Names do mean something.

[mplsjaromir]

The MLS tries to copy European stuff all the time. There is nothing royal about 'Real Salt Lake'. Its just marketing.

[talindsay]

To underscore the point, an article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... s-off.html

Moving younger still and guess which two teams contested the final of the Premier League at Under 14 level?

An eight-team finals tournament was held at the London Soccerdome and City recovered from 2-0 down to beat Chelsea and retain the crown at that age group.

And it was the same story at the recent Under 13 International Tournament, also held at Warwick.

The Premier League invited Porto, Paris Saint-Germain and PSV Eindhoven to take on the leading nine English clubs and Chelsea and City emerged from the pack to contest the final.

After a 1-1 draw, Chelsea won 6-5 in a penalty shoot-out that were to sudden death.

With City also the reigning champions at Under 11 level, it demonstrates that Chelsea and their Manchester rivals are taking a firm stranglehold on youth competition at all ages.

The positive rewards of their academy investment are starting to filter through an age range of over 10 years from Under 21s to Under 11s and it is up to others to play catch-up.

This might seem incomprehensible to Americans, but Chelsea (and just about every British football club) fields competitive teams at every level and all those levels have national and international tournaments. So obviously Chelsea wants to win in the Premier League games with huge crowds and huge payouts the most, but they also want to win in the U11 (under 11 years old) through U21 levels as well. And they spend real effort to do so.

[Realstreets]

If "United" is out, I propose a naming competition. Go!

Minnesota Loons
MSP Ballers
Minnesota Outstaters (with a stadium in Willmar)
Twin City Tacklers

[Snelbian]

The MLS tries to copy European stuff all the time. There is nothing royal about 'Real Salt Lake'. Its just marketing.

Ugh. As a Spanish-American who was raised following La Liga rather than MLS, that one drives me NUTS.

This might seem incomprehensible to Americans, but Chelsea (and just about every British football club) fields competitive teams at every level and all those levels have national and international tournaments. So obviously Chelsea wants to win in the Premier League games with huge crowds and huge payouts the most, but they also want to win in the U11 (under 11 years old) through U21 levels as well. And they spend real effort to do so.

For that matter some Spanish teams take it a step further (not sure if the Brits do this) and field squads in a variety of sports. FC Barcelona competes in association football (mens and womens, various age levels and with at least one second division feeder team), basketball, handball, futsal, roller hockey, and has an "amateur" division for ice hockey, track, and several other sports. Other than FC Barcelona and their city rivals (RCD Espanyol), the only team name I remember ever seeing mentioned for a sport there is the gridiron Dragons. I know Real Madrid does basketball. I mean, imagine if the Wild, Twins, Wolves, Lynx, and Swarm were all Vikings. Actually, you know, if we could only get 1% franchise owners to agree on it, that'd be one way to push the North branding!

[MNdible]

Yes, I know that they're misusing it, but as has been pointed out, so are several other MLS teams. For the record, I'd argue that most premier league teams aren't really true to the spirit of the United idea anymore, but that's pretty far afield from the topic at hand.

In any case, there's a nice conceptual relationship between a team called Minnesota United and Minnie and Paul shaking hands across the river.

[grant1simons2]

Minneapolis Lakers

[David Greene]

Minneapolis Stadia

[MN Fats]

Twin Cities FC. Simple and clean. Playing off the Manchester City, Swansea City, etc of the EPL.

[talindsay]

Or acknowledge that in the US it's known as "soccer" (which is funny since that's a quintessentially British casual simplification of "association football" as opposed to "rugger" or "Rugby football", but I digress), and call it Twin Cities SC.

[mattaudio]

Is keeping the franchise name not an option?

[talindsay]

Is keeping the franchise name not an option?

I've assumed this was an entirely academic discussion and that in fact it will continue to be known as "Minnesota United" - certainly nothing in the press has indicated a name change is likely, and following the broader model of teams moving up a division, the name wouldn't change.

[VAStationDude]

https://twitter.com/PatKessler/status/5 ... 47041?s=09

Governor Dayton says The MLS can't count on the state for money.