Zygi and Mark Wilf are good guys who did this because of a passion (well mostly anyway).

I hope they also find that same passion for an MLS team. The fans can help them find that in the next years, the fans have a large effect of what the Wilf's do for this state. This is Minnesota's best chance to join D1 soccer anytime soon. It will not be too soon when we start playing Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland again.

Planned first Vikings game in the new stadium is fall of 2016.

MN MLS in 2017
D1 should be our new goal for the highest level of soccer played in Minnesota (again).



*Oh, and the Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, and Green Bay packers all suck!

Maybe the next step is getting Zigi to buy the Stars.

I fixed it for ya. Free of charge.

We really need to invite these guys to a Stars tailgate. We should start using the twitter hashtag #FreeBeer4Zygi

I've sent out emails for every big event. Dome opener, championship game, etc. Gotta work on the whole Viking's staff, not just Zygi.

Garber, on Minnesota: "It goes on the list" of possible expansion sites now that new NFL stadium has been approved #mls

https://twitter.com/#!/SoccerInsider/status/201020838105989120

you cant spell MPLS without MLS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/dcu...IkIU_story.html

Garber is aware of a clause in the recently-approved financing plan for a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings that gives the team sole discretion to host any major league soccer team in that stadium.

“I think Minneapolis is a good market,” he said. “We have had discussions with the Vikings in the past and I think it goes on the list.”

He said the league is interested in expanding, but was quick to note that any such moves would not come soon.

“I try to impress upon all of our people that this expansion project is a 20-year process,” he said. “It’s not a two or three year process and I can’t imagine that 20 years from now, we’re not in markets like Miami or Minneapolis or in Atlanta if a new stadium is built. I think we’ll be in most major markets. We have to be, it’s a big country.”

Garber touted the importance of soccer-specific stadiums on Friday. But says things are fine for most MLS teams which share a stadium, except for D.C. United at RFK Stadium. He says the high operating costs there make it “an untenable situation that has got to change.”

MLS Expansion: North Carolina...someday.

http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2012/4/13/2946190/mls-expansion-north-carolina

Expanding beyond 20 teams remains a concept MLS is interested in, but not one they are in any rush to do. More importantly, there don't appear to be any owners lining up to spend tens of millions of dollars to buy a team and potentially hundreds of millions more to build a soccer stadium.


MLS's checklist:

1.-An ownership group: No one in North Carolina has stepped up and it's hard for me to see Phil Rawlins buying into MLS without some serious financial backing. -Traffic's move to Cary?

2.-A 20,000-seat soccer stadium: The Carolina Railhawks are currently expanding to about 10,000 seats and Orlando City plays in the cavernous Orange Bowl. Neither have current plans -- or the money -- to build their own stadiums that would fit MLS criteria.

3.-Crowds of 18,000-plus: Of the four teams that have made the leap from the minor leagues to MLS, all of them had at some point in their history drawn at least 10,000 fans a game. In Seattle and Vancouver, you have to go back to the days of the original NASL, but the Portland Timbers and Montreal Impact were drawing huge crowds for second division play. -When they started talking about moving up to MLS


...There's probably room for growth, but let's not rush it.

Minnesota's new story

1.-Mark and Zigy Wilf
2.-New stadium 20,000++
3.- MN Kicks = Largest average attendance in the original NASL league, 28,000+

3 for 3 in Minnesota is not a bad place to start from. And... we do tend to be able to beat North Carolina when the chips are down.

We do have a bit of pro soccer history in Minnesota maybe we should be talking about that more and making sure people remember that history of great support for soccer in Minnesota.




13904



http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00810.xml



Sports Illustrated
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1091495/index.htm

Any (I repeat any...) talk of a MLS team playing in Minnesota is the way it all starts. The next time you talk to someone new about coming out to a MN Stars game at the NSC, say -"did you hear we might be the next MLS team site now that we have a new stadium...?

It works people love being involved today in something that will become more popular in the next years.

Talk about it, and then -build it, and they will come, again.

I love watch the old NASL videos with the offsides line. #Visionary