I think it's time to start a new thread to share articles of the Stars in the media.

Here's a starter: Jon Marthaler does a very nice Q & A with Djorn Buchholz.

http://www.jonmarthaler.com/blog/qa-with-djorn-buchholz-ceo-of-minnesota-stars-fc

2/2 with Jon Marthaler. Free beer for him, fo' sho'.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/146162325.html

Did anybody hear Djorn's spot on the radio this morning? I turned it on at 7:30, but the second minute they spent discussing American Idol beforehand turned out to be too steep a mountain for my NPR-soaked brain to climb.

Here is the full interview:
http://www.jonmarthaler.com/blog/qa-with...-of-all-trades/

And some Dark Clouds get interviewed as well.

http://www.jonmarthaler.com/blog/qa-with-the-dark-clouds-the-minnesota-stars-fanatics/

The DCs will be on WCCO tomorrow morning! Show up in Peavy Plaza at 5:45 and sometime between 6 and 7, someone will come over from WCCO for interviews.

I'm not sure if it's people on the board or mainly the FO, but the wiki page is sorely in need of update.

That's the weird thing about Wikipedia... it only let's people who run a company update information.

See what I did there?

the wiki needs updating - it's more accurate than the team page at the moment

I think I just barely missed Djorn on K-TWIN yesterday. How long was their time slot?

The FO have REALLY outdone themselves this year. Any prospective owner would be lucky to have such a dedicated group of individuals.

Anyone want to buy a team?

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/pr...-a-buyer--.html

http://www.theuniondues.net/2012/04/06/the-defending-champs-minnesota-stars-f-c/

http://nasl.com/index.php?id=3&newsid=1973

And sort of...

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/46257/wide-open-race-for-year-2-title.html

and another:

http://abcnewspapers.com/2012/04/06/minnesota-stars-fc-set-to-start-title-defense/

Gerry Whittmann with a nice article about the league itself to get you pumped up about the season opener.

http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2012/04/07/many-positives-as-2012-nasl-season-kicks-off/

You're a grown man for god's sake... Lol!

I am anti-mascot, but this is cool!

Hahajajahahahahahhahahahahaha.

Yes.

Hahahahahahahahah

I don't think any of us count as grown men or women.

Good call on the MotM, BQ. Ibarra's going to be starting some serious moves once Amani and Bracallelo can start connecting with each other. Really he was connecting with everybody, and was helping Lucas Rodriguez utilize some of the sneaky bastard moves that I don't think he's had good success with before.

Loved that starting 11 and the way they were working together.

say what you will about the teams inactivity in the offseason. our midfield is STACKED, and once these guys get some more time together it has potential to be a wicked machine.

Another short article mentioning 8600+ in the Business Journal.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/bl...for-opener.html

Photo gallery

http://www.digitalgopher.net/Sports/Minnesota-Stars-FC/Minnesota-Stars-vs-Carolina

This photo gets me every time. I think, oh, awesome tifo and then I look down and see David with his arms up like an ecstatic kid.

http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2012/04/12...-of-the-season/

I talked to Manny last night before writing this up.

He didn't want me to say anything until noon or so today but Kyle Altman is not traveling with the team as he tweaked a muscle last week and was given a few days off to get well and then start training again for the next weeks game.

Expect new signing Connor Tobin to slot into his place in the lineup.

File under the category, late to the dance. But with these two popular dates, who really cares - because they draw a lot of attention.

http://theoriginalwinger.com/2012-04-12-...supporter-group

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/kits/1193...ers-photos.html

Enjoyed the comments on Who Ate All the Pies

"Minnesota is a dangerous attacking team," Glaeser said. "My head is still ringing from that last shout. We knew we had to do well defensively."

Thank you Taka!

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-04...ser-lance-laing

Minnesota Stars Defeat FC Edmonton for First Victory of 2012

http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2012/04/22...ictory-of-2012/

This is only about soccer in general in the media. The Star Trib twitter feed asked if people wanted to see the Manchester Derby covered. I replied, "of course! it's one of the biggest sporting events of the year!" Then I got a direct message from them saying, "Looks like we lost a follower after asking, but we're all about the quality of our followers. We'll have 'em."
I thought this was pretty funny. Not just that they lost a follower, but that they were concerned with the one person. I think that is very telling about their unwillingness to take soccer seriously. I think there are so many condescending dudes who have their masculinity challenged by a sport that they aren't experts in (e.g. Reusse).
Thought I'd share that funny tid-bit.

Also, that they had to reply via direct message... as if they're doing me a favor in secret.

Just a heads up that we just finished interviewing all 8 NASL coaches on the IMSoccer News NASL Podcast. This weeks guest was our own Manny Lagos.

http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2012/05/02...ch-manny-lagos/

The soccer coverage in the Twin Cities newspapers, radio and tv is all down to editorial decisions

And they quite clearly have said NO!

"And they quite clearly have said NO!"

No to the Stars? No to the Stadium?

I know. I know. But that doesn't mean I can't still feel some sort of annoyance, though, right?

the name of this thread is "Stars FC in the media "

http://abcnewspapers.com/2012/05/09/minnesota-stars-fc-top-atlanta-silverbacks-2-0-in-chippy-affair/

Evidently Alex is moonlighting.

I love the photo of Cristiano. It's that moment when he was fed a give and go into the box. I remember we laughed because he hesitated for just a quick moment when fed the ball as if he was of two minds. One saying, what the heck is he doing feeding me, a central defender, a penetrating wall pass into the box, and the other where he just went for it as you can see in the photo.

LISTEDN TO BRUCE at 1:15 on AM 1500. he will be talking about the stadium, but hopefully get some stars mentions in.

Good job Bruce.

Favorite dumb question: "World Cup is not that far away..." Bruce: "...it's always around the corner for me"

It was a really solid interview; not to compare sports talk stations, but on the other one whenever soccer is the topic it always seems to be filled with "refresher courses" on just what soccer is. The interview with Bruce was filled with a good mix of questions and both Pat and Phil actually seemed prepped and prepared to have a talk with Bruce.

edit to add: yes they were wrong about number of teams in the league and how many millionaires but I don't think it took away from the talk

Good job Bruce. It's great to have your voice represent us.

I love Reusse.

I think Bruce has actually done quite a bit to turn the old curmudgeon into a little bit of a soccer fan.

P.S. I listened to the last four minutes of the radio program in front of my entire class. They seem to like Bruce's voice.

"Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves, Wild: The biggest losers"

http://www.twincities.com/vikings/ci_20656419/vikings-twins-timberwolves-wild-biggest-losers

... and no mention of the Stars. Shocking.

I emailed the writer and nicely included bunch of information about the team with a few photos, video, and offer for our supporter group free ticket/beer for newbies policy. Meh.

Pioneer Press finds a way to be even less relevant than the STrib.

I noticed that KARE11 is starting to flash the Stars scores on their "Scoreboard" before the sports segment on the news Saturday evenings.

Someone should invite Randy Shaver to a match. I can guarantee it that if you lie to him and tell him there is a BSM grad on the team he will show. #RandyIsADoucheBag

AM 1500 producer Dana Wessel is a huge soccer fan, loves Chelsea. Might be a good point of contact for Stars info.

For what it's worth, there have been blurbs about the Stars in the Pioneer Press twice this week. A note on Saturday that they tied Tampa, and then a brief today - with a picture no less - about the win over RSL. Granted it's a day late, and was a rehash of an AP story, but it's still nice to see as compared to the usual complete lack of anything. As a subscriber, I'm going to send them a note thanking them for that and asking for more of the same.

It's impossible to find those stories on the web site though, so that still sucks.

And yes, I know only losers and old fogeys continue to kill trees so that they can get their fingers dirty at breakfast reading the news. Now get off my damn lawn.

cco.com had a story about the RSL game. Wasn't bad except for the fact that they don't explain what the US Open cup is or even say the word "soccer" anywhere. Nor do they mention NASL, NSC, Blaine, Nessy, Gary the Cat, and worst of all they don't mention that we took their money and ran.

Let's skew the results of this poll!

I just voted. doesn't look like it's going well for us.

Also known as "which of these sports teams do we cover the most?"

Yesterday I sent MPR News an email saying (basically) "Thanks for your hosts mentioning the undefeated league champion Lynx twice in the last few days. Can they mention the undefeated league champion MN Stars too?"

This morning I get in my car, turn on the radio, catch the end of a casino/horse racing piece. Then it's a full 4 minutes of the Stars, Vikings stadium, etc., right before 7:30am. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/06/03/minn-soccer/

Yep, Dave, I think it's good to gently remind our news people that this is a big story. This story from Tim Nelson is great.
Also, make sure you all "like" MLS4MN and every once and a while annoy your friends by sharing one of the stories. We get about 10 new people a week and we want that number to keep growing--its just one more avenue to get people thinking about soccer.

Hey our numbers are way up on that survey. Keep voting and maybe we can overtake the Lynx and The Stanley Cup

To be honest, the voting we can do is page views. Star Trib and others will respond to numbers like page views, likes, tweets, etc. I originally got on twitter just so i could "vote" for articles by retweeting soccer articles.

That said, I certainly voted here about 50 times.

When I first voted we were at 4%. It's up to 10% now. Creeping up on the Lynx.

Remeber this is a StarTribune non-scientific poll. Nobody pays attention to anything in the StarTribune.

in the print edition. thats for soaking up animal piss. but online, thats a whole different story.

Their editors sure do. All the help we can get is great.

Brief mention on StarTribune.com today talking about NSC adding baseball and softball fields. I had no idea at one point they were considering tearing down the soccer stadium to build a baseball stadium.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/162011455.html

And also two other sources who picked up on the article.

Mpls and St. Paul Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/morning_roundup/2012/08/could-soccer-play-at-new-vikings.html

and Soccer America put it in their Around the Net daily round up like MLS Soccer did with the Kick Off.

http://www.socceramerica.com/publications/section-2-around-the-net/edition/2012/8/

Also, hats off to the MLS4MN coalition leaders. They are the ones who are bringing this to the attention of the media so these articles are getting written and highlighted.

Seamonster saw Gov. Dayton the other day at a public event and talked with him about soccer. Great idea. Be on the look-out for those opportunities!

Just quick - I'm covering the Stars for SB Nation Minnesota (http://minnesota.sbnation.com) for the rest of the year, starting as of a couple weeks ago.

Our update system lends itself to short updates rather than one long story, so here's how the whole thing happened against Edmonton on Saturday: http://minnesota.sbnation.com/2012/9/8/3...oking-for-goals

Awesome Jon. You rock as always.

The latest from David Downs:

“They have 40 days to find an owner or have a pending offer,” said Downs. “If not, it will up to the board to decide whether to fund the team — or not, depending on the number of new teams we will have for 2013.”

http://the11.ca/2012/09/21/nasl-commissi...sota-situation/

What about forming a grassroots start-up to collectively buy the team and use something like Kickstart to fund the project? How many millions would it take?

Need one owner to be worth $20 million on their own, but I don't remember off hand if they need to be a majority owner or not. Probably need $2 mill minimum in annual operating costs.

Here's one reason:
UNITED STATES SOCCER FEDERATION
PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE STANDARDS
II. Division II Men’s Outdoor League:
Financial Viability:
iii. Each team must have and designate one principal owner that owns at least 35% of the team and has authority to bind the team. Such principal owner must have an individual net worth of at least twenty million US dollars exclusive of the value of his/her ownership in the league or team.
IMS article on USSF D-2 Professional League Standards

Only rich people need to apply then. Remind me why I spend my money on this sport.

This is pretty much the rule with owning things generally, isn't it?

Really, there is nothing new here over what he has previously said.

This is not really the forum for this as we should probably start a new topic but I am hearing persistent rumors that the Cosmos and possibly any new teams added, will not be ready to play the first half the season. Again, this is rumor but if true then I would think they would need the Stars. But on another track, was this the reason for the split season or one of the reasons for it? If so that is very, very lame. Who can argue if it saves the Stars but adding teams midseason? Really?

One weird way around this would be to designate a super trustworthy person who would get all of the money from the KickStarter, but yeah, KickStarter could be used to start an amateur team, but we've already got the TwinStars around if it comes to that.

BQ,

If it is that the league would need a placeholder for the first half of the season, why wouldn't they just replace the Stars with the Cosmos for the second half? I suppose if the Stars managed to win the first half of the season that might make it difficult, but I can think of several ways that wouldn't necessarily prevent them from canning, or "moving" the Stars during the July break.

If they convolute the process by adding teams half way through the season, yes I supposed that would be an option and it's not the first time I've seen it mentioned either.

BTW, Cosmos and the league announced Hofstra University stadium, James M. Shuart Stadium, as their venue for next season. Ticket packages will be announced around the time of the BoG meeting at the end of October. The timing of that makes me believe that there is something to this rumor about the half season thing.

If that rumor is true about adding teams halfway through the season than woooooowwwwwww. Thats just... wow. Seriously that would be messed up.

What does that actually mean? To actually be considered to own a team you have to have at least 20m sitting around? Am I not understanding it right? i mean, what if it was some sort of collaboration of kickstarter funds AND money put up by an owner? Would that even work? my math's not all that great at the moment, but What kind of sums of money in that kind of scenario would be needed? Don't get me wrong, that would have to be one [censored] hell of a kickstarter campaign, but desperate measures for desperate people.

The principal owner would need to own at least 35% of the team and have a net worth (assets - liabilities) of $20 million OUTSIDE of the ownership of the team.

So, excluding the value of the team, the prinicpal owner would need to be worth $20 million. Could be that he owns $20 million worth of land (assuming no liabilities.) Hell, he could own $20 million worth of stamps if that's the extent of the language in the standards (I'll bet it's not!)


Theoretically, if a Kickstarter raised enough to buy 35% of the team AND have $20 million left over, it could spin the raised funds into an LLC and be the principal owner, but Kickstarter fees are 8-10%, so we'd have to raise a hell of a lot of money for that to work.


What might be (marginally) more feasible is for a Kickstarter campaign to raise the cost of the franchise fee (or purchase price in our case) and then give that to an owner/operator with a net worth of $20 million who would then foot the bill of operating the team from then on out..

Kickstarter is not an option. Grassroots does not run soccer teams. They're all nice ideas, but there is good reason for USSF to put the $20M minimum. We're all tired of teams coming and going. They need stability in Div-2 and if that comes at a slow pace, then fine.
And really, the Stars sell what a couple hundred season tickets. Does anyone think that we could put together a kickstarter campaign to cover yearly losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars (at minimum)?

Grassroots works. Tell your friends about the Stars, tell them about MLS4MN and force them to like it on facebook. Get people involved and its already working. People like Mayor Rybak say in public meetings: "before we talk about MLS, we need to make sure we do something about the team we have."

I never said anything about a kickstarter being feasible, I was just curious of the wording and if a joint ownership between said millionaire and grassroots could exist.

Why would the commoner want to buy into D2 soccer. But for the San Antonio Scorpions, nobody makes money. People that can afford to lose money own the teams as part of their business operations so they can write off the loses on their taxes.

That's funny. This commoner has dreamt of owning the Stars simply for the fact that i love this [censored] team and this sport. yeah, i'm aware of the continuous loss of money, but i'm not the one willing to let professional soccer in minnesota die. perhaps the privileged such as yourself could enlighten me.

Then go ahead and buy the team! Trust me, I do not want to see professional soccer leave MN, but in the final analysis, it is really hard to turn a profit at any level.

As BQ says, "It is always fun spending someone else's money."

Couldn't have won this playoff match without Adam Walker leading the charge. Way to go Adam!

Win in Puerto Rico puts Stars in semis

God, that Adam Walker... where has he been all season? I must say he has filled Amani's shoes perfectly. Eerily perfect.

PP chimes in on ownership situation...

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_2169...stars-desperate

That little old jersey collector

Me

from article:


yeammmmrrrrrmaynooooo

"I'll take it as a personal failure if we lose the Twin Cities from the league," the commissioner said.

So will we comrade, so will we.

Agreed. My favorite passage from that article.

Notes and quotes for the first leg: Altman to Scorpions: "I can't wait to get them up here and run them around in the snow"

Nice preview Jon.

I praised it on twitter, but it really is great to see an article about the Stars that is about soccer, not requiring a honeymoon tie-in like a high school football story.
Just soccer.

in todays strib....

a nice little article

I'll stop bitching about it on the twitter machine, but that is not a nice little article. It's a human-interest piece and not a sporting piece. It's a high school sports story. I'm happy any time I see the Stars or soccer in the news, but it's pathetic. When the local media takes it seriously, gimme a call.

geez...

What if your not alive anymore because you died peacefully from old age, do we still have to call?

Excellent coverage from the City Pages, with video!

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2012/10/minnesota_stars_tie_texas.php

http://www.startribune.com/sports/172994681.html

Never posted this Lavaque thing from yesterday. He actually reported on the game. Woo hoo.

I like the quotes from Kallman because the version of "it was a battle tonight" that I got from him when I asked him how he felt after the game was "I feel like I ran my dick off."

Love that guy.

For all of these, it's important to get the articles out there. Getting page views up is lame, but it's important. Andy from CP has been trying to push for a longer article and editors are hard to convince, because they're not sure if there is an audience that cares. So show those articles to all yer friends and internets.

I assume many people already saw this, but BQ did an interview with the Vikes. The bit about Manny made me feel better. http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2012/10/09...-lester-bagley/

Well, not exactly the media. Just a blog, but interesting nonetheless. An authentic Eurosnob semi-hater.

http://trevor365photo.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/minnesota-stars-fc-0-0-san-antonio-scorpions/

Everyone has their right, their opinion. But can you say, "inverted pyramid." But hey, thanks for coming out.

Haters gonna hate.

I just wish they'd lay off the adverbs...

Yeah, not really sure what level of play he expected.

...and why'd he have to take a picture of me from the back? Gah.

You're welcome! Believe it or not, it was enjoyable for what it was. I was not a member of this forum until today when I realized that my blog was mentioned here.

I have to say that I have been attending matches (albeit infrequently) since 2007. I caught several games at Central HS, and a few in Blaine. I'm not a superfan, but that's me. Perhaps I am a "eurosnob semi-hater", and perhaps not. I was honest with my critiques and impressions. There are positives and negatives of the experience, but the tickets are overpriced for the product that you get. With that said, so are the tickets in England, which I fork out for 4-5 games every year.

If I was harsh, feel free to point out which parts you feel I was snobbish about...

Sorry if you feel the photo is unflattering! Your shirt caught my eye and I just snapped away...

Hey Trevor, thanks for the coverage of the team.

My only critique would be that a journalist traditionally tries to put his story into a context-a good one can really turn a single dimensioned story into a bigger commentary.

In my mind, it's unfortunate that you went in the direction of comparing it to your EPL experience. It resulted in a fairly uninteresting air of superiority, and limited your ability to talk about why the run of play was of less caliber than something like the Premiership.

Had you approached it with better context your readers could see that the reason the NASL suffers in skillset is because of the popularity of the game in our country, the routes (or lack thereover) that players have to develop professionally, and the financial situation of being a team in a lower league of a sport that occupies a backseat in most of the minds of Americans.

I think with minimal research you could have told that story, and had readers walk away with more than just the sense that it was shitty because nobody was as good as an EPL team.

Also, Anchor is not the only food truck - stop by in a couple weeks or next season and grab some tacos when Rusty has their truck up at the Nessy. They're great when it's hot out.

Fair enough. I have to say that I am not a journalist by trade (my graduate work is in history) and I was not really trying to provide the depth you seem to seek. I agree that a good journalist would do the research and give a more balanced view of it. But as I say, I'm not a journalist.

I didn't mean to say that the league or team is shitty solely due to the fact that the players aren't as good as their counterparts in the EPL; I have seen games in leagues around the world and have been watching the game all my life. I'm not an expert by any means, but I was simply evaluating what I saw on the field. But ultimately, the NASL is a lower league in a country that isn't renowned for its football prowess (although we are improving!), and my post perhaps didn't reflect that fact. I have seen poor quality players and teams elsewhere (SC Beira Mar and Academica de Coimbra, anyone?) and that fact doesn't necessarily take away from the enjoyment of the experience. I enjoyed it well enough.

I will stand by my criticism that the tickets are priced a bit high. I realize they need the income, but it's not cheap for what you actually get. If the season wasn't over (almost) then I'd give it another fair shake. I will come back next year, and it would be cool to meet a few of the hard-core guys who are on this forum and are regulars at the matches. Perhaps you can change my mind.

Cheers,

Trevor

But I was actually trying to get some attention out there that soccer in Minnesota even exists. It's surprising how few people even know about it.

I may not have painted it in the best light, but someone once said that "any publicity is good publicity"...

Welcome Trevor. Always glad to have more people at the games and on the boards. I think kj and pfutz covered a lot of my criticisms, so I won't dwell on that. Basically yeah, it's lower division soccer in the US, so you kind of (should) know what it is going in. And as someone who's been going to Thunder/Stars games for over 10 years, I can honestly say it's gotten a lot better, both on the field and off. There's still obviously lots of room for improvement though.

One question though - is there really a designated Away section at the NSC? I've never seen or heard of such a thing. The only away fans I can really remember seeing are locally based Timbers fans back when Portland was still in the league, and relatives of players who are from the area that may have been on the other team (the Dusosksy brothers, Matt Bobo).

That's the idea I got from this sign, unless I read it wrong:

Visitors Area

Cheers,

Trevor

Definitely have been Islanders fans numerous times...in quantity. But it's never been a problem and I've never seen nor know of an away section except as you say Lep, a couple of times with Timbers fans and that's not because of the away fan issue but just because they are Timbers fans and they need to be kept to themselves for a whole lot of reasons.

None better than - "Portland Timbers, Portland Timbers, what's that smell? What's that smell? Dirty stinking hippies, dirty stinking hippies, in your town. In your town.

I did edit my original blog post (added text is at the bottom) after some of the criticism I got here. I do get a lot of traffic on my blog, so I'm hoping that this will set the record straight for all those who read it:

MN Stars 0-0 SA Scorpions

Trevor

...and I'll go to some more games next season, and we'll see about using the blog to post some better impressions of the 2013 campaign

I'd be interested in meeting some of you all and getting to experience the full MN Stars experience...if they are around for next season!

Cheers,

Trevor

Hey Trevor, welcome! With regards to the "visitor" seating, I think that is just a poorly worded and misleading sign. I believe this refers to the more expensive pitch-side seats. Basically chairs flanking the player benches at field level. We do occasionally get away fans as Lep mentioned. Portland usually had a few, and Rochester too. We usually have a dozen or so show up for Puerto Rico matches, I believe from the local Puerto Rican community.

Despite your criticisms mostly being fair and us having made many of the same comments, I think your blog post came off as dismissive. Therefore, with the effort that several of us put in to try to get people out to the match and make the match more of an event, seeing someone who we feel should be "one of us" seemingly dismiss it strikes some of us in a personal way.

Glad to hear you'll give the Stars and us another shot, provided there is still a team next season! If you have any specific suggestions for the fans, or even the team since I believe they still watch discussions here, please do post them.

Well you learn something new every day I guess. I never saw one of those signs before, although I guess I generally come in from the other entrance, so don't always walk by there.

Hi Trevor,

When we beat San Antonio and host the finals, you should come out again. Buy your tickets at the tailgate. Tickets are $12 and you get a free Surly beer and free Buffalo Wild Wings. It's a much better value.

I don't believe that sign is to designate Away supporters. Don't know if anybody noticed the wood staircase they built this season to get down to pitchside seats. I always see an uninterested teenager checking tickets. If you recall, the beer garden used to have steps down to the grass, which people with "Away pitch side seats" would use to get there. When the beer garden was taken out i believe they built that staircase so people could get down easier that walking out thru the tunnel and behind both benches. There might be one on the "home pitch side seats" too. Not the greatest picture, but the best i could find without exerting too much effort for a discussion about a sign.


(obvious photo creds to Digital Gopher)

out of focus, left side, above the PRI player, behind the row of "pitch side" plastic chairs. the sign is to indicate where the staircase is.

I usually just lurk on these boards, but Trevor's blog has compelled me to post a few thoughts and a few questions for Trevor:

What do you think would be a fair price for a ticket? Someone else far more knowledgeable about the club can correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the 5 dollar ticket deal was implemented only after they decided to move to Blaine rather suddenly? How the heck can a team come close to breaking even at those prices?

Do you think that most Premier League grounds offer beer that is that much better than Bud/Miller/Coors and what price do you think you'll pay? I've been to several grounds and never encountered beer of much higher quality and the price was quite steep. At least they don't charge ridiculous prices for Bud or Mich Golden (2 bucks a beer) like you find at the Dome/Target Center/Xcel Center.

I was there on Saturday with a friend from England. He had no complaints at all and said he enjoyed the experience. He certainly didn't mind having fish and chips from the Anchor truck and neither did I.

I think the team usually provides good value for money and find it in-line with other entertainment options out there.

Everyone is being so polite! How very Midwestern of you all.

Reading the article reminded me of the guys from Sheffield who asked Crist if he'd ever been to a "big game" a few months after he returned from the World Cup in South Africa.

Wait, United or Wednesday?

Hmm, maybe it was Leeds.

Yeah, they were from Leeds.

You can get free Surly at the tailgate, $2 budweisers in the game, and a game for $12 if you buy tickets in advance. If you can tell me a better deal anywhere in the world, I will shake your hand.

I think many of the criticisms are fair, the one that really ruffles my feathers is the dismissiveness of this: "I’ve seen real hardcore football fans, and they are nothing like this."
You've seen real hardcore fans, good. But saying you've traveled and seen the Kop at Liverpool and so you're unimpressed is like walking into someone's house, a house they built with their own two hands and saying, "yeah, you know it's a nice building but I've been to Versailles." Soccer fans can do their soccer tourism and be drawn in by the history of others or they can get out there and be really punk rock. They can make TiFo and write songs and light crap on fire.
While you were checking out whatever 3rd division club in England and marveling at the "realness" of it all others believe in a team.

Yeah, that's the bit that cracks me up.

Remember when you woke up and read the back-half of the newspaper that was pretty solidly about football and then watched the football previews and round-ups on tv? Then you went to the game amongst supporters who inherited most of their songs and traditions from their fathers and uncles? You went to a bunch of away games because after all, it's at most a few hours train ride away? And you felt okay skipping a home game because the highlights (if not the full game) would be on tv later and then you dissected at length in the next morning's newspaper, and after all, the team's always going to be there, right?

No? You don't remember that at all?

Still trying to make something out of nothing? Nobody is offering to spoon feed it to you? Still chiseling away at indifference, ignorance or occasional supercilious horseshit? Hmm.

only read bits and pieces when I could so for now I will say, I dug the photos.

This has always been my feeling as well.

I believe the ticket should be $10 GA and $20 for fancy seats below the concourse. I believe even a few years back the GA tickets were $16 or something.

$10 is a price that is easily doable for most. $14 cuts into your mindset a little more.

I know it is tough to make money off of this, but to convince an average joe off the street to try something they see as minor league soccer is a tough task. Hope to make the $4 off the ticket at the concession stand.

Can't you go to a St. Paul Saints game for $7?

Keep in mind the $5 tickets were with old OnePairOfShoes Johnson who wandered off back to Europe without paying the team, staff, vendors...

That's what I was remembering too. I'm pretty sure the game day ticket price has been $12 for regular season games for the last 3 years, aka, all Stars games (not Thunder). $2 more for a post-season game doesn't seem that big of deal to me. And if what I heard during tailgating is true, apparently San Antonio's ticket prices are "twice" the Stars. And it's $8 for parking. So $30 or more per game? Two people would easily be $50. Sorry, that's way too much for 2nd division soccer.

I'd be interested to see what other NASL teams regular season ticket prices are. I've always felt $12 was a fair price.

I looked at the St. Paul Saints website & couldn't find any game day prices (their season has bee over for a while), but 6 & 11 game ticket packages ran $10/game. That's pretty close to the Stars season ticket package, if not exactly the same.

Trevor, thanks for writing about pro soccer in Minnesota. Come have Surly with us next year.

wait, this happened? i don't remember it at all.

in other news, does anyone have my red cooler, and jims beer inside of it?

Seriously. There was like 9 beers in there. Somebody owes me five bucks.

I saw it as I was leaving. I grabbed one of my skull splitters and left one for grump. It was there when I left about 10 minutes after the game. funny one of my Skull splitters is worth 3 premiums.

Anybody see a red draw string bag with a white Stars logo on it? I brought all my flares into the stadium in it and forgot it by the end. On the backside it has 2 Alexander in the bottom right corner. got it during fantasy camp

Ha! I left 4 cans of Red jacket Amber on a table.

Someone made out well last Saturday.

Some 17 year old kid got absolutely wrecked in Blaine last weekend.

check with the FO - Not sure about the cooler, but the red bag might be there.

Now back to your regularly scheduled "Stars FC in the Media-2012"

http://www.startribune.com/sports/173624381.html

That was confusing, I first thought that someone was picking Nunez as their fantasy pick of the week. As in he would score a lot of goals.

I disagree with his Charles pick. Tampa may suck but their run defense is solid and while Quinn is a back-up he has started in the NFL.

Well, thanks all for the posts. Some of you were polite (most in fact), others not so. But the anonymity of the Internet allows all types to have a go at anything they life without the risk of getting your teeth kicked in

Seriously though, I may have been dismissive. And apparently it is in poor taste to mention other matches/grounds/leagues you've been to on the forum, as people think you're being pompous, arrogant, snobbish, and other adjectives I read and can't recall. I guess I was just comparing it to other experiences I've had, and I could have mentioned the grounds I've been to in other countries, but mentioned England. Apologies if I upset those of you who haven't had the chance to make it to other leagues, and apologies to the feathers I ruffled in my (admittedly) dismissive tone of the original blog post.

As to the ticket prices--I stand by the fact that they are high. I recognize that the club needs to make money, but if people find them too high, and they don't attend matches, then perhaps you need to rethink the business model of the club. Find sponsors, lower costs, advertise...do what you need to get people in the gates. If $14 means you are getting all the customers you want, great. If not, then perhaps the Twin Cities can't support a team. Seems simple to me. There is a pain threshold on prices for the Thunder/Stars for me; $14 seem to be a bit over that, and maybe I can't articulate why other than the fact that I don't think I'm getting value for my money at that point.

Someone also mentioned about what other beers you can get at other grounds? I'm not sure. I don't generally go for a pint at games (especially in England, where due to the restrictions on beer and where/when you can get it, the lines are frightfully long and you risk missing part of the match) when I attend.

I can say that I attended a few matches in Portugal earlier this year, and I had seats better than the ones I had at the last Stars match at Estadio da Luz (oh sorry, poor taste to mention the grounds--I may be accused of snobbishness or bragging, so forget I mentioned it!) and paid EUR14 for a ticket. It's a bit more with the exchange rate factored in, but close; the product on the field was also better (in my opinion, yours may vary), as were the facilities, etc. Other matches I attended in Portugal were around the same price point. In Germany and Holland, just to name two other quick examples, I have gotten cheap tickets for good teams. Essentially, $14 doesn't represent value for money. I acknowledge that the EPL (my initial example, and the one people jumped on, and the one I'm assuming people are most familiar with and may have even sampled) is outrageously expensive. Despite a good product, I paid GBP45 to sit in the away end at Stamford Bridge last year. Is that value? Hell no. That's ridiculous. So we all make choices, don't we?

It's all in good fun, and I enjoy a little anonymous Internet-forum banter as much as the next guy. I'm glad that people seemed to have positive impressions of my photographs, and maybe the team got a little exposure. Sorry if I offended anyone, clearly I don't have a bone to pick.

Cheers,

Trevor

You know what? That's fair. That does sound dismissive and I'm happy to own up to it. What I meant was that the flares and smoke are what I saw as a direct descendant of some of the things I've seen at grounds around the world, especially in Italy. The fans that I have seen there, or in some of the Balkan countries even, are hardcore in another sense--and negative one. I meant that despite the illusion of looking like the fans in Italy or Serbia, they are quite tame.

Maybe that clears it up, maybe that doesn't. Sorry for slighting you and yours.

T

I don't think it's at all fair to compare ticket prices and "value for money" to games in other countries. Of course you'll be getting a different value. How about other sporting events in Minnesota? Or other NASL games? Or other games in the Midwest? Those are comparing similar things. If the Chicago Fire were charging only $14 for the very-close-to-the-action-just-off-center-line seats I get at the MN Stars game (where I've never paid $14 for a ticket, btw), then the Stars might be overpriced. But just because they charge ~$14 is Portugal doesn't mean squat to a team in Minnesota.

So I'll ask again, anyone know the ticket prices at other NASL teams? I'm guessing the cheapest adult tickets are at most $20.

I think 14 is in the strike zone.

$15+ at Heroes for the Scorpions.
$12+ in TB.
$10+ in Carolina.
$16+ in Edmonton, I think?

The Dark Cloud membership gets you more for your money than pretty much anybody in North America, we should mention.

We're not hard to find.



Nooo.



You really can't help yourself, can you?

Oh well, your photos were okay.