No doubt, especially with the lack of any secure future here in MN. Wonder if he'd be able to tempt Amos to come over to wherever he might land (assuming it's not Portland.)

Manny should have been on the radar last off-season or at least the lists written up by the soccer writers.

I just heard a rumor that with all the money the Stars got from Real Salt Lake game sale that they are now talking to Ronaldinho about joining one of the best teams in North America. He would have to re-locate to Blaine (that may be the deal breaker).

IMS should be following up with a full story (Gumbygirl is still editing it).

http://www.mlssoccer.com/blog/post/2012/05/31/rumor-central-ronaldinho-out-flamengo-where-next

We have a number...

If the Triangle Biz Journal is to believed...

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/2012/05/railhawks-bullish-after-beating-galaxy.html

Or, to select the relevant quote...

"Take this week, for example. The Minnesota Stars, an NASL team, sold home field rights to Real Salt Lake of the MLS for a reported $75,000. Also, the Atlanta Silverbacks sold its home game against the Seattle Sounders for roughly the same amount, Johnson says."

Not withstanding that the Stars front office probably had very little leverage in the final decision, was it worth it, long term?

"I urge you to read the whole article." recommends

That little old jersey collector

Me

Questions worth at least 75,000 peanuts...


1. Did they also have to pay the $12,000 US Open Cup home field bid fee for the home game before they sold it?

2. Did they have to pay $25,000.-30,000 in travel cost to Salt Lake City?

3. Did they give up two chances at marketing their ownerless home team game against the first and second place MLS teams and the free press coverage that could have been coordinated with those two home games vs top standing MLS teams?

4. Do they now have to pay a second $25,000-30,000. travel cost to San Jose?

5 Did they give up two MLS home games that could have drawn 5,000+ to each of those home games? 10,000 X $10 = $100,000

6. How many people (other than Dark Clouds, and season ticket holders) were at the Sweetwater to watch the game streamed live?

7. Will the next game also be streamed live?

All good questions?



Go Stars!

What second MLS home game are you talking about? They lost the draw with San Jose so they never would have played them here. The Salt Lake arrangement had nothing to do with San Jose.

From the numbers I found for attendance it is extremely doubtful that an RSL (or San Jose for that matter) game in Blaine would have drawn 5000+, especially with one week to sell it.

It's already been stated that Salt Lake paid for travel, whether that would have been part of the purported $75K figure is an open question though.

I think I know something about some of these.I forget where I saw this explained, but no. The $12k is a hosting fee that you don't pay if you don't host it.

At the time Djorn made the decision, they only gave up one chance to hopefully maybe draw well for one game on a Tuesday if the weather didn't suck. And I think if you can't get any "free press coverage" for being undefeated in your league then I don't think any free press coverage is guaranteed in this town.

Also, your $100k number there doesn't subtract the $12k for the hosting fee to USSF for the first game, plus the costs of just having 5k people show up in one place at one time (nevermind twice).


We counted 100 people at the Sweety (at one point), and there was nobody there that wasn't watching the game because it would have been an unpleasant place to eat if you weren't.

Yes. You can watch it anywhere.

12k would have required roughly another 1000 in attendance outside of our normal levels of 1500-2000k on the weekend. Last time I was at a weekday game I think we were what... 400-600?

Let's say our low-budget team costs $1.5 million operating. I think this is reasonable considering a $750k bond required to be put up by the league at the start of the season

Excluding all other merchandise and concessions on tickets alone with 14 home games we need to average just under 6,000 per home game at $12/ticket average (I think it's fair considering the number of kids at the game compared to adults).

The $75,000 + $12,000 "pays" for 7250 tickets towards that break-even estimate. Let's say we sold 2250 for the RSL game (I honestly think that is a high estimate with a week of promotion), that's still 5000 tickets, or 500 per game left of the season towards our break-even number.

This money significant in what we need to survive into next year.

Thanks for providing the information, I was working today and did not have the time to look all this stuff up.

The Draw for the fourth round game was on May 23, one day after the Stars beat Des Moines. Is that correct?
They had a 50% chance of having that second game in Minnesota when the decision was made to sell the game. They had a 50% chance to incur twice the travel expenses if they won the round 3 game. That was what they were looking at.

I'm not blaming Djorn or the Stars team at all. In fact, I'm trying to help them. I don't believe this decision was made in Minnesota. None of the owners of this team live in Minnesota. Many of them compete against us on the field every week.

I asked one simple question when this happened:
- Will this happen again next year?

I want an answer to that question. Mr Traffic and the rest of the NASL owners can call me if they want to talk in private.

And that is the main problem this team needs to correct to ever attract an owner of our own. How come this number is so pathetic compared to Carolina selling out in the same night as the game? How can San Antonio and Atlanta market to their fans at a rate that makes us look so unsuccessful at running a business.

If we don't have a budget to market the product then what event will create new fans out of nothing?

Do we even have someone writing up press releases/game reports for the local papers? Or, are we just hoping they will someday decide all on their own to start covering the game of soccer?

At what point can we start to prove that we are worthy of a new owner?