Executive Director of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission Explains New Pro Soccer Team Proposed for Minnesota
Paul Erickson is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission (MASC), an organization that oversees the National Sports Center (NSC). IMS contacted Erickson last weekend and he agreed to talk to IMS concerning the organization’s attempt to start a new professional soccer team in the Twin Cities.
Erickson explained why he believes the NSC is a good fit for pro soccer ownership and why he thinks his organization will not only be successful but also unique.
Erickson told IMS that the NSC has 3 fundamental goals in moving forward to own a professional soccer team in Minnesota:
–To preserve high-level soccer.
–To provide high-level games as an enhancement to NSC’s soccer tournaments for youth.
–To establish the pro team as a very special public/private partnership.
“Our first and foremost goal is to preserve high-level soccer in Minnesota,” said Erickson. “It was becoming increasingly apparent that the future of the Thunder was uncertain at best. We felt we had a vested interest on behalf of all the kids playing soccer in Minnesota.”
Erickson continued, “Second, we produce the second largest series of youth soccer tournaments in the nation. Having a pro soccer team as part of NSC Cup, as part of the Wal-Mart Cup and part of Schwan’s USA Cup adds an enhancement to the events. No matter what age level you are as a player, your experience is enhanced by getting to see the best soccer Minnesota has to offer.”
“The third goal is we believe this is an opportunity to establish a national model for a pro franchise based partnership,” said Erickson. “We also plan to have an opportunity for the average citizen and fan to be part of the ownership. We really want to do something special with this team that no one else is doing in the country. Part of this is the inspiration of the Green Bay Packers model, where the teacher, the baker, the carpenter, can all be owners of the team.”
We intend to listen to the long term Thunder fans and to fashion a pro soccer franchise that meets their needs. We are going to be good listeners.
Paul Erickson
Erickson believes the NSC can run a professional sports franchise cheaper than anyone else in the US. NSC already has 50 plus full-time employees on staff and with all their part time staff they have 250 full time equivalents. “We already have in place most of the key staff necessary for this level professional sports team,” stated Erickson. “We already have a communications director in Barclay Kruse, a full-time video production director. We also have a full-time sponsorship director and three full-time soccer marketing staff. We have all the game day operation staff in place. We have general office staff in place. The only staff that we need to hire to make a franchise viable is a general manager, a coach, an assistant coach and a part time trainer – perhaps a ticket person. Anyone else in the country has to look at 10 to 13 staff members and the new net staff for us to be in this business may be 3 or 4.”
Erickson also spoke of the assets a new team would need to acquire or lease but that they already own. “Most pro teams have no facilities when they start. We already have the facilities in place that we own and have no debt on,” said Erickson. “Office space, meeting space, indoor field house (with new FieldTurf surface), stadium and locker rooms along with 50 soccer fields. Imagine what the average team would have to pay for that and we have all of that in place, ready to use with no debt.”
MASC Executive Director Paul Erickson
In addition to the staffing asset and facility capital that is already in place, Erickson claims NSC also has intellectual capital. “If you were to start a new franchise in a new market you would have to build experience,” said Erickson. He says almost all of his staff have experience running high level national and international soccer matches. NSC has hosted and produced at least 20 Women’s National Team games, 1 Men’s National Team game and several Men’s U-17 National Team games, as well as several international youth club matches over the years for Schwan’s USA Cup. Erickson said they’ve had experience producing video of games and have done their own marketing.
Erickson claims the biggest asset the NSC may have is the experience of their staff in operating in the black for 20 consecutive years. “Let me tell you, that’s not easy,” said an animated Erickson. “We have the intellectual capital to know how to do that. We’ve built the budget from ground zero to a 13 million dollar operating budget, and we’ve done that with zero city, county or state subsidies. We are the ONLY State facility that operates without subsidy. We will have the most cost effective, the most prepared new soccer franchise in the history of any league. Nobody else starts the game with that much firepower.”
Erickson said they had been working on the USL deal for a couple of weeks before they put the plans on hold, but it’s not the NSC’s first attempt to purchase a USL-1 team. The non-profit organization tried to purchase the Thunder 7 years ago from Bill George, former owner of the Thunder. The team was eventually sold to Saeed Kadkhodaian who also owned Soccer USA.
NSC also owned a National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) team for a short period of time when Alan Merrick was still with the NSC. Erickson says that team was not successful for several reasons and they were also competing with the Thunder at the time. NPSL is a rival league to the USL’s Premier Development League (PDL). “The draw just isn’t the same as it is for USL-1,” stated Erickson. “The sophisticated fan is not going to be impressed with that level of play compared to USL-1.”
Erickson explained that if the NSC eventually goes through with the USL deal, it will not be the first non-profit to own a USL team. Both the Montreal Impact of USL-1 and the Charlotte Eagles of USL-2 are structured as non-profits.
Erickson explained how the NSC works under the umbrella of the State-run MASC. “NSC is a wholly owned non-profit corporation of the MASC and a subsidiary of the state agency,” said Erickson. “So in a sense it is public. The NSC has a contract with MASC to operate the facility. With that, the NSC has reasonable latitude to create and run programs and contract with others to lease the facilities just as in the case of the Thunder who have leased the facility. From a public policy point of view, the purpose of owning this team will be to enhance the existing programs of the NSC. One of the State’s goals is to increase sports tourism. For NSC, it’s easier to promote a youth tournament with the ability to experience a high level soccer team when many of the markets like Montana, Wisconsin or the Dakotas don’t have that. Going back to the third goal, I also think it would be appropriate to have this unique model where the NSC would invite select private investors to be part of the direction of the team and also have the opportunity for private citizens and fans, on a smaller entry level point, to also be owners. The team’s finances would be segregated from the rest of NSC so investors and share holders would only own part of the team and not the NSC.”
Erickson said it’s too early to delineate all the rights and responsibilities of shareholders, but he did say he envisions individual shareholders would buy a share of the team which would also allow certain rights and extra privileges for access to tickets amongst other things. Those individual shareholders would not be involved in the operating statement or any losses if they were to occur.
Erickson explained the NSC is a 501 3C and does not enjoy the advantages of writing anything off. He feels this is a great opportunity for private investors to take advantage of some of the tax benefits by joining the ownership configuration. Erickson said the deal they had formerly struck with USL did not require the NSC to find investors and they have the finances to pull it off on their own. However, Erickson thinks it’s better if they do partner. “Imagine a board of directors with some people who have been very successful in business and are part of the think tank to make this work,” said Erickson. “We intend to seek the best minds in the region to help us with this.” The Executive Director stated he’s excited to visit with anyone who is interested in a large or small denomination partnership.
Erickson says the NSC has been successful in the past by going out and gathering the information needed to make the their facility as successful as possible and that won’t change as they launch this new pro soccer team. “We intend to listen to the long term Thunder fans and to fashion a pro soccer franchise that meets their needs,” said Erickson. “We are going to be good listeners.” He explained that when the NSC partnered with Schwans to build the 8 sheet ice arena called the Super Rink, he traveled to 30 of the best rinks in Canada to come up with the concept. “Its been a smashing success because we picked the brains of everyone in that business,” stated Erickson.
“Minnesota was at risk of not having any level of pro soccer in the community,” said Erickson. “The NSC, for the sake of the soccer community and our own youth events, felt it was important to step in and ensure that pro soccer would be preserved.”
Erickson made a final point of noting this new team has no interest in starting an academy as did the Thunder with the Minnesota Thunder Academy. “We want to respect and to create good relationships with the community-based clubs in Minnesota.”
Erickson said the NSC had formerly planned on sending representatives to the Annual General Meetings for the USL in Tampa, Florida this week, but that is now on hold with their decision to withdraw their request for a USL-1 team.
Comments are closed.
“…before they put the plans on hold.”
“…but that is now on hold with their decision to withdraw their request for a USL-1 team.”
What?
Lots of talk about bringing a new USL-1 team to the state, but now they’re delaying or holding off on it? It seems like I missed something, either in this article or in the news re: the new NSC team, over the last few days.
I can understand why they would decide not to send representatives to the USL AGM, since they don’t actually have a franchise yet. That makes sense.
The NSC is really just trying to find a professional soccer team to play in their professional soccer stadium.
So if it is their team or someone elses… maybe it doesnt matter that much.
If I am reading this correctly they are just going to play a little ‘wait and see’ until the johnston thunder are definately kaput, at which time we will get the nsc thunder.
Can you ask Paul about plans for a real scoreboard at NSC?
Soccer Boy…
will do.
Memo to Dave: Its a blog, read from bottom to top.
Sam, make no mistake, they are very serious about this. No bluffing and they put countless hours into this thing already. They are really excited about it at the NSC. The NSC has done a lot of things pretty well and could just pull this thing off. Don’t count them out or dismiss them. The 30 days is primarily a legal issue right now but they also see it working in their favor by giving them more time.
What it does do is hurt them for possibly getting a favorable schedule if they do join the USL. The NSC really needs certain play dates to coincide with their tourneys. It also puts them behind the 8 ball for getting a coach, players, etc…
Brian,
I know they are serious. I believe they can pull it off and I think it could be wildly successful. What they (NSC) cannot do is let that stadium sit empty because then they make no money and they get no marketing angle to enhance their tournaments.
What I am not sure of is whether the NSC would move forward and try to compete with the thunder if the TOA league works out.
I hope the other guy just goes away and this NSC thing takes off.
Why didn’t you ask Paul if he plans on hiring this fan of the year to ensure that the north gate is open on game day?
Great interview and thanks to Mr. Erikson and the NSC for saving pro soccer in Minnesota.
Best part #231 of this whole thing: hot nut flag still relevant.
Best part #232: players will get paid.
No youth league associated with this new team? I’ve suddenly lost interest.
Paul, I’m very interested to hear more from you and why you feel like that. Particularly after what has happened with the Thunder and MTA. Many pro teams around the US have chosen to take different routes with their pro teams so they don’t alienate their fan base as is what happened to a certain extend with the MTA thing. It ended up costing the pro team a lot of money in lost revenue and their camps they conducted were pretty much washed up after that. Previously, the Thunder had sort of survived with those camps.
I don’t think Erickson is saying he’s not interested in partnering with youth clubs or not interested in youth development of the game. In fact after talking to him I’m sure he is. But I think with the current structure of the community club structure in MN, no matter how many years in the past we seem to be living and how far behind the rest of the nation we are, it is what it is. They have to live with that reality.
The other piece is I think you learn from your mistakes and others mistakes. Was it wrong for the Thunder to start MTA? No, I don’t think so. However, in hind site perhaps getting the pro team on good financial ground first may have been wiser and not going with so many teams in the beginning. But that’s just me. Everyone seems to have an opinion on this.
As you most likely know, the Sounders are taking a different course in leaving players with their respective clubs and identifying the talent and bringing them in once a week for training with the pro trainers. That would be one way to handle things.
Brian
Did Mr Erikson give any indication that his MN team might join the TOA league as a replacement to the current Thunder organization.
I cannot speak for Paul Erickson and as he said, he does not want to be in the center of this controversy. With that said, it’s my personal opinion that the NSC will look at ALL options in a month from now. I can say that they were happy with how the USL had conducted themselves with the negotiations. So I don’t think one can predict. But the organization seems to be very aware of the situations and all the scenarios possible here.
There has to be a program for the more serious, athletically gifted players. Its important to be able to compete regionally and nationally so that these gifted players get exposure to coaches and other gifted players around the country. Its good for the sport and good for Minnesota. Its also important for these kids to be associated with a professional club because they feel like they are a part of it. Like they could be a pro someday. Now I know not all of these kids will be a pro someday and they could get there without being aligned to a professional club, but in the less than two years of the MTA being in existence they have really started to make some noise regionally. More so than Bangu/Wings. Now all that is threatened because Mr. Erickson is going to cave in to MYSA and their wishes. I think its a big mistake.
Well, I guess we’ll see if the fan base actually increases. If it doesn’t, hmmmm maybe it wasn’t MTA after all. Its easy to blame MTA. What no one talks about is the fact that players from the MTA went back to the local clubs better trained then before. It was a revolving door which benefited local clubs.
Nobody sees the BIG picture here! and its frustrating.
Let me just also add that the fan base should not consist of just youth soccer parents. Is it just youth baseball parents showing up at Twins games? or youth football parents showing up at Vikings games? I think not. A true fan base are people who love the sport and want to get behind our team. The pro club has to do their part to promote soccer, build a winning club and market the team locally.
Paul-
I don’t see how Mr. Erikson is caving, nor do I see how this new team has identified soccer families as their only target market. In fact, I see an organization that is more than capable in running a franchise.
Lets not close the book after just reading the table of contents. After all, that is much worse for local soccer and that is what we all want to succeed.
Agreed and I think you would find the marketing team at NSC also on the same track… as is Manny Lagos with the Thunder and Dean Johnson. I think these guys are all very aware of the target market which is the 21-40 year old, (mainly male) soccer fan. That’s #1. #2 is the soccer family and kids and then there are other markets that fall along the way after that. I’ve had long talks with Peter Johns, former marketing director of the Thunder, Manny Lagos, Dean Johnson and now Paul Erickson along with folks involved with MLS.
Thing is, soccer cannot be marketed in this country exactly the same as other sports. Because many of those adults never played nor care about the game (soccer) much. Unlike baseball, football, etc… where they may have played it casually. I think that will change in the future but for now that is the reality. A lot of studies have been done on this.
Lets be clear here, when Saeed owned the team, they survived on the soccer camps that the Thunder had. When MTA came along, the attendance to those camps disappeared. You can argue that this was best for soccer in the state because it was more progressive and you might be correct. But you can’t argue that it didn’t hurt the financial stability of the team and is probably just one of the reasons they are in the situation they are now.
Paul,
What do you mean by:
“What no one talks about is the fact that players from the MTA went back to the local clubs better trained then before. It was a revolving door which benefited local clubs.”
As far as I know, MTA players do not “go back to” local clubs. MTA basically is four local clubs.
MTA’s top teams should maybe play regional soccer not MYSA.
Clubs were not promoting nor wanted their players to attend Thunder camps for fears of poaching players by MTA.
On the fan base issue: I am continually frustrated with the local media and there near 24/7 coverage of all things Twins. I almost believe that the Twins directly pay the tv sports journalist’s salaries! Have they even mentioned the whole USL thing?
What everybody is missing here is the number of immigrants that have come to Minnesota that think soccer is a religion. Even in and around the NSC there is a TON of them, but they were not showing up to the Thunder games. There is a disconnect somewhere. I don’t know if its because the Thunder was not MLS or what.
Also, I see a ton of local folks going to the local pubs in Mpls./St. Paul to watch the big soccer games around the world and they wear soccer jerseys of their favorite clubs. Why were they not going to the Thunder games? Those are the kinds things that a pro club needs to find out. The fan base is there, but nobody has figured out how to tap into it.
If you have to survive on your camps, then someone is not doing their job.
It’s also extremely important to start a youth development team of some sort for another reason American sports fans often forget: players are capital.
Mark -
What happens is that from U12 to U13 there is a drop off of players. U13 is when the elite program starts and not everyone makes it. Also, parents and possibly players from all levels of the program may decide that this program is not for them or can’t afford it anymore and they decide to go back to their respective local clubs.
I’ve talked to both David LaVaque (Strib) and Tim Leighton (Pioneer Press). Leighton brought it to the papers attention and they have (I think) run two small wire stories on it. The Trib had a small piece on it from the wire I believe also. But papers ran small stories when Donny Gramenz reportedly left the team which became available through my web site. La Vaque was nice enough to give IMS to mentions in his article.
Overall, hardly any legitimate news sources are paying a lot of attention to this story even though its pretty interesting stuff.
Our neighbors to the north however, have been covering it much more extensively as they are much more open to soccer as a sport and Montreal and Vancouver have ended up the key players in this saga.
I don’t disagree with that, but that nut to crack as you call it is tougher than you think. Even MLS is having a hard time getting the so called “Euro snobs” to games because the quality isn’t good enough. I could write a whole article on this, but there are certainly things the Thunder could have been doing to help their case in this and that would not have cost a lot of money that would have promoted the team to these folks. Believe me, this has been brought up, suggested with specific ideas and discussed without much follow through.
Do you think the twin cities’ leaders pay any attention to the events NSC puts on, especially the USA cup?
That’s a lot of teenagers coming from all over the world that probably end up at the Mall of America!
Fan base:
Remember when the Thunder played that game vs Galaxy in dome—Where is that crowd?!
How does this affect Dale Weiler?
Brain,
Maybe you should have said “main-stream news” in place of “legitimate news” .
You are selling yourself short.
If you do a search at my site you will see that when MYSA was decided not to sanction NSC’s tourneys, I wrote several articles on the NSC and one in particular broke down the finances and how much money NSC brings into MN per year. Its pretty amazing. You are correct about the money spent at MOA for instance let alone the hotels and other stores and fast food in the area. Check this out:
http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2009/03/16/controversy-rises-again-between-mysa-and-nsc/
Direct quote from me in the above article:
“Of the 361,000 spectators roughly 40% come from outside Minnesota. This puts the out of state economic impact at about $30 million, just for the ten days of these two tournaments. The sales tax alone on this is a bit over $2 million. Has anyone been at the Mall of America during the USA Cup? During that week, MOA is packed with soccer players and their families. I’m sure if I delved into this further I could come up with figures of how the city of Blaine is impacted by not just these two tournaments but all of the NSC tournaments. In recent years there’s been tremendous growth of retail stores and restaurants in direct proximity to the National Sports Center. There is no doubt there is a direct correlation between the growth of attendance at NSC and the growth of retail in this area.”
Thanks Mark. I guess I meant actual legitimate professional journalist, which I am certainly not.
I like the way this Michel thinks.
It was said in the comments that;
” What no one talks about is the fact that players from the MTA went back to the local clubs better trained then before. It was a revolving door which benefited local clubs.”
Sure, in a way this makes sense. SOME of the players who went off to MTA did return to their local club with increased skills, however, many did not make significant improvement.
What the poster really misses, however, is that many local clubs were forced to replace departing players with those from lower squads and in many those players have been playing up for a year or two or have been told they will be on that same team next season. But, now that MTA is under there is the problem of the MTA kids coming back to the local club and either over-crowding a roster or forcing a player back down to a lower competition level. Certainly not beneficial to the local clubs who now have to manage rosters, angry parents, and frustrated players.
In all honesty, in a way I am glad MTA went under. The select teams were great and on those teams the promises made by MTA were followed through on. However, the lower level MTA teams were overlooked the the promises were never delievered on and I just never thought that was a fair scenario.
???? I must have missed something. When did MTA go under?
MTA did not go under. HandoHenry, I have NO IDEA where you got that from. It never says it in any of my posts, only that MTA is doing well financially. In addition, none of the comments left on this blog say that either. You need to slow down and read carefully. MTA is doing quite well. The only change that could happen is that they go back to being called Bangu and Wings because of the financial mess that Thunder are in.
Yes, apologies for jumping the gun and saying MTA was going under. I combined a bit of rumor (that MTA approach St. Micheal with the news that the Thunder pro-franchise was struggling and made an assumption…my bad.
However, despite that piece of information being incorrect the rest of my post is quite relevant. More and more players are leaving MTA to return to local clubs (i’d expect more players to do so if MTA reverts to Bangu/Wings) and in no way is this ‘beneficial’ to the local clubs for the reason outlined above.
I believe the MTA select teams are quality and providing a great opportunity for top-class MN soccer talent in the sense of training, regional competition, and college exposure. Which, I might add, was definately needed. I do, however, question whether there is any real advantage for a U14C2 player to play with MTA versus their local club…
Ah, your last paragraph hits the nail on the head I believe. I think that is what many community clubs would argue. MTA feels their coaching is better. But that is indeed the core of the argument.
And one of the beauties of capitalism here in America is folks can choose whatever they feel is best for them.
Yes Tom, you are certainly correct about freedom of choice in a capitalist system.
Let’s consider the following hypothetical situation while keeping in mind the end goal of MTA is to raise the level of soccer in Minnesota.
XX is a solid C1 player on his community club team. The team has a thin roster as his community club also has an MRL team at his age level. XX along with 1 another player from his team and 1 from the MRL leave their community club in hopes of making a select MTA team the players are placed on MTA teams follow tryouts (lets say 1 at select, 2 at C1). Meanwhile, back at the community club a C1 player gets pulled up to fill in for the departing MRL player and the C1 team is all of a sudden has three fewer players and ends up not being formed as there is not enough players.
To me a situation like the one above (granted this hasn’t happened at every community club but I assure you it has happened) does not raise the level of soccer in MN. In my opinion it weakens the level of soccer in MN as it leaves 12 soccer players abandoned without a squad.
Perhaps MTA should have focused on building their select program first then expanding to a full fledged club…thus the exodus from the community clubs would not have been so drastic. Or perhaps they should have opened up the regional centers at the younger ages first thus minimizing the effects on community clubs.
Simply food for thought. I think its a good thing to provide top-level training/competition but wish this could be done without a negative impact on the community clubs.