Talking to Kris Bjerkness, General Manager of the NSC Minnesota Stars

Kris Bjerkness, general manager for the NSC Stars is seen here in the center with team coach and president of soccer operations Manny Lagos on the left. Executive Director of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission Paul Erickson is on his right.

The National Sports Center’s Chief Administrative Officer Kris Bjerkness finds himself in a position he may not have expected to be in when he started working with the organization 25 years ago. Kris is now the general manager of a pro soccer team and he’s learning on the fly.  The team still needs a roster and with only one player signed there is much work to be done before the team starts training come March.

IMS talked with Bjerkness about some of the decisions that have been made recently by the organization as well as the decisions that still need to be made. Decisions that supporters of the team would like to know more about.

bq: Kris, you folks at the NSC have been extremely busy recently with the planning for the new team. I thought it might be nice for supporters of Minnesota’s newest pro soccer team to know more details about how things are coming along and what you are doing up there at NSC between the hours of 8-5 or 6 or 9 or whenever you finish your days.

You announced the team name on the 5th of February. It seems everyone has an opinion on the name, nickname, colors and the logo design. As of Monday, IMS had almost 100 comments about the name and logo and the discussion board for USSF 2nd Division had about the same. Are you surprised at all by the comments and passion of the fans?

Bjerkness: I love it,  I think it’s great. It means that people care and there’s passion. If you put it into perspective, the Minnesota Wild took a lot of criticism in the media for their choice of a name. At the end of the day, if we provide a quality experience for people they will grow to like the name and embrace it.

bq: Can you talk specifics about why you did not take the most popular vote getter, Northstar FC, who owned the rights to that and why it looked as if it might be a problem down the line?

Bjerkness: There was a club in Michigan that had a trademark on the name. The NHL had rights to the name Northstars. We concluded a couple of things in that the trademark rights would take a lot of time. The other thing was we were working on permission to use rather than a name we own. So we decided to go with a name we own versus trying to get permission to use someone else’s name.

bq: If I understood things correctly, the owner of the Wild was going to support you in using the Northstar or North Star name, and because of that the NHL said they would most likely give you permission to use that name as well. However, they were pretty specific that you needed to continue to be a non-profit, which may have been an issue if at some point in the future you brought investors into the team or if you started making a lot of money on apparel.

Bjerkness: I think that’s a fair characterization. The NHL and the Wild were great to work with, but at the end of the day it just seemed like the most prudent decision to go with a name we owned where we weren’t depending on someone else for giving us rights to use a name.

bq: NSC Minnesota was the second most popular choice, correct?

Bjerkness: Yes it was!

bq: There also seems to be some confusion about the “Stars” name that you mentioned in the press conference on Friday and as cited on the web site. Is the official name of the team the NSC Minnesota Stars or is it just NSC Minnesota and Stars is a nickname you have given the team? If the latter is true, why did you give the team a nickname if you also mentioned that you would be allowing the supporters to come up with a nickname for the team and that you hoped it would grow organically?

Bjerkness: The official name of the team is NSC Minnesota Stars. NSC Minnesota is in the logo with the symbol of the star. We could use it in multiple versions and multiple fashions. When we said the supporters of clubs often times will organically come up with a nickname for the team or nickname for the venue we want to encourage that. At the end of the day people can refer to the team as the NSC Minnesota or the Minnesota Stars or NSC Minnesota Stars or the Blues, or Yellows or Golds….I don’t know. Over time nicknames will develop and gain in popularity and we just want to encourage that.

bq: At the Stakeholders meeting several weeks ago you said you almost had your budget in place. Steve Olson, CEO for NSC has said that each program at the NSC must stand on its own or it won’t be around very long. So a budget is very important for NSC; that’s the NSC way isn’t it?

Bjerkness: Yes it is.

bq: And that budget is finished so are you now moving ahead with hiring?

Bjerkness: We’ve been working off a basic budget for a while now and we’re comfortable with it. We think we can break even or perhaps make a very small profit. We are going to operate it in a very business-like fashion. We don’t have the luxury of throwing a ton of capitalization into the team. So we have to be very business like and work and focus on what’s important.

bq: You said from the beginning that NSC could field a team on its own but would do better with outside investors. You have also pointed to the Montreal Impact as model of a successful non-profit team that has several serious investors. You’ve also explained that even though you had investors interested in being involved with this new NSC team, legally it’s more complicated than you initially thought and for this year it looks like you are going to have to stand on your own two feet.
How much more complicated does this make matters and are you looking to have a tight budget this year?

Bjerkness: As I already said, we are comfortable with our financial plan. Our focus right now is starting up for the first year. We will be looking at how to structure the team later on in the year. For right now it’s going to be non-profit venture. It’s one of our 100 different programs and activities that we operate but obviously it’s a priority for us because it’s a startup. A startup  always takes more time and energy. We are going to be careful and prudent in this first year. I think everyone expects that of us because we want to be around for the long term.

bq: Can you push off extra startup costs for the organization this year knowing you most likely can make some of that back the second and third year?

Bjerkness: Our objective is to break even this first year. That’s our plan but we still have to execute it. It’s my hope that we can provide a quality experience for the fans. With the fans’ help we think we can get it right and be successful. In terms of pushing off startup costs, I think at the end of the day, as the team becomes more successful we will invest more into the team.

bq: Sometimes, don’t you have to invest up front in order for the team to be successful?

Bjerkness: The difference with us is we have already invested significant amounts of time, money and energy into upgrading the facilities. The NSC is investing their time and energy into trying to make this organization successful this year. So in a sense there is a lot of investment, in time and energy and effort of the staff. And that’s one of the great things we bring to the table in operating a pro team at this level. It’s a resource that is very unique in soccer.

bq: Do you think you can get the legal matters concerning partnerships straightened out for 2011 so you can add investors?

Bjerkness: Frankly I’m not going to look at that for the next 3 or 4 months. Then we will sit down and start seriously looking at how we can structure the possibility of allowing some community investment or private investors. There are a lot of legal questions to figure out in order to structure something like that.  At the end of the day we could figure out that a non-profit model is the perfect model at this level. But we will be non-profit for this year until we can look at things and figure out if there’s a better path.

bq: Sponsorships are another way that could possibly save the team some money. How are sponsorships going and can you talk about  any of them?

Bjerkness: Sponsorships are actually going pretty well. We are in the process of closing three deals. We are finding that interest is actually very strong. Two of them we are close to announcing and may do so this week. We have more deals in concept but just haven’t had the time to execute them yet.

bq: Are you working with Puma for a uniform sponsor?

Bjerkness: We don’t exclusively work with just Puma. In the apparel business they try to tie themselves to specific teams and events. They don’t tie themselves into one facility.

bq: Tell me about positions that you have had open. You’ve have had two hires so far, Manny Lagos as Director of Soccer Operations and coach, and Angie Blaker, a former Thunder administration assistant, in the same position with the NSC. You have a ticket sales position open as well as assistant coach and possibly the most important hiring, the players.

Where are we at with the ticket sales position?

Bjerkness: We’ve been conducting interviews for the ticket position for about 2 weeks now. We are very close.

bq: I have to ask you, some people found it a bit odd that you were advertising the assistant coach position because the coach is the one who usually hires his assistant. What’s going on with that position? Has that changed now that Manny has been hired as coach?

Bjerkness: Manny (Lagos) will be naming that position. He has been speaking with a couple of different candidates and I suspect that announcement will be coming pretty quickly.

bq: What’s going on with the signing of players?

Bjerkness: Manny has been talking to a lot of players – A LOT of players! We hope to have more signing announcements soon.

bq: Has he just been talking to them or has he actually been talking contracts with them?

Bjerkness: No, he’s been talking contracts with a few of them. So now it’s a matter of actually sitting down with players and negotiating contracts. One of the things we hope to do is when we sign a player, to do it in a very professional manner where we record it and put it up on our website. I’m looking forward to starting that process and getting them up there on the web.

Manny has actually invited some players in (from outside the state) to take a look at them and they have been joining some of the former Thunder players who have stayed in Minnesota and trained at the NSC all winter. As I said earlier, we are trying to put things together in a logical order and the players are the next piece of the puzzle that needs to come into place.

bq: You have mentioned two partnerships, one with a Scandinavian Club and another with an MLS club. How are those talks progressing and how much time has that been taking?

Bjerkness: Whenever you are trying to do a partnership with a foreign club or even an MLS club you are trying to work through the issues and  find something that works for both parties. We are also working with another possible partnership with a South American club that is going well. Paul is working the Scandinavian connection so I’m not sure exactly where that is at.

bq: Any word on the MLS club?

Bjerkness: We are still working on it.

bq: We are at a big disadvantage in Minnesota, being in the North. More and more teams travel south for preseason. Most teams have already announced preseason plans with some of them playing MLS teams and other 2nd division teams for preseason. Last year the Thunder didn’t do that and started off on the wrong foot with lots of injuries from playing on artificial indoor surfaces for so long and just not being acclimated and ready for outdoor surfaces and spaces when the season actually started. Does the budget allow the team going south for any sort of preseason training?

Bjerkness: I think it’s difficult for us to change a lot about our reality which is we are in the northern climate. We have been talking to some preseason opponents, both collegiate, MLS and other 2nd division teams.

In regard to the artificial field issues, I think its part of the game and you can’t really use it as an excuse. After all, we play some teams that have artificial surfaces for their fields.

That being said, we are pursuing some options for some real grass preseason work because we understand that’s important. We won’t be taking a preseason trip to Florida for 2 weeks, but we are going to try to get on some real grass in the preseason and that means we are going to have to travel.