Once the smoke cleared on the stage Friday night, Minnesota United fans got their first glimpse of new Finnish midfielder Rasmus Schuller. But the Loons’ supporters were more interested in his fashion.
Schuller and eight of his teammates were models of United’s gray and blue primary kit, white secondary jersey and one of the goalie get-ups they will don when the Major League Soccer expansion franchise debuts in its inaugural regular season in two weeks. All feature logos of Target, the club’s primary corporate sponsor.
“At first you couldn’t see anything because there was so much smoke, but after a while you could hear the fans and see everybody that came out,” Schuller said. “It was real great.”
Schuller could hear hoots and hollers from the estimated crowd of 1,000 who attended the event at the Machine Shop in Minneapolis.
Diehard supporter Adam Wegner of North St. Paul couldn’t wait to see the jerseys and got in the roped-off line at 5:10 p.m. for an event that started 7. When the doors opened at 6, the line was around the block. Members of local hip-hop group Doomtree kept beat all night.
“Something you don’t get to experience every day,” said Wegner, who will be a season-ticket holder when the Loons make their home debut March 12 at TCF Bank Stadium. “I’m excited for the season to start.”
The United front office has been sprinting toward their March 3 opener at Portland ever since — and in some capacities before — Minnesota was named as an expansion club in August.
“We’ve had the shortest ramp-up period in the history of Major League Soccer expansion teams,” United president Nick Rogers said. “From the day we signed our deal in August, the kickoff was roughly seven months. No one has ever done it that quickly.”
The quick clip at which United has operated also curtailed design options for their first jerseys. MLS-licensed producer adidas has a year-plus design process for MLS clubs, meaning custom looks like a black Loons wing spread across the front of a gray shirt — the design United had for years in the North American Soccer League — was out of the question in a short window. So were the opportunities for a third alternate option or unique touches. For instance, Orlando City’s kits have the coordinates of their new stadium, while Sporting Kansas City has a quote from hometown player Matt Besler.
But United has already begun work on 2018 versions that will have details the club desires. “I think all options are on the table,” Rogers said.
United first home match in the new duds could be in front of a crowd of about 35,000, based on current ticket sales trends. The club is hoping to reach its goal of 11,842 season tickets, which would correspond to one sale for every lake in Minnesota. A season-ticket base approaching 12,000 would be believed to put Minnesota in the top half of MLS clubs.
Meanwhile, fellow MLS expansion franchise Atlanta United has outpaced Minnesota but has had a roughly two-year head start to build its base. Atlanta is approaching 30,000 season tickets and has sold more than 40,000 tickets for its home opener March 5 at Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium, club president Darren Eales told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.
Major League Soccer’s average attendance in 2016 was 21,692, which was its third straight record-breaking mark. The University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium has a capacity of 50,805, a benchmark United dreams of.
But those sales figures and fashion choices will be in the rearview mirror when United faces Atlanta on the pitch March 12. “We are expecting a very large and boisterous crowd,” Rogers said.
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