Duel of Suitors Yields an M.L.S. Franchise for Minnesota

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/sports/soccer/duel-of-suitors-yields-an-mls-franchise-for-minnesota.html?_r=0

Duel of Suitors Yields an M.L.S. Franchise for Minnesota

By PAT BORZIAUG. 28, 2016

ST. PAUL — A David and Goliath story generally requires a David to root for, but neither side competing for the M.L.S. expansion franchise in Minnesota resembled a boy with a slingshot.

Instead, this one featured two Goliaths: The rich, powerful Wilf family, owner of the Minnesota Vikings and their new $1 billion fixed-roof stadium, versus a formidable soccer-centric group that included some of the richest people in the state but lacked a stadium.

William W. McGuire, the former chief executive of UnitedHealth Group and the owner of the Minnesota United of the North American Soccer League, heads the second group, and last year he outmaneuvered the Wilfs and landed the expansion franchise by promising to build an open-air soccer-specific stadium with private money — a rarity in American professional sports.

McGuire’s group committed $250 million — a $100 million M.L.S. expansion fee and $150 million for the new stadium — to bring top-level professional soccer to a state that has had five professional teams since the 1970s.

At a rally on Aug. 19 at the downtown minor league baseball stadium, about 1,400 fans watched as M.L.S. Commissioner Don Garber confirmed that Minnesota United would begin play in 2017.

“I’m glad somebody who’s strictly going to focus on soccer is going to keep a team in the Twin Cities and push it as high as it can go,” said Bruce McGuire, a Minnesota soccer blogger and scarf-wearing member of the United’s primary fan group, the Dark Clouds. “It’s thrilling,” said McGuire, who is not related to the team’s owner.

The bid by the Vikings owners, Bruce McGuire said, “scared the hell out of me.”

“The sport I love would be a second priority,” McGuire said. “The N.F.L. is a gold mine, and everything else has to be second.”

William McGuire, too, feared that the Vikings group would land the franchise.

. . .

Curiously, the Vikings’ stadium opened Aug. 3 with an International Champions Cup match between A.C. Milan and Chelsea that drew 64,101, the largest crowd to watch professional soccer in the state.

The same night, United played in the northern suburb of Blaine, timing that irritated United supporters and hurt the club’s ticket sales. The N.A.S.L. match attracted 6,101, about 2,000 below United’s league-best average.

Bill McGuire read nothing sinister or vindictive into the overlap, preferring to celebrate how 70,000 people turned out on a Wednesday night to watch professional soccer in Minnesota. (ESPN, International Champions Cup officials and the competing clubs chose the date, not the Vikings.)

“It’s unfortunate it was the day we had a home game,” McGuire said. “I don’t even know if they knew we had a game. I assume they didn’t until after the fact, and then it’s what it was.”

He added: “I think everybody’s fine. We’re all going to work together to do things to make this a better place.”