Stejskal: Minnesota United make progress | Dynamo, Cubo part ways – for now

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http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/09/09/stejskal-minnesota-united-make-progress-dynamo-cubo-part-ways-now

Stejskal: Minnesota United make progress | Dynamo, Cubo part ways – for now

September 9, 2016  12:49PM EDT

Sam Stejskal

Off-the-field progress in Minnesota

Before he became Minnesota United FC president in 2013, Nick Rogers worked as an attorney in a Washington, D.C. law firm.

During one of his first days on the job, Rogers, then fresh out of law school, got a bit of a business primer from one of the firm’s senior partners. The partner told Rogers that practicing law is like a pie-eating contest. If you win, the prize is more pie.

Rogers has been thinking about that analogy a lot in recent weeks.

It’s been a professionally thrilling, if incredibly busy, time for Rogers and the Minnesota staff since the Aug. 19 announcement that United would be joining MLS in 2017.

On the one hand, Rogers is thrilled. After nearly 18 months of uncertainty following the initial March 2015 announcement that the club had been awarded an MLS expansion franchise, Minnesota got the timeline they wanted for entering the league.

On the other, he and the rest of the club’s front office are under real deadline pressure. They have a stadium to design, a roster to build, employees to hire, tickets and sponsorships to sell and, unlike their 2017 expansion partner Atlanta, who have never before fielded a team in any league, an NASL championship to win. They’re operating on an intense timeline, with less than six months until they begin their MLS era.