Minnesota United says it’s moving up to MLS

Published 12:17 pm Saturday, August 20, 2016

Minnesota United FC is moving up to Major League Soccer for the 2017 season and will play at TCF Bank Stadium until the team gets a new stadium of its own, league and team officials announced Friday evening.

The team will keep its name and its loon logo.

Former UnitedHealth CEO Bill McGuire rescued Minnesota United with his purchase of the financially struggling North American Soccer League franchise in 2013. The NASL is a level below MLS, which began to eye the Twin Cities market after seeing United’s success under McGuire. MLS last year formally awarded the expansion franchise to McGuire and his group of investors.

Email newsletter signup

Beginning with the popular Kicks in the late 1970s, then to the Thunder and the Stars and now United, Minnesota has had several iterations of professional soccer. With growing immigrant populations and an increasing segment of adults ages 18-34, the Twin Cities market has key MLS demographics covered.

“The ownership group’s commitment to soccer and the community, the area’s growing millennial population and the region’s rich tradition of supporting soccer at all levels are key indicators that this will be a very successful MLS market,” league commissioner Don Garber said at a news conference.